The Uncommon Life of Mr. Adam Archer, Contralto: A Musical Journey in the Baroque World (1715-1717)

By Francoise Elisabeth Goddard

We are in the second decade of the Eighteenth century. Helena has always secretly dreamt of leaving Exeter to become a well known singer. So far, the events of her life have compelled her to live below her expections. Circumstances suddenly change allowing her to take hold of her destiny and leave for London. The clever choice of a male disguise revolutionizes her life, forcing her to fully live the contradiction of acting and becoming famous en travestiwhile at the same time desperately needing to express her womanly emotions. Against the background of the most exciting and dazzling time in European musical history (though pitiless and ferocious on the social side), Helena is caught between the twinkling lights of the Rococò style and unexpected coups de théâtre. She meets some outstanding figures of the period as the Countess of Les Mias, who will support her chosen path and the adventurer Giulio Buonamici, with whom she will share a great love story made difficult by her disguise. As a contralto, she will follow maestro Mountpellier’s orchestra and take part in a long tour starting in London and finishing in Rome, while she completes her apprenticeship as a singer and a woman.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Françoise Elisabeth Goddard
• Release date: Sep 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9791220068734

Book preview

FRANÇOISE ELISABETH GODDARD

THE UNCOMMON LIFE

OF MR. ADAM ARCHER,

CONTRALTO

A musical journey in the baroque world

(1715 – 1717)

Copyright © Françoise Elisabeth Goddard, 2020

The Uncommon Life of Mr. Adam Archer, Contralto.

A Musical Journey in the Baroque World (1715-1717)

© Françoise Elisabeth Goddard, 2020

special thanks to Lynn Goddard Carter for her kind and accurate text supervising

cover by Françoise E. Goddard

ISBN 979-12-200-6873-4

First edition – 2020

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

To all my loved ones

Who happen to be in this book

And also in my life

ABSTRACT

We are in the second decade of the eighteenth century. Helena has always secretly dreamt of leaving Exeter to become a well known singer. So far, the events of her life have compelled her to live below her expectations.

Circumstances suddenly change allowing her to take hold of her destiny and leave for London. The clever choice of a male disguise revolutionizes her life, forcing her to fully live the contradiction of acting and becoming famous en travesti while at the same time desperately needing to express her womanly emotions.

Against the background of the most exciting and dazzling time in European musical history (though pitiless and ferocious on the social side), Helena is caught between the twinkling lights of the Rococò style and unexpected coups de théâtre. She meets some outstanding figures of the period as the Countess of Les Mias, who will support her chosen path, and the adventurer Giulio Buonamici, with whom she will share a great love story made difficult by her disguise.

As a contralto, she will follow maestro Mountpellier’s orchestra and take part in a long tour starting in London and finishing in Rome, while she completes her apprenticeship as a singer and a woman.

INTRODUCTION

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life

is rounded with a sleep."

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

This story starts with a dream. But in this case the dream is a true dream, one of those that come along with a rem phase, and eye movements. I have always been a good dreamer and after a few years of training, I have become clever enough to enter the world of lucid dreaming and achieve full awareness when I am in a dream. The good part of it comes when you realize that flying is just as easy as walking and you start behaving like a drunken bat. But nothing ever made me suspect there could be so much more than that.

The whole thing started in a quiet way. The first two times I was not impressed at all. I just woke up in the middle of the night with my heart bumping and the uncomfortable sensation of not feeling at home and that something was strange. But, as there was no moon and everything was dark and peaceful, and also because I was too tired to keep my attention focused on what was going on, I just gave it no importance at all, turned on my side and fell asleep again.. After all, it is the same sort of feeling you get when, after a long journey, you fall asleep in a room you do not know. When you suddenly wake up, it often happens that you feel lost for a few minutes, and you need time to get your mind settled again.

The third time though, the feeling was totally different: a full moon was shining through the window and there was light enough in the room to have a look around. It was only then that I fully realized I was not at home but in what appeared to be a completely unknown place: first of all, the room was much smaller than mine and then, instead of the usual french window opening on a balcony, the light came through a small cottage window made of thick glass panes held together by a heavy wooden frame impossible to open. The bed was small, hard and itchy, and the blanket did not warm me up. The smell in the room was unpleasant and I knew there must have been a dog around. Well, I had gone to bed at the end of spring and I was now experiencing cold weather, one of those chilly unpleasant nights at the end of autumn when the heating has not yet been turned on. Feeling anxious, I concentrated hard on escaping the uncomfortable situation and fortunately fell asleep straight away. The following day, I still remembered the dream but it had turned back into a normal one and for weeks nothing more happened.

But when it happened the fourth time, there was definitely no way I could avoid the experience. Again, a full moon was shining outside the window but luckily the weather was warmer and the room, still austere and unadorned, had a cleaner look. Even the sheets smelt nice despite the linen’s coarse texture. The canopy cover, a red heavy drape, made the bed look like a shelter.

It took me sometime to feel brave enough to get up and have a look around around. The floorboards felt coarse and creaked under my feet. It was nearly impossible to look outside the window, eaither because the panes were too thick or dirty. I could only vaguely guess a narrow pathway made up of cobbles down the sides of which ran some putrid water. No pavements had been laid and the street was not lit, even though there was some kind of lighting not so far from there. The house seemed roughly built and after a while I even started percieving a low and regular rumble coming from somewhere inside: It was a man, happily snoring.

While trying to give a meaning to what I was looking at, a sudden feeling of uneasiness started to grow on me, making my heart pound fast. Strong mixed emotions were starting to break through and, because I was unable to handle them, I felt even more uncomfortable. Where did all this come from? In order to distract myself I gave another look around the room.

Near the window stood a little wooden desk on which a few sheets of paper were neatly piled up. I could also see a little ink pot, a couple of goose quills and a pen with a bizarre metallic nib lying in a box. A small piece of candle and a mirror set aside to reflect its light completed the corner. I noticed that the sheets were covered with elegant music signs.

Those papers brought me back to what I was not willing to discover: the reason why I was exactly in that place and in that moment. By giving a quick look to the music, I identified the period as sometimes around the beginning of the 18th century. On the other side of the room, a little fire place had been fitted with a curious heater loaded with coal and seemed to confirm the correctness of the period. All these objects felt familiar giving me a slight feeling of happiness when I touched them. Had there not been that uncomfortable sensation rising as soon as my mind drifted away, I would even have felt at home, in a sheltered environment and almost happy. But the vision was quickly vanishing. I tried to make it last a little longer but there was nothing more to do. And everything went dark again...

CHAPTER ONE

GOVERNESS AT STANDSFIELD HOUSE

Reality continues to ruin my life.

Bill Watterson

It had been a warm and pleasant summer and most of the time that afternoon, they had been lying on the grass, under the shade of the trees surrounding the shooting hut near the stream marking off the property. The dog had been jumping in and out the water all afternoon running after the stones thrown by the kids or or lying simply spellbound by some golden reflection captured when he was  half asleep and too tired to run anymore. 

The late afternoon air was becoming cooler and at a distance the servants could be heard collecting the wood logs that would be used during the winter. Soon enough Helena the governess would start teaching again to Luce, while her brother Drake would be sent back to school. The evenings would grow long in front of the fireplace and the morning fogg would reappear dense and static, dispelled only by the pouring rain.

The three started to move slowly to reach the house, pulling along the heavy cloths on which they had lain on, plus a few tin boxes used for the food. Even the dog was tired and was walking slowly with his tongue hanging out. Helena stayed behind and watched the other two. They had both grown up during the summer and the clothing did not fit anymore: Luce’s dress was short and left her ankles in sight while Drake, feeling uncomfortable in his shoes, was walking bare feet. They were quickly losing their puppy faces and clumsy movements while their attitude was turning into a natural and refined elegance. Everything in them called youth and energy.

They also were the nearly perfect copy of their parents Thomas and Flora Stansfield: dark hair and deep black eyes for Drake the 15-year-old heir, on whose cheeks could nearly be detected a slight darkness due to a new coming beard; the exact opposite of Flora and her daughter Luce, both with long dark blond hair and a regal bearing that sustained a tall and slender body. As any son and daughter coming from a rich family, each one would be now put in the compulsory direction due to his or her sex: Drake would be going back to Eton, while Luce would stay home under the control of Helena.

Helena, who had just gone through the turning point of her thirtieth birthday, had dedicated her life to their education since they were small and would never have dreamt of anything better than her role in the Stansfield family. As a governess, and also because Mr. and Mrs. Stansfield were often away in London, she had been free to deal with all the educational issues she prefered and was soon considered reliable and thoughtful by everybody. During the last ten years she had developed deep affection towards Luce and Drake as if they had been her own children, the ones she would never be able to have since the fatal destiny that killed her family ten years before. Once her parents and her two brothers had been wiped out by a small pox epidemic, she could do nothing else than prepare herself to go wherever she would be called. Often she had asked herself why fate had spared her but now, having been peacefully included in the Stansfield familiar context, pain and sadness had vanished naturally, leaving only from time to time a devastating sense of melancholy when a scent, a sound or a flavour brought her back to her youth and family.

Helena was born in a family of musicians. Her father, as long as he was alive, had been the organ player and choir master of his church, himself composing music and choral works for most special occasions, and also a music teacher. Helena and the rest of the family always helped him by copying his manuscripts and playing the parts. This was to become one of the winning elements of her calling card when, in the most critical moment of her life she was asked to look after the two young Stansfield, thanks to the parish of her church who, worried about her future, intervened and settled her destiny.

Years went by peacefully and Helena, well aware to get the best out of the little she got, had not lost a single frame of what was happening around her, adapting herself to the environment like an actor and learning her part to perfection. As for all women in her same condition, even if she had free food and lodging, the pay was very low and she had to put away as much money as she could for when she would become old or when the grown up children would not need her anymore. Helena had no illusions about that. As long as Drake had been home, she taught reading, writing and mathematics to both of them. Now that he was studying at Eton, she was left alone with Luce and her only task was to groom her into the perfect spouse and housewife for a man coming from a similar environment.

Another bonus that Helena possessed was that she knew French and was able to teach it. Many young English male aristocrats were starting to travel around the continent, on the other side of the Channel, and were fascinated by the French ladies able to talk about music, art and literature. This was not the case of most English young women whose education was limited to balls, gossips and parties and whose conversation was reputed boring. The result was that many proud mothers, Flora Stansfield’s included, had decided that time had come to educate their daughters in order to put them in a more competitive position in the vast wedding trade. But to employ a French governess was out of question due to the different religions practised in the two countries. Helena was then the perfect answer to the problem. So her teaching to Luce was based on music, French, Shakespeare readings and the correct Christian values that a young girl had to internalize as a woman and future spouse.

Helena knew all too well that Luce would never have any problem in getting married. She was a beauty to look at and probably intelligent enough to learn over the next years not to exceed in intellectual feats. She would soon attract some young heir within the sons of her father's friends and easily get married. Her fate looked already settled and she did not seem willing to take any alternative direction.

The three proceeded back to their rooms and got ready for dinner.

CHAPTER TWO

THE ONSLAUGHT

Hell is empty and all the devils are here

William Shakespeare

The meal would surely be very entertaining. Mr. Stansfield and his wife had just come back from London after a very long and tiring journey and Mrs. Stansfield had gone straight up to her room for a short rest. Mr. Stansfield instead went to discuss with his tenants the work to do before autumn. Luce and Drake were excited by their parents homecoming, waited for special  gifts and some latest news from London. As usual, at dinner there would be a serving of cold meat, maybe roast beef or even