Æsacus (snake in the grass)

from New Myths Preview (Vocal / Piano Takes) by Peter Le Couteur

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The myth of Æsacus and Hesperie. Written in F minor which, as Glenn Gould put it, is "rather dour, halfway between complex and stable, between upright and lascivious, between gray and highly tinted..." The different tones (and the "clack") are produced using the piano's moderator stop.

lyrics

I used to chase Hesperie all through her father's fields. I'd come across her bathing, combing her long silver hair.

(I was in love, I was in love with her.)

I used to chase Hesperie all through her father's fields, but now matter how swift my love, the fleeter was her fear.

And then one day I saw her stop the chase and lay down in the grass. And in my pride... and in my pride I thought,
'At last.'

There was a snake in the grass that reached out its teeth deep into her calf. I got there to find her dying; I spent some time trying to suck the poison out. It was the only kiss we shared, with her lying there and me trying not to look at her bared legs.

After a while I got back up. And went to where the foam leaps up from the stones. I dropped like a stone.

(But as I fell, I felt my arms turn into wings. As I fell, I felt my throat lengthening. And when I hit, I hit without a sound. And when I came up again, a fish was in my mouth.)

Curse you, Tethys. Curse you, Tethys.

I used to chase Hesperie all through her father's fields. And now I cast myself again again again into the sea; it always yields.

credits

from New Myths Preview (Vocal / Piano Takes), released February 9, 2012

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Peter Le Couteur London, UK

The illegitimate lovechild of Tori Amos and Tom Waits, raised in secret at an English boarding school on a diet of Irish folk, blues, and comparative mythology.

After eight years of faffing, and finally finishing Seven New Myths in Prague with the help of the expat indie scene there, PLC is back in London singing in bars, and doing a PhD at the Royal College of Art about imaginary museums. ... more

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