THE ROYAL MUSIC BARQUE

This piece has a little of the flavor of Handel's work. The ship, the instruments and even the angel are things based on research or hearsay. The king's lion's-head lute is based on one in the Victoria and Albert Museum music collection. The other characters are simply supporters of music. The mouse, playing a three-stringed ancestor of the violin, seems to sit nicely in the crow's next. He makes the whole thing diminutive because it's easier to accept a little king than a gigantic mouse. The angel has butterfly wings and the bird is simply listening . . . or maybe doing vocals.