A parody of the song from The Sound of Music (music: Richard Rodgers, lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II). The verses about Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall trilogy (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums), moved out of My favorite things. Explanations: spoilers.
Beaten
Menolly’s father, the Sea Holder of Half-Circle, beat her for tuning and for what he called twiddles. When she cut her hand gutting packtails her parents let it heal wrong so that she could not play, and she was forbidden even to sing in the Hold. She tells all this to Sebell and Piemur at the Fort Hold gather (Dragonsinger, ch. 9).
for tuning
Scar left unmending
Songs left unsung
Hope near its ending
Rather die
Menolly runs away from Half-Circle. She tells Sebell and Piemur that she would rather have died of Threadscore than live in the Hold another night.
running
Despair that still wrings
These are a few of
My least favorite things.
[hook]
Petiron’s
Petiron, harper of Half-Circle Sea Hold and teacher of Menolly, the
heroine of Dragonsong
. The novel opens with his death. At
Harper Hall he had been Domick’s teacher. He was also Robinton’s father: on her first night at the Hall Silvina tells Menolly, who did not know, that he refused to advance himself once his son was elected Masterharper, and took a post halfway to nowhere. (ch. 1) His wife Merelan, Robinton’s mother, had a voice of unusual beauty and range. Dunca, who holds the girls’ cottage, had hoped to marry him after Merelan died, and according to Silvina he resigned as Fort Hold Harper partly to get free of her. (ch. 2)
dirge
Menolly drums Petiron’s funeral dirge, though a harper of
higher rank should have; she was the best musician left in the Hold.
In her song for Petiron (Anne McCaffrey, Dragonsinger
,
ch. 6, p. 102) she says she will keep her tears for later,
but her grief will never go; tears for tomorrow
alludes to it.
On the final chord Petiron goes to his rest, and Menolly lets the
drum and stick slide from her fingers into the sea: she could never
use them again after they had beaten Petiron’s last song
(Dragonsong
, ch. 1, p. 3).
And the love she could render
Tears for tomorrow
And grief fierce and tender
Duty she chose,
And she
stands
Here I stand; I can do no other
: words attributed to Martin
Luther at the Diet of Worms, 1521.
;
the drum rings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Yanus
Yanus, Sea Holder of Half-Circle and Menolly’s father: Father
of the Year, ironically. A strict traditionalist, he holds that
girls do not become harpers and forbids her to play or sing. Menolly’s tunes, he says, are “trivial little whistles” that would stray into the children’s Teaching Ballads, and his order to her is “No tuning!” (Dragonsong, ch. 1–2, Aladdin e-book sample).
the Sea-holder,
Saying “Forbidden!”
Mavi
Mavi, Lady Sea Holder of Half-Circle and Menolly’s mother,
who holds to the same tradition as her husband. Menolly says her
parents let her injured hand heal wrong so that she could not play (Dragonsinger, ch. 9),
and both Silvina, seeing the scar, and Manora, headwoman of Benden Weyr, who
healed her feet, condemn it;
the scar is the one that later splits at Harper Hall. Her brother
Alemi is the only one of the family who is decent to her. Mavi tells Menolly not to disobey him, and to behave herself now that Petiron is dead. When Soreel, wife of the First Holder, says the girl knew the Sagas better than the old Harper did, Mavi ends the discussion with “Yanus will do what’s proper.” Mavi refuses to have a sealed slate from Masterharper Robinton opened, because “Harpers’ letters are for Harpers” (Dragonsong, ch. 1–2, Aladdin e-book sample). Lying is no part of the tradition they invoke; despite their claim to propriety, they lied to harpers.
,
his wife,
Who agrees, as is bidden
Silence, as duty,
And all that it brings,
These are a few of
My least favorite things.
[hook]
Fisherhold daughters
Whose songs are forbidden
Nine little
fire-lizards
Small kin of the dragons of Pern. Menolly runs away just when
Threadfall is due (Thread is the flesh-eating organism that falls on
Pern and that the dragons burn). Her efforts to keep the fire-lizard
hatchlings from flying out into Thread lead her to Impress nine of
them.
Sheltered and hidden
Harper Hall
Where Masterharper Robinton apprentices Menolly in
Dragonsinger
.
lessons
And Menolly’s strings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Hatchlings
The gold fire-lizard queen would not let Menolly escape the
incoming tide until she helped rescue the clutch; in keeping
the hatchlings from flying out into Thread she Impressed nine of them
and became responsible for their care. When they return from their
maiden flight she sings to them, and they surprise her by joining
in the music. At Harper Hall their descant over the apprentices’
chorus startles its leader that season, Journeyman Brudegan (“Bruddie”
to the apprentices) (ch. 3), who is also one of those who later draft the
fire-lizards as a chorus. When Morshal’s
anger, and later Domick’s, rouses them, they dive at both men
to protect her. They will not eat
from anyone else’s hands until she arrives, and when she cannot
face the girls in the cottage they fetch her pipes from her room.
she feeds
Like a fierce little mother
Warning her, sheltering,
One for the other
Warmth that she gives
And the way the brood sings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Friend
Silvina, Harper Hall Headwoman, befriends Menolly when she arrives
and settles her in; she runs the household and keeps the kitchen
hopping. She is a good friend and a bad enemy, and her approval is a
major asset. Seeing the scar on Menolly’s left hand she asks
who bungled the healing of it, an unspoken condemnation of Mavi. She
will not let Menolly apologize for her fire-lizards, and dismisses
fools like Dunca, who has charge of the girls’ cottage and
fears anything new or strange. Dunca withholds a
summons from Domick, so that Menolly misses her first lesson with him. A headwoman carries a great deal of clout. On Menolly’s arrival Silvina scolds Robinton in front of the assembled harpers for subjecting the child to an ordeal, sends the lot of them into the Hall, and puts Menolly to bed; the crowd parts for her, respectfully and with a smile. (ch. 1) Menolly recognizes her voice among the masters settling the journeymen’s postings (ch. 11), and Silvina rakes Dunca over for her spite and holds Piemur’s marks for him (ch. 10). She tells the kitchen that Menolly has nine fire-lizards and that the Hall will have eleven when the Harper’s two eggs hatch, overrules Dunca over Menolly’s room, will not have Menolly apologize for her fire-lizards, and orders that she have whatever food she needs. (ch. 2) She also questions Menolly about Petiron and examines the reed pipes Menolly made herself, with a critical eye, and praises them as well made for something cut with only a belt knife. (ch. 2) When Silvina chides Dunca for not knowing Menolly had Impressed fire-lizards, Menolly’s sharp ear catches the edge in her voice, and so does Beauty, who thrums a warning at Dunca. (ch. 2) Shonagar praises her as indispensable to the Hall, adds that she is also a good musician, and tells Menolly to make the occasion to hear her sing. (ch. 7) On Threadfall day she moves Menolly out of Dunca’s cottage into a room in the Hall, overriding her objection (“who was headwoman in this Hall?”), and outfits her from the storeroom, telling her that an apprentice harper has appearances to maintain. (ch. 6) She tells Menolly that she answers to Robinton first, to Silvina second, and only then to any of the other masters; when Menolly cries out in the night she tells Master Morshal to hold his silly tongue and sends the crowd of harpers back to bed. (ch. 7)
to the worthy
And foe to the shirking
Favor that’s hers
And an asset worth working
Silvina calls
And the whole kitchen springs
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Morshal,
Master Morshal, Craftmaster of Theory at Harper Hall, resents
Menolly’s presence there and belittles her. Robinton tells her she need not sit classes with Morshal, who teaches only at the apprentice level; he says Morshal’s dislike of women is a standing joke in the Hall, mimics him saying that it is a waste of time to teach girls, and advises her to give him the courtesy due his rank and age and to ignore his biased thinking (Dragonsinger, ch. 8). Menolly hears, in Robinton’s mimicry of Morshal, her father’s opinion echoed in the Hall (Dragonsinger, ch. 8), and that opinion is the tradition that harpering is a man’s occupation, which one of the women in Petiron’s room states (Dragonsong, ch. 1, Aladdin e-book sample). Craftmaster in Musical Theory and Composition, he
quizzes her on theory and is annoyed that she answers everything
correctly. When she misses chords because her scarred hand will not
stretch, he refuses to acknowledge the hand as the reason (he has told her he wants no excuses), and
dismisses her with a complaint that girls presume to be harpers and
pretend to compose. Roused by his anger, her fire-lizards dive at him
to protect her (Dragonsinger, ch. 3).
the sneerer,
Who scorns a girl harper
Stuck in his ways,
And his tongue growing sharper
Spared from his classes,
Where to old ways he clings
These are a few of
My least favorite things.
[hook]
Talmor,
Journeyman Talmor teaches the girls’ gitar class. He is patient
with Pona, showing her an alternative chording and slowing the
tempo, and short with the rest; he has Menolly demonstrate, and is
startled when she plays a new piece cold. She cannot bring herself
to play less than her best, which shows the others up: they answer
with a chill silence and hostile stares, though Audiva watches her
with fierce intent; she later tells Domick that the girls all knew
about the message Dunca withheld. Menolly overhears Pona at the cot door shouting that Menolly is an apprentice, that the girls have rank to uphold, and that she should go where she belongs, with the apprentices (ch. 5). Talmor did not place her in his class and says he will inquire (ch. 5).
so patient
With fingers that falter
Changing a chord
So the tempo won’t alter
Best that she plays
And the glare that it flings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Gitars
Master Jerint, Masterharper and Craftmaster of Instrument Making at
Harper Hall, lets Menolly choose a gitar when Domick says she needs
one to practice on. She rejects, as too green and badly joined, the one Jerint reaches for, puts back
a fine one because it must belong to a master and is too good to practice on, and
picks one with a broken string, which Domick tells her afterward was
Robinton’s journeyman gitar — a test she passes, since Domick says she has shown she can choose well (ch. 3). That afternoon (ch. 5) he examines the pipes she made herself in the cave, arches his eyebrows at their pure, clear tone, and has her assemble a drum.
on show, and the finest, declining
Robinton’s own,
And she picks, not divining
Journeyman’s gitar,
The test that it brings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Shonagar’s
Master Shonagar, Craftmaster of Voice at Harper Hall. Piemur, his apprentice, brings Menolly to her first session (ch. 3) and tells her Shonagar said that anyone who can sing half as well as her fire-lizards would be an asset, and that it did not matter if she croaked like a watchwher so long as she could get the fire-lizards to sing. In the session Shonagar mutters to himself, in an undertone, that Petiron was “wise enough to know his limitations”; Menolly bridles at the aspersion, and her fire-lizards hiss and echo her. Shonagar is puzzled and explains that he meant no disrespect: for him it was praise, since Petiron had sense enough not to meddle (hardly a soothing choice of word) but to wait until Shonagar could attend to her vocal education. Petiron, it turns out, had passed on Shonagar’s own advice that loud singing is noise, not song. He drills her breathing from the belly, tells her to bring the fire-lizards along because they learn from example, and falls asleep on the sandtable. Master Oldive, the Hall’s healer, treats her scarred hand and her feet, hurt outrunning Thread: at her first visit (ch. 2) he prescribes exercises tightening her fingers about a small hard ball and promises a salve, and Silvina tells her Oldive says she is to keep off her feet (ch. 2, again ch. 6); at her second visit (ch. 5) he gives her the hard-gum ball and shows her how to use it, and also examines Beauty and gives her ointment for the fire-lizards’ patchy skin. In her second session (ch. 5) she is allowed only single notes and then scales of five notes, and is exhausted by the end, in her own account. Shonagar remarks on the pure descant the fire-lizards sang over the chorus and says Piemur believes they will sing for or with anyone. He then sets up an experiment: when Piemur sings, the fire-lizards join him, Beauty taking the descant, and Shonagar sits engrossed, fingers shading his eyes, giving Menolly no sign of his reception; he dismisses them and begins to snore. Piemur tells her that as far as anyone can tell only a flat tone or meals will wake him (ch. 5). He and Domick are rivals, each wanting to teach her full time; other masters want her too, since, as the saying goes, the reward for a job well done is another job. For all that, both are very much her defenders.
word
That she heard as an insult
Fire-lizards flaring
A furious tumult
Praise, as he meant it,
And how the mood swings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Sight-reading
Domick’s
Master Domick, Masterharper and Craftmaster of Song Composition at
Harper Hall. Sebell tells Menolly that Domick likes no one, himself included, but is a top-rank teacher whose agreeing to teach her is a real concession (ch. 5). Menolly is afraid of his tongue, and Talmor tells him he is frightening her (ch. 6). At their first meeting (ch. 3, in Jerint’s workshop) he teases and tests her, not kindly: he hears her play and
does not let on that she has played very well, and he stops her when
he sees that her exertion has split the edge of the scar. In ch. 5 he is angry when she misses his summons, which Dunca failed to pass on; when her fire-lizards dive at him in her defense he stands still,
is not intimidated, and refuses to punish her as the victim of envy.
He is no martinet, and his kindness is there from the start. His manner softens toward her as soon as he decides she is no
luftmensch (an impractical dreamer); after that it is a matter of
degree. In the quartet scene Domick, Sebell, Talmor and Menolly play a piece for four instruments (ch. 6). Talmor says Domick has just finished writing it and calls it one of his “tortuous inventions.” Domick tells Menolly she is to play second gitar, with what she sees as the smile of one conferring a favor, and says acidly that the piece is no children’s exercise and she will not find it easy to read. She is so absorbed that she is shocked when it ends, and asks to play it again. Talmor says she has played the fingers off him and Sebell and that Domick is panting for breath; Sebell laughs until he cries. Domick says he did not believe Talmor’s account of her, and concedes that the joke is on him. When Menolly hesitates, afraid of his tongue, he is surprised that she is frightened of him and tells her, in a suddenly gentler voice, that it is having to train idiots that sours him. Asked what she would most like to do, she says playing in a group; he smiles, and when she apologizes for missing the dynamics he wrote he has them play it again, stopping them time and again; the session ends when the Threadfall alarm sounds. He and Shonagar are
rivals, each wanting to teach her full time, but both are very much
her defenders.
Most tortuous writing
Sebell
Sebell, the oldest journeyman under Robinton by his own account and so, by the Hall’s custom,
responsible for the newest apprentice, though the apprentices say he has only just walked the tables. (ch. 5) He later succeeds Robinton as Masterharper. He
laughs until he cries when Menolly asks to play the piece again.
in tears
From the laughter, delighting
Joke on the master
And music takes wings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Petiron’s
pupil,
Domick was Petiron’s apprentice at the Hall, and calls him the
finest musician and best instructor it has had. In quiet tones he
tells Menolly she has no need ever to be ashamed of her playing, and
Sebell adds, or of her joy in music.
In quiet tones saying
No need for shame
In the gift of her playing
Joy in the music
And how the heart sings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Dour, and astonished
That anyone fears him
Gentling his voice
And the truth that endears him
Idiots sour him
The kindness he brings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Voices of harp,
Flute and gitar entwining
Flying on dragons
And Domick’s smile shining
Play it again
And the master’s joy springs
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Firmly he takes back
The harp from her fingers
Scar split and bleeding
His gentleness lingers
Supper and warmth
And the laughter that rings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
The Harper’s
Masterharper Robinton rewrote Menolly’s fire-lizard song and told everyone that she wrote it. Robinton has already told her so himself, on her second morning. (ch. 2) When she asks Sebell what to do, he says it is what the Harper wishes and that he only tightened it: the melody is hers, and everyone is humming it. She must learn to polish her music without losing its freshness, which is why she must study with Domick: he has the discipline, she has the originality. Menolly cannot answer, and Sebell notices that she has gone white: at home she was beaten for doing exactly what she is now urged to do.
polish
And the tune they are humming
Freshness kept whole
And the craft that is coming
Beatings remembered
Doubt that still clings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Robinton’s
Robinton, Masterharper of Pern, who directs the search for the
composer of Petiron’s songs and invites Menolly to Harper Hall.
He is impressed when her fire-lizards join in her music, and he sends her to Master Oldive, telling Oldive she must play again (ch. 2). When she
fears being a nuisance he tells her she is too young to appreciate
the value of nuisance. After Menolly overhears a conversation at
Benden Weyr and tells the dragonriders where the fire-lizards nest,
and two of the eggs they find are allotted to Harper Hall (one to
him, one to Sebell), he drafts her as the fire-lizard expert. He
tells her she belongs at Harper Hall, admits he put unfair pressure
on her to join, apologizes for improving her song, and says her
songs are what he needs. On her second morning he tells her that the conventional Craft procedure must be observed, in her unusual situation especially, before her training can proceed as fast as she likes. (ch. 2) Belief in his encouragement is the arc:
Menolly finally accepts her right to the fruits of her talent.
welcome
To one who is doubting
Asking her songs
And her fears he is routing
Belief at last
And the courage that springs
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Bronze
The two eggs allotted to Harper Hall hatch in Robinton’s room. His egg gives up a little bronze, which he catches in his hands; Menolly tells him to feed it, but not too much, and to talk to it and soothe it. The other egg is a queen. Sebell, who is not meant to have her, starts to offer her to the Harper, but Menolly stops him: it is too late, and it does not matter which. Lord Groghe steadies Sebell when he rocks back in surprise. Robinton names his bronze Zair, and Sebell names his queen Kimi. On Menolly’s first night Silvina had hoped that one of Robinton’s eggs would hatch a queen, and some of the apprentices later grumble that the Masterharper should have had her. (ch. 1 and 8) Masterminer Nicat received two other eggs from the clutch (Menolly says so to Pona, ch. 4), so these two are Harper Hall’s own: one is Robinton’s, and one is Sebell’s (ch. 5).
for the Harper
And Menolly’s knowing
Sebell’s queen, a surprise
Merga’s
Lord Groghe’s queen, who arrives before the hatching and drags him to the Hall. Beauty greets her with raised wings, in welcome and not challenge, and the two sit side by side on the mantel. Groghe asks how the creature knew, and Robinton tells him to ask Menolly; he later asks Menolly to teach him to train Merga.
friendship showing
Meat for the creeling
And the bonds that it brings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Pona’s
Lady Pona, granddaughter of Lord Sangel of Boll and one of the cot girls at Harper Hall, has been Menolly’s enemy since Menolly arrived. At the Fort Hold gather she accuses Menolly of stealing the two-mark piece that Robinton gave her, and calls on Benis, one of Lord Groghe’s sons, to take it. Audiva tries to hold Menolly back and then takes her side. Dunca’s own grudge is older: she had hoped to marry Petiron, and on the day Menolly arrives she snorts at hearing that Menolly knew him. (ch. 2) At Menolly’s first dinner Pona introduces herself as the granddaughter of the Lord Holder of Boll, and the table learns that Menolly, a Sea Holder’s daughter, outranks them. Pona questions her about the Hatching, where three candidates from her grandfather’s Hold failed to Impress, and asks how Menolly came to have nine fire-lizards; Audiva answers that Menolly was in the right place at the right time and that luck pays no heed to rank and privilege, and teases Pona for making up to Jessuan and Benis. Pona, who opened on her rank, has her own test of rank turned back on her. Next morning Dunca, who says there will be no ranking in her cottage, screams at the fire-lizards and scolds Menolly. (ch. 4 and 5) Silvina had told Menolly to leave the matter to her, and has been raking Dunca over.
false witness
Fosterlings scattered
Menolly’s right hook
Benis
Lord Groghe’s son, called the biggest bully in the Hold. He twists Menolly’s arm and kicks Piemur, and Menolly punches him in the face while her fire-lizards attack the girls and their escorts.
left battered
Robinton’s soft words
Robinton stops the brawl and answers Pona in a very gentle voice: she is overwrought, and he sends her back to Dunca. To Benis he says he is glad he knows his rank, and he sends him and the other fosterlings to their quarters, or he will mention it to Lord Groghe. Next day Pona is taken away by dragon.
Nemesis on wings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Six pies for a coin, then a
seventh for fame
Baker Palim sells Menolly six pies for a coin, then adds a free
seventh the moment he learns she’s the girl who wrote the
fire-lizard song; Piemur refuses to let her pay for any of them,
treating her instead. (ch. 9)
,
a belt given free, with her punch as its claim;
“I’ve struck the bargain,”
Piemur opens the haggle over a belt Menolly admires, but tanner
Ligand never answers it: he gives it to her free, in reward for the
punch she landed on Benis at the gather, and still seals it with the
traditional handclasp. (ch. 9)
he says, and it clings—
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Copied and tested
Robinton has Menolly copy her songs onto the precious sheets and rewrite one in the traditional forms. Domick reads her copies, finds her hand neat enough to please Arnor, and says the traditional forms are duly observed. While she works she hears the masters below her window, Silvina among them, settling formalities, and takes it for talk of postings. Robinton had told her on her second morning that the conventional procedure must be observed. That same day Jerint, Domick, Morshal and Shonagar tested her on gitar, other instruments, theory and voice. (ch. 3)
Fire-lizards trilling
Walk, Menolly, walk
At supper Robinton announces the journeymen’s postings, and then Sebell and Talmor come up to Menolly: she has been made journeyman. The apprentices chant for her to walk, Piemur kicks her shin to get her moving, and Sebell whispers that they could carry her. She answers that she has harper boots and can walk anywhere. She walks between them to the journeymen’s tables while her fire-lizards trill.
And her legs proving willing
A place of her own
And the harper who sings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]
Piemur’s
Piemur, a gifted singer, the smallest of the apprentices, and the
first to befriend Menolly at Harper Hall. He is Shonagar’s
apprentice, and believes the fire-lizards will sing for anyone, and proves it
when they join his singing. Because he sings a high
treble, Brudegan first suspects him of the fire-lizards’ song. His
treble breaks at the start of Dragondrums
. Only once his voice has broken is he sent to
Drumheights, where he is written off as a slow learner while he
covertly learns everything. In Dragonsinger he is a cheeky but loyal scamp. Shonagar scolds him for his bold face and dilatory manner and calls him “Rascal” in a mock growl (ch. 3); Robinton, grinning, calls him “this scamp” and hopes Menolly can keep him out of trouble (ch. 4). Both names are affectionate. At her first dinner he sides with Menolly against Ranly, who thinks a girl should not sit with the apprentices, and has Camo fetch her more meat; at the gather he haggles the apprentices’ instruments up to a good price, earns a commission, leaves his marks with Silvina for safekeeping, and takes a beating defending Menolly. He says the girls in the journeymen’s class are a nuisance, but that without them he would have to sing the treble in the plays. (ch. 3) He wagers with Ranly for the right to feed the fire-lizards, and on her first evening, when her feet fail her, he half-carries her back to the cottage instead of going to rehearsal, saying it is sometimes an asset to be small. He tells her what it means to walk the tables
: promotion happens at supper, when a journeyman walks an apprentice to the journeymen’s tables, and Sebell has only just done it. (ch. 4)
clear treble
That cracks in the middle
Dunce at
Drumheights
Where messages are sent across Pern in drum code.
And the codes are no riddle
Learning it all
And the slur never stings
These are a few of
My favorite things.
[hook]