There was an Old Person of Brussels

Muehleisen's setting of Edward Lears frenetic limerick, There was an Old Person of Brussels, is in the style of a perpetuum mobile, a "perpetual motion piece, a style of music characterized by an unrelenting rhythmic and melodic movement (also known as a moto perpetuo in Italian). The perpetual motion in my setting of Lears limerick represents the Old Person of Brussels himself as he rushed through the town, knocking most people down. Because of the frenetic nature of the musical setting, one might even call this a moto frenetico. The namesake musical figure (passed between the basses and baritones) has a headlong, reckless, staggering motion, befitting a person who lived upon Brandy and Mussels. While the basses and baritones are busy engaging their marathon musical material, the tenors present the lines of Lears limerick. Upon singing the text fully through once, the music becomes even more frenetic, with the tenors singing the entire text again, now in double-time. The only let-up in the forward motion is on the repetition of the line he knocked most people down, perhaps indicating that the main character in Lears limerick might have paused for a moment to survey the mayhem he had wrought, only to resume his seemingly pointless, headlong rush through town. The very pointless nature of his behavior is one of the most effective aspects of Lears limerick: at no time in the poem does he provide even a hint of motivation for the main characters eccentric conduct.