The Well-Tempered Ear

Brrr! It’s time to hear the ‘Polar Vortex’ aria

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By Jacob Stockinger

We in the Upper Midwest — like much of the rest of the United States down to the Gulf of Mexico  — have been treated to an Arctic gift from Canada for the next week or so.

It is called the Polar Vortex (below).

As you can see if you look closely or enlarge the diagram, the vortex has dropped way south from the North Pole, bringing with it way-below average temperatures, many of them going into the double digits below zero. And that doesn’t even include wind chill. (China has also been experiencing recording-breaking extreme cold.)

So it seemed only reasonable to see how a composer has expressed such extreme cold in a piece of vocal music — especially as the cold weather might seriously affect the Republican presidential caucuses that get started tomorrow in Iowa.

So here — complete with lyrics by the famous English writer John Dryden — is “The Cold Song” from 1691 opera “King Arthur” by the British baroque composer Henry Purcell (below), who did a terrific job of word painting and sound painting.

The Ear calls it the “Polar Vortex” aria. Officially its title is “What Power Art Thou Who From Below” and is sung by a character called The Cold Genius.

In the YouTube video below it is interpreted by the world-renowned countertenor Andreas Scholl (below) who is accompanied by the highly praised period-instrument early musical ensemble Accademia Byzantina under director Stefan Montenari.

The quivering repetitive rhythm you see in the notes duplicates shivering as a kind of extreme vibrato.

It is a literally chilling performance.

If you follow the words, the lyrics add to the sense of being stuck in a deep freeze.

How well do you think the imaginative song captures the extreme cold of The Polar Vortex?

The Ear wants to hear.