Annotation:Jove in His Chair

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JOVE IN HIS CHAIR. Irish, English; March and Air (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "Jove and His Chair" is a piece from Dublin-born Kane O'Hara's (1711-1782) first publicly performed piece, the burletta Midas, staged in Dublin in 1760. It was a pastiche of Irish, English, French and Italian popular airs, linked by O'Hara's recitative, and bridged the gap between ballad opera and comic opera. O'Hara took it to the London stage at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden, in 1764.

The melody O'Hara used for "Jove in His Chair" is a version of "King of Prussia's March," set to the following words, sung in the opening scene by a chorus of gods gathered in Olympus:

Jove, in his chair,
Of the sky Lor'd-May'r
With his nods
Men and Gods
Keeps in awe,
When he winks
Heaven shrinks,
When he speaks
Hell squeaks
Earth's globe is but his taw.

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