A Hand of Bridge

Sally, who is frustrated as a result of being dummy ("Once again I'm dummy, forever dummy!") recalls a hat of peacock feathers she saw in Madame Charlotte's shop window that morning and how much she desires to buy it, which is stated repeatedly throughout her arietta,"I want to buy that hat of peacock feathers!" She second guesses herself about wanting the hat by considering two others, a red one with a tortoiseshell rose and a beige with a fuchsia ribbon, before resolving once again that she wants the hat with peacock feathers.[6]

Sally's arietta has a rounded binary form, with the first section characterized by a repetitive eighth note pattern on the words "I want to buy that hat of peacock feathers!" The line is sung over pulsating E flat and B flat major triads. The second section shifts to a bi-tonal suggestion of a C flat major melody over an A flat major accompaniment, before returning to the original driving eighth note theme.[7]

Sally's husband Bill, the lawyer, worries that his wife's "dummy" outburst is a double-entendre and that she may have discovered his affair with another woman named Cymbaline. He describes his mistress as having "geranium scented breath," and blond hair. He continues his soliloquy with contemplating her whereabouts, jealously wondering who she may be with tonight ("Is it Christopher, Oliver, Mortimer, Manfred, Chuck, Tommy, or Dominic?"), and regretting that he is married to Sally rather than her. Bill's arietta ends with Sally saying, "The Queen, you have trumped the Queen!"[8]

Bill's arietta is primarily constructed of scalar triplet figures, creating a romantic waltz that reflects his preoccupation with his mistress, Cymbaline. Toward the closing of his monologue, Bill's forbidden physical desires are expressed by augmented and diminished intervals in his accompaniment on the words, "strangle in the dark!"[9]

Bill is a caricature of one of Barber's neighbors, a business man who hid behind religious pretense.[10]

Geraldine wonders why Bill is so distracted, deciding that it is neither by his wife, whom she refers to as his "long discarded queen," nor herself, with whom he used to play footsie under the card table. Her inner-monologue is lamentful, asking who loves her and whom she loves. She lists the people she knows do not love her: "the foolish knave of hearts" in reference to Bill, her father, "my stock market husband" in reference to David, and their "football son." She then regrets not having a relationship with her dying mother when she had had the chance, begging her not to die now that she is "learning to love" her.[11]

Geraldine's lament is set with a G major melody with hints of modal mixture, over a B flat major accompaniment. The only stable moment in the arietta occurs on the subject of Geraldine's ill mother, where the music solidifies on B flat major and the meter changes from 3/2 to 4/2, before returning to the G major melody.[12]

Geraldine is a direct reference to Barber's sister, Sarah, who had an unstable relationship with their mother.

Finally, David, Geraldine's husband, expresses how unhappy he is with his life, stating that his epitaph will read, "Worked for Mister Pritchett ev'ry day and ev'ry night played bridge with Sally and Bill." He then fantasizes about what he would do if he were as rich or richer than his boss, whom he loathes and envies. He imagines his life in Palm Beach as "the King of Diamonds," with twenty naked girls and boys "attending to [his] pleasures." His fantasies further the idea of sexual experimentation with a reference to "ev'ry known perversion" in a book by Havelock Ellis, which he keeps hidden from his wife behind their copy of Who's Who. In the end he concedes that he could not have that, even if he were rich, and would still play bridge every night with Sally and Bill.[13]

David's arietta is set to a pentatonic melody on the pitches G-A-B-D-E over E and B pedal tones, creating a strong pull towards E minor. The countermelody adds to the sense of exoticism by creating a semi-tone motion with the pitches B and C. Smith concludes that the composition alludes to David's forbidden and suppressed sexual nature.[14]