More Work on the Earnest Puritan

A Moral Little Tale opens with a short introductory harmony identical to the keys of the first part, namely E-flat, B-flat, E-flat, C minor, G minor, C minor, to which the chorus sings the title. The opening number, “There Once was an Earnest Puritan”, transposed to E-flat, for a start has rough harmony added to the first phrase. A waltz or minuet-like instrumental interlude on the word “dance” is cut short by the narrator repeating “wrong to dance”, with “dance” harmonized by a tritone, the Devil’s interval (as some would say) and the bass line echoing in a distorted way the dance rhythm. The chord progression from the introduction forms the basis for the bridge to the Narrator’s second phrase.