SATB Choir & Piano (with choir percussion and vocalization effects)
Music by John Muehleisen
Poem by Lewis Carroll
Illustration of Toves, Borogoves, and Mome Raths
by Sir John Tenniel from Alice Through the Looking Glass (1871)
Commissioned by Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble and Artistic Director Loren Pontén
with funding from members of Opus 7 and Brian & Christine Gorelick
in honor of Whitney Tjerandsen for over 25 years of championing the vision of Opus 7
through her extraordinary gifts of time, talent, service, and financial support
Duration: 8:15
Video credit: World premiere by Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble
conducted by Loren Pontèn; Seattle, WA; May 2, 2026
Recording credit: World premiere by Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble
conducted by Loren Pontèn; Seattle, WA; May 2, 2026
TEXT
(see glossary below poem)
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
– Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)
GLOSSARY
(arranged in order in which they appear in the poem and group below based on stanza)
brillig: 4pm; slithy: slimy +lithe; toves: badger + lizard + corkscrew
gyre: rotate; gimble: bore or burrow; wabe: hillside or grass plot
mimsy: miserable + flimsy; borogoves: thin, shabby-looking bird
mome: homeless, lost, roaming; raths: sort of a green pig
outgrabe: bellowing + whistling, with a sneeze in the middle
Jabberwock: part dragon, with rabbit-like teeth, talons, bat wings
Jubjub bird: terrifying, untamable bird with a high-pitched scream
frumious: fuming + furious;
Bandersnatch: swift-moving creature with snapping jaws, capable of extending its neck
vorpal: deadly + extremely sharp
manxome: fearsome
Tum-tum tree: fictional tree w/no real-world equivalent
uffish: moody, brooding, intense thought
whiffling: blowing unsteadily in short puffs; tulgey: dense + dark
burbled: burst + bubbled, like “burbling brook”; also perplexed
Snicker-snack: reference to “snickersee,” a large knife
galumphing: galloping triumphally
beamish: radiantly beaming, happy, cheerful
frabjous: fabulous + joyous; Callooh! Callay!: a joyous shout
chortled: chuckle + snort
About Lewis Carroll’s Use of Language in Jabberwocky (and my response)
My setting of Lewis Carroll‘s groundbreaking poem, Jabberwocky, was commissioned by Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble in honor of long-time Alto section member Whitney Tjerandsen, who retired from singing with Opus 7 after the 2024–25 season. The commissioning statement and dedication on the score read as follows.
“Commissioned by Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble and Artistic Director Loren Pontén
with funding from members of Opus 7 and Brian & Christine Gorelick
in honor of Whitney Tjerandsen
for over 25 years of championing the vision of Opus 7
through her extraordinary gifts of time, talent, service, and financial support.”
When Loren Ponten and I met with Whitney to ask her if she had any favorite poems or poets, without hesitation she began reciting the opening line of Jabberwocky. I can say confidently that this was the easiest and shortest search for text I’ve ever experienced! Faced with the task of setting this iconic poem, which I had loved for years but was quite intimidated by because I didn’t understand much of the language in the poem, I decided to research what all the various “nonsense“ words meant (if anything). Whereas many readers believe that they’re just made-up words that have no meaning but have an intriguing sound and rhythm, my research and reading of various analyses led me to quite a different understanding.
In reality, most of those “nonsense“ words have actual meanings that help one understand the poem and the story that Carroll tells. Many of the words are what are called a “portmanteau,” which is a single word made up of parts of other words, usually 2 to 3 in number. “Brunch” is probably the most familiar portmanteau, being a combination of “breakfast“ and “lunch.“ Carroll also uses what are technically known as “neologisms,” that is, literally “new words,” which Carroll invented himself. One of those words has become part of the English language: “chortle,” which is defined as a “chuckle” with a “snort” in the middle, which is both a portmanteau and a neologism, which has become a part of our vocabulary. There are many examples of portmanteaus and neologisms in Jabberwocky, including “burbled,” which is a combination of “burst” and “bubbled” and “galumphing,” a combination of “galloping’ and “triumph.” (Please see the text page for an inline glossary of Carroll’s “nonsense” words.)
Many, if not most, of these words have linguistic roots in non-English languages and many evoke visual images, which allowed me to create musical gestures that represent those images. For example, the word “gyre” means to turn or twist (think of “gyroscope” and “gyrate”); therefore, that word is set to a turning/twisting/circling musical gesture. And the word “gimble” means to burrow or dig into the Earth; therefore, I created a descending chromatic line that depicts burrowing into the ground. The poem and the music reflect these relationships throughout the piece and are far too numerous to describe in detail in these notes. Suffice it to say that I have tried to create musical analogs to Carroll’s imaginative and fanciful language that I hope will (1) illuminate the meaning of the text in a way that reading the text alone would not reveal if one did not know the meanings of the words and (2) serve to entertain in the same way as millions of readers have been entertained and enchanted over the years by Carroll’s groundbreaking poem.
One final curiosity in Carroll’s poem: I invite you to consider the following questions.
- Why did Carroll repeat the surreal opening stanza verbatim at the end?
- Does it have any implications for the poem possibly being a dream into which the narrator slipped after hearing the clock chiming 4 PM in the afternoon?
- Was the conquest of the Jabberwock just a dream that occured during a late afternoon nap?
- Perhaps that is the point of Carroll’s surreal use of language.
Regardless, I decided to follow the poet’s lead and used exactly the same music for the final stanza as I used for the opening, including ending with the surreal sound of the “mome raths.”
— John Muehleisen (April, 2026)