The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee is a musical character portrait of a pirate whose greatest weapons are imagination and theatrical flair. Don Bryn’s setting transforms the comic poem into a high-seas adventure filled with rhythmic swagger, jaunty melodies, and dramatic musical gestures that capture every twist of Don Durk’s larger-than-life personality.
The score embraces the humor and exaggeration of the poem through playful contrasts, unexpected turns, and colorful musical details. Each image—from the “jiggling plume” to the “jingling gold”—becomes part of a theatrical world where character and music are inseparable. Rhythmic energy, melodic surprises, and comic timing bring the pirate’s adventures to life while revealing the absurdity beneath his exaggerated reputation.
Though he’s “wicked as wicked can be,” the music makes clear that this pirate is more amusing than alarming—a fabulous figure of fantasy whose sins are outnumbered only by his style. Rather than creating a truly frightening villain, the music celebrates a character whose greatest treasures are imagination, humor, and an irresistible sense of theatrical adventure.
Ho, for the Pi-rate Don Durk of Dow-dee!
He was as wick-ed as wick-ed could be,
But oh, he was perfectly gorgeous to see!
The Pi-rate Don Durk of Dowdee.
His con-science, of course, was as black as a bat,
But he had a flop-pe-ty plume on his hat
And when he went walking it jiggled – like that!
The plume of the Pi-rate Dow-dee.
His coat it was handsome and cut with a slash,
And often as ever he twirled his mustache
Deep down in the ocean the mermaids went splash,
Because of Don Durk of Dow-dee.
Moreover, Dowdee had a purple tat-too,
And struck in his belt where he buckled it through
Were a dagger, a dirk, and a squizzamaroo,
For fierce was the Pirate Dowdee.
So fearful he was he would shoot at a puff,
And always at sea when the weather grew rough
He drank from a bottle and wrote on his cuff,
Did Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee.
Oh, he had a cutlass that swung at his thigh
And he had a parrot called Pepperkin Pye,
And a zigzaggy scar at the end of his eye
Had Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee.
He kept in a cavern, this buccaneer bold,
A curious chest that was covered with mould,
And all of his pockets were jingly with gold!
Oh jing! went the gold of Dowdee.
His conscience, of course it was crook’d like a squash,
But both of his boots made a slickery slosh,
And he went through the world with a wonderful swash,
Did Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee.
It’s true he was wicked as wicked could be,
His sins they outnumbered a hundred and three,
But oh, he was perfectly gorgeous to see,
The Pi-rate Don Durk of Dowdee.
