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First published in 1963. When originally published this book was the first to treat at full length the contribution which music makes to Shakespeare's great tragedies, among them Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. Here the playwright's practices are studied in conjunction with those of his contemporaries: Marlowe and Jonson, Marston and Chapman. From these comparative assessments there emerges the method that is peculiar to Shakespeare: the employment of song and instrumental music to a degree hitherto unknown, and their use as an integral part of the dramatic structure.
First published in 1963. When originally published this book was the first to treat at full length the contribution which music makes to Shakespeare's great tragedies, among them Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. Here the playwright's practices are studied in conjunction with those of his contemporaries: Marlowe and Jonson, Marston and Chapman. From these comparative assessments there emerges the method that is peculiar to Shakespeare: the employment of song and instrumental music to a degree hitherto unknown, and their use as an integral part of the dramatic structure.
This unique and comprehensive study examines how music affects Shakespeare's plays and addresses the ways in which contemporary audiences responded to it. David Lindley sets the musical scene of Early Modern England, establishing the kinds of music heard in the streets, the alehouses, private residences and the theatres of the period and outlining the period's theoretical understanding of music. Focusing throughout on the plays as theatrical performances, this work analyzes the ways Shakespeare explores and exploits the conflicting perceptions of music at the time and its dramatic and thematic potential.
With an A-Z of over 300 entries, Music in Shakespeare is the most comprehensive study of all the musical terms found in Shakespeare's complete works. It includes a definition of each musical term in its historical and theoretical context, and explores the diverse extent of musical imagery across the full range of Shakespeare's dramatic and poetic work, as well as analysing the usage of instruments and sound effects on the Shakespearean stage. This is a comprehensive reference guide for scholars and students with interests in the thematic and allegorical relevance of music in Shakespeare, and the history of performance. Identifying all musical terms found in the Shakespeare canon, it will also be of use to the growing number of directors and actors concerned with recovering the staging conditions of the early modern theatre.
"The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus" by William Shakespeare is a gripping and intense drama that explores themes of revenge, betrayal, and the destructive consequences of violence. Set in ancient Rome, the play follows the tragic downfall of the noble general Titus Andronicus and his family as they become embroiled in a cycle of vengeance and bloodshed. At the heart of the story is the brutal conflict between Titus Andronicus and Tamora, Queen of the Goths, whose sons are executed by Titus as retribution for their crimes. In retaliation, Tamora and her lover, Aaron the Moor, orchestrate a series of heinous acts of revenge against Titus and his family, plunging them into a spiral of madness and despair. As the body count rises and the atrocities escalate, Titus is consumed by grief and rage, leading to a climactic showdown that culminates in a shocking and tragic conclusion. Along the way, Shakespeare explores themes of honor, justice, and the nature of humanity, offering a searing indictment of the cycle of violence and the capacity for cruelty that lies within us all.
The first edition of this book formed the basis of the modern approach to Elizabethan poetic drama as a performing art, an approach pursued in subsequent volumes by Professor Bradbrook. Its influence has also extended to other fields; it has been studied by Grigori Kozintsev and Sergei Eisenstein for instance. Conventions of open stage, stylized plot and characters, and actors' traditions of presentation are realted to the special expectations which a rhetorical training produced in the listeners. The general discussion of tragic conventions is followed by individual studies of how these were used by Marlowe, Tourneur, Webster and Middleton. For this second edition, Professor Bradbrook has revised her material and written a new introduction. A new final chapter on performance and characterization describes the conventions of role-playing. Dramatists before and after Shakespeare are compared with him in their methods of showing a complex identity on stage. This chapter also considers the work of Marston, Chapman and Ford in relation to the themes and conventions studied in earlier chapters.
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, this book offers fresh and exciting insights into the ever-popular works of the world's greatest playwright. It specifically highlights Shakespeare's use of the archetypal language of astrological symbolism in both obvious and subtle ways. Such references would have been commonly known in Shakespeare's time, but their deeper significance is lost to modern-day playgoers and readers. The first half of the book describes the Elizabethan worldview and how the seven known planets were considered an integral part of the cosmos and instrumental in shaping human character. The second half of the book examines six of Shakespeare's best-loved plays in the light of astrological symbolism, showing how they are entirely keyed to a specific zodiacal sign and its associated (or ruling) planet. The chosen plays are A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, The Tempest, and King Lear. Each chapter incorporates information and examples from astrological tradition, classical and Renaissance philosophy, Greek and Roman mythology, esoteric wisdom, modern psychology (especially that of C. G. Jung), and great literature. Thoroughly researched and well-illustrated, this book illuminates the plays from a fresh perspective that will deepen and profoundly transform how we understand them.
Music pervades Shakespeare's work. In addition to vocal songs and numerous instrumental cues there are thousands of references to music throughout the plays and many of the poems. This book discusses Shakespeare's musical imagery according to categories defined by occurrence in the plays and poems. In turn, these categories depend on their early modern usage and significance. Thus, instruments such as lute and viol deserve special attention just as Renaissance ideas relating to musical philosophy and pedagogical theory need contextual explanation. The objective is to locate Shakespeare's musical imagery, reference and metaphor in its immediate context in a play or poem and explain its meaning. Discussion and explanation of the musical imagery suggests a range of possible dramatic and poetic purposes these musical references serve.
This is a study of the rich and diverse range of musical responses to Shakespeare that have taken place from the seventeenth century onwards. Written from a literary perspective, the book explores the many genres and contexts in which Shakespeare and his work have enjoyed a musical afterlife discussing opera, ballet, and classical symphony alongside musicals and film soundtracks, as well as folk music and hip-hop traditions. Taking as its starting point ideas of creativity and improvisation stemming from early modern baroque practices and the more recent example of twentieth-century jazz adaptation, this volume explores the many ways in which Shakespeares plays and poems have been re-worked by musical composers. It also places these cultural productions in their own historical moment and context. Adaptation studies is a fast emerging field of scholarship and as a contribution to this field, Shakespeare and Music: Afterlives and Borrowings: develops theories and practices from adaptation studies to think about musical responses to Shakespeare across the centuries brings together in an exciting intellectual encounter ideas and methodologies deriving from literary criticism, theatre history, film studies, and musicology explores music in its widest context, looking at classical symphonies including the work of Berlioz and Elgar and operas by Verdi and Britten as well as Broadway musicals, film scores by Shostakovich, Walton, and contemporary performers, and the jazz adaptations of Duke Ellington and others. This is a timely study that will appeal to a wide readership from lovers of Shakespeare and classical music through to students of film and historians of the theatre.
Essay from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Tubingen, language: English, abstract: Content I. Introduction...........................................1 II. Analysis and Interpretation...................1 1. Music as Message..............................1 2. Music as Essential Part of the Play....4 3. Music as Power-Tool.........................5 III. Conclusion............................................7 IV. Bibliography.........................................8 I. Introduction The Tempest is full of music, singing, and dancing. Every act and every scene has at least one musical element. This is not very surprising, as Shakespeare had his own musicians, whom he did not have to pay, and thus he could afford such a variety of music. The whole play takes place on a desert island which is inhabited by only three people. Particularly, the “unusual soundscape [shall] underpin[s] the strangeness of the island” (Shakespeare, Introduction 23-4). Hearing all the songs accompanied by “solemn” music is not only spectacular for the audience, even Caliban, whom we know as a rude and uneducated native of the island, is fascinated by “the isle [which] is full of noises, / Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not” (3. 2. 127-128). Thus he wants to calm his new friends Stephano and Trinculo, who had never seen and heard such things. Moreover, Ariel casts a spell over Ferdinand with his music and he follows it, although he has just shipwrecked and a different behaviour would be expected in the case of such a catastrophe. We can see that music has a huge impact on both the figures in the play and the audience, as this drama was actually written to be performed rather than to be read. Nonetheless it is not enough to say that music is only used to create a nice background sound for the play. One can even go so far and say that music plays the main role and the whole play only revolves around music. In order to prove this, I will show in the following the important functions of music and musical elements. Firstly, I would like to demonstrate the music's function as a message for both the figures and the audience, secondly, the music's function as an essential part of the play and last but not least, the most important function – music as a 'power-tool' for Prospero and in a sense also for Ariel.