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Love´s Labour's Lost (my part in the collective paper)

SHAKESPEARE AND MUSIC

IN THREE OF HIS COMEDIES

Introduction

Over the course of our monographic Shakespeare through performance, while reading the plays we have been dealing with, I realized that from time to time I ran into words like “song”, “they sing”, “musicke” or “Musicke playes”. Did it mean that Shakespeare had used music on purpose as a theatrical tool, that is to say, to emphasize the language, to portray characters, to delineate settings, to create a particular atmosphere, in a way, as any other dramatic device to produce an impact over the spectator? If you go on reading the next pages you will check that that is the conclusion I have come to. Music, at this point, would not be but another means that along with the actors, the story, the language, the stage or the costumes, conform a play. My aim in this paper is just to outline some characteristics of Shakespeare's use of music in A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night; Or What You Will that I have noticed in a first approach.

If we take a look at the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online[1], we will learn (thanks to Mary Springfels) that the use of music in dramas, the setting of lyrical dramatic passages with musical accompaniment, was not a practice exclusive or peculiar to Shakespeare; it appears elsewhere in the Elizabethan theatre. In fact, in Tudor and Stuart drama, they usually included at least one song in every play. Bands onstage accompanied dances, masques or serenades. They also provided interludes between acts and 'atmosphere' music during the representation to help to create a particular emotional climate as film music does today. Different kinds of music and musical instruments had symbolic meaning for Elizabethans. Oboes sounds presaged doom or disaster whereas the sounds of the lute and viol had a positive connotation and a soothing effect over the spirit of the spectators.

Regarding instrumental music there were not many musicians available except for the plays produced at court. A typical production could be interpreted by just two wind players (playing trumpet, flute or recorder) and two string players (for violin, viol or lute).

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The music plays an important part in the structure of this comedy and, at the same time, this theatrical piece has inspired composers such as Mendelssohn to try to get the essence of its magic. It seems that the play was written for a noble wedding performed at the home of Sir George Carey, Lord Chamberlain, and Shakespeare used an unusually great number of musicians. To differentiate the fairies from the humans in the play, the author did not only use children, fairies were diminutive, but also music, as a subtle way of showing one of their most valuable features, their airiness. A good example of this is the ayre in the form of a lullaby performed by Titania's attendants[2] before Oberon enchants her. This type of song was very popular at the period and it is so appropriate to the situation that Shakespeare probably wrote it to be set to music especially for the play. Some speculate that John Dowland, at that time apparently employed by Sir George Carey[3], composed some of the music.

The next musical appearance is played by Bottom in his scene with Titania, just after getting his ass-head[4]. Although there are no stage directions for the performance of the song in the Quarto text, we can guess from both Bottom's and Titania's words: "I will walk up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid" ... "I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again: Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note". Since it is a humoristic situation we cannot expect a brilliant performance, rather quite the contrary.

Then, we hear music again after Titania's awakening, and it accompanies Puck removing their enchantments from the sleeping lovers[5] Lysander, Demetrius, Helena and Hermia:

"OBERON: Silence awhile. —Robin, take off this head. —Titania, music call; and strike more dead than common sleep of all these five the sense.

TITANIA: Music, ho! Music, such as charmeth sleep!"

And they dance together following Oberon's command: "Sound, music! —Come, my queen, take hands with me, and rock the ground whereon these sleepers be". It is just plain music, without lyrics, and it marks the turning point of the piece. After this episode, problems disappear and happiness reigns.

As Long concludes, "we may readily believe that without the music in the play, performed as Shakespeare intended it to be performed, much of the lyrical charm and fantasy of A Midsummer Night's Dream would be lost."[6]

The Merchant of Venice

In this play Shakespeare uses the music again to emphasize important ideas in the action or to increase lyrical parts. We can distinguish two main motifs: one based on the casket, which relates Portia and Bassanio, and the other based on the bond, which includes Antonio and Shylock. Both motifs have a common link: on the one hand the friendship (so to call it, we could write another paper about their relationship) between Antonio and Bassanio; on the other hand, Portia's crucial legal participation before the court. The moment involving Portia and Bassanio gets its climax when the latter chooses the right casket and Shakespeare underscores it with music. Before his decision, Portia, aware of the decisive importance of the moment, says "Let music sound while he doth make his choice; then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, fading in music: that the comparison may stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream and watery death-bed for him. He may win; and what is music then? Then music is even as the flourish when true subjects bow to a new-crowned monarch: such it is as are those dulcet sounds in break of day that creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear, And summon him to marriage."[7] Whilst Bassanio comments on the caskets to himself, trying to discover their secret, we can hear the song[8]

"Tell me where is fancy bred,

Or in the heart or in the head?

How begot, how nourished?

Reply, reply.

It is engender'd in the eyes,

With gazing fed; and fancy dies

In the cradle where it lies.

Let us all ring fancy's knell;

I'll begin it,--Ding, dong, bell.

(All)

Ding, dong, bell".

Shakespeare uses music again in Act V, which begins with Lorenzo's recitation of a nocturne, In such a night as this[9], accompanied by Jessica. First Stephano and then Launcelot interrupt the lyricism of their dialogue to give the necessary information and then it increases again as Lorenzo calls for music to support and augment the moment. There is no doubt about Shakespeare's thought regarding those who are not moved by music, when he speaks through Lorenzo's mouth[10]: "The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; the motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted".

Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will

Twelfth Night has music at the beginning, at the end, and over the course of the whole play. In fact, its first words can be considered as a real declaration of intentions: "If music be the food of love, play on; give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die[11]". We can distinguish two types of music. The one associated with Duke Orsino, sweet and a little sad, and the other related to Sir Toby and his friends, with joyful, cheerful, even lustful, ballads and songs. We have an example of this in Act II when Feste, the clown, sings a love song after having let Sir Toby and Sir Andrew to choose between it and a song of good life[12]. Feste sings:

"O mistress mine, where are you roaming?

O, stay and hear; your true-love's coming,

That can sing both high and low:

Trip no further, pretty sweeting;

journeys end in lovers' meeting,

Every wise man's son doth know.

...

What is love? 'tis not hereafter;

Present mirth hath present laughter;

What's to come is still unsure:

In delay there lies no plenty;

Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty,

Youth's a stuff will not endure".

Experts seem to agree that the lyrics are authentically Shakespearean although there are some hints that the Bard of Stratford could have predated instrumental settings of William Byrd and Thomas Morley, which antedated the first production of Twelfth Night[13]. It provides ironic commentaries on plot and characters as it refers to Sir Toby and Sir Andrew and even gives a clue about Viola's disguise ("can sing both high and low"). After Feste ends singing the love song, the three of them decide to sing a merrier catch although their performance must not be worth listening judging from Maria's words when she surprises them: "What a caterwauling do you keep here!"[14] Next, Feste and Sir Tobias reply Malvolio's insults singing, in turns, a popular ayre of the time by Robert Jones, slightly altered[15]:

'Farewell, dear heart, since I must needs be gone.'

'His eyes do show his days are almost done.'

'But I will never die.'

'Shall I bid him go?'

'What an if you do?'

'Shall I bid him go, and spare not?'

'O, no, no, no, no, you dare not.'

The original words were as follows: "Farewell, dear love, since thou will needs be gone. Mine eyes do show my life is almost done. Nay, I will never die, so long as I can spy. Shall I bid her go? What and if I do? Shall I bid her go, and spare not? O no, no, no, no, no I dare not."[16]

At the beginning of scene IV, Duke Orsino again, as in Act I scene I, requests some music[17]. Feste sings Come away, come away, death[18], a song that emphasizes the melancholy of the Duke's character. Again, Feste is the performer of the next song Hey, Robin, jolly Robin, tell me how thy lady does[19], a snatch of an old ballad. At the end of that scene he speaks or sings I am gone, sir; and anon, sir[20]. Feste will also be the singer of the musical epilogue after all the actors have left the stage except him. For the rain it raineth every day[21] was a popular song to which a final stanza referring to the play was probably added. With slight variations, it was also used by Shakespeare later in King Lear (III, ii).

Conclusion

It seems clear that Shakespeare understood the value of music as a valuable dramatic element. That is the reason why he used it in his plays. Although he did not discover it nor modify its function he was able to employ it with great skill. In A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice, music indicates the arrival of very important, even climactic moments in the plays. In the latter, the music can also be seen (listened to) as a balm when performed after the trial scene in which Antonio is about to be killed.

In Twelfth Night; Or What You Will Malvolio's criticism on Sir Toby's singing is an excuse to the joke played later upon him.

Shakespeare both used songs that were typical in the popular repertoire of that period and composed his own lyrics as well. He used popular tunes, serenades, rounds, part-songs, or catches. He assigned most of the singing to minor characters or personalities: servants, rogues, clowns, and fools. Main characters, on the contrary, did not usually sing unless they were disguised or suffered from a distracted mental state[22]. Dealing with a man who is considered by many to be the greatest dramatist ever, it is no surprise at all that he was able to take every advantage of the possibilities that music offered to his work. A good reason to be glad about for those of us who love music, theatre, or both.

Works cited

"Music in Shakespeare's Plays." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2007. 2 Jan. 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9396030>.

"Shakespeare's Plays and Poems." The Internet Shakespeare Editions. 6 Jan. 2007 <http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/plays.html>

Long, John H. Shakespeare's Use of Music. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1955. Questia. 3 Jan. 2007 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3756038>.

Shakespeare, William. The Works of William Shakespeare Gathered into One Volume. New York: Oxford University Press, 1938. Questia. 6 Jan. 2007 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=93992052&er=deny>.

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Academic year 2006/2007
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Juan Manuel Ruano Silvano
ruasi@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press

[1] Encyclopaedia Britannica: Music in Shakespeare's Plays

[12] Twelfth Night; Or What You Will, II, III, 739

[13] Encyclopaedia Britannica: Music in Shakespeare's Plays

[14] Twelfth Night; Or What You Will, II, iii, 36

[15] Twelfth Night; Or What You Will, II, iii, 798

[17] Twelfth Night; Or What You Will, II, iv, 884

[18] Twelfth Night; Or What You Will, II, iv, 941

[19] Twelfth Night; Or What You Will, IV, ii, 2057

[20] Twelfth Night; Or What You Will, IV, ii, 2105

[21] Twelfth Night; Or What You Will, V, i, 2560

[22] Encyclopaedia Britannica: Music in Shakespeare's Plays