Shakespeare

Shakespeare, William
(b Stratford-on-Avon, bap. 26 April 1564; d London, 23 April 1616). English playwright.
1. Music in Shakespeare's plays.
(i) Shakespeare's use of music.
Music has an important role in Shakespeare's works: any of his plays would suffer only in its total impact if sound effects and processions, fencing and costumes were eliminated, but the actual sound of vocal andinstrumental music is essential to Shakespeare's dramatic purpose. It remains of course complementary to the sound of verse and prose, but where it punctuates the dialogue it could be omitted only at considerable loss. Beyond this, the traditional associations of music, its divine and degrading powers, often play their part in providing the dramas with a network of wider associations, not only in theactual use of music in the dramatic action but in the frequent use of musical imagery in the text of the play, for important structural and thematic purposes. These allegorical and symbolic functions of music are integral elements of what has been called the Elizabethan ‘world-picture’.
In accordance with the conventions of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, the integration of music in Shakespeare'splays operates on differing levels of sophistication and meaning. The majority of musical cues can be readily divided into four main categories: stage music, magic music, character music and atmospheric music. ‘Stage music’ is the most straightforward category. It encompasses functional or occasional music, prompted by or announcing an action on stage, usually eschewing allusion or hidden metaphor.It is used to accompany a banquet or procession, a duel or a battle where the ‘stage army’ (e.g. the Prologue to Henry V) is not very impressive and the aural excitement would make up for the rather minimal visual effects. Or it may herald the arrival or entry of kings and nobles. Trumpets and kettledrums announce the royal procession in Hamlet (3.ii). A flourish of trumpets conventionally ushersin Duke Frederick, lords, Orlando, Charles and attendants as the mood changes in Act 1 Scene ii of As You Like It. Likewise a flourish of cornetts announces the arrival of the Prince of Morocco (Merchant of Venice, 2.i) and his entry with Portia later in the same act. ‘Stage music’ may also be employed simply and quietly for a serenade, as in The Merchant of Venice, 5.i, or The Two Gentlemen ofVerona, 4.ii.
The second category, ‘magic music’, is connected with the age-old concept of the ‘ethos’ of music, where the art of tones assists in inducing sleep or falling in love or a miraculous healing. When Lady Mortimer sings Mortimer to sleep in 1 Henry IV, 3.i, her singing, accompanied by Hotspur's quizzical humour, involves and questions the extraordinary goings-on of Glendower, with hisstrange folklore and ‘skimble-skamble stuff’. Lear's disordered mind is healed by the power of soft music; likewise in Pericles, Cerimon revives Queen Thaisa with soft or ‘still’ music. When the fairies sing Titania to sleep in A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2.ii, we know that theirs is no ordinary lullaby. Ariel entices Ferdinand ‘to these yellow sands’ in The Tempest, 1.ii, with a magic song. Theorigin of such ‘magic music’ is frequently invisible, or at least not to be seen by the characters on stage who are so wondrously affected. Glendower's musicians who Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence,
And straight they shall be here (3.i)were hidden, most probably behind the curtain or arras at the back of the Globe stage, as were the spirits who accompany Ariel.
The use of music toportray and reveal character in a play demands real skill and knowledge of the differing effects of music. More than most playwrights, Shakespeare excels in his use of ‘character music’. The songs in The Winter's Tale, following each other in fairly close succession, characterize Autolycus and his position in life. Without them, much of Shakespeare's dramatic ‘conceit’ is lost. They rank among his...