While the plays of William Shakespeare are best known for their language and themes, the Bard also included songs and dance as elements in many of his productions, often to enhance key moments in his dramatic narrative.<\/p>\n
In fact, the two theaters where Shakespeare\u2019s plays were performed in London \u2013 The Globe and Blackfriars \u2013 each had space to accommodate the musicians who performed during productions in the playwright\u2019s lifetime.<\/p>\n
Vocal and instrumental music included in Shakespeare\u2019s plays, as well as other music he would have heard composed by his artistic contemporaries, will be part of \u201cShakespeare\u2019s Songbook,\u201d performed by the UConn Collegium Musicum on Friday, Sept. 23 at 8 p.m. in the William Benton Museum of Art, which continues its exhibition of \u201cFirst Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare\u201d through Sept. 25.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic was a relatively large part of Shakespeare\u2019s plays,\u201d says Eric Rice, head of the Department of Music and a scholar of music composed and performed before 1750 who will conduct the group of student musicians. \u201cListening to music that was most likely heard in the context of Shakespeare\u2019s plays is one of the strains of evidence we can use to establish what the plays\u2019 texts meant, both to Shakespeare and the people who saw them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rice says characters in Shakespeare\u2019s plays frequently mention popular songs and dances in dialogue, and incidental music also was included in his productions.<\/p>\n
In the comedy \u201cThe Merry Wives of Windsor,\u201d for example, the character Falstaff, who appears in several of Shakespeare\u2019s plays, makes references to \u201cGreensleeves,\u201d a popular instrumental song of the Elizabethan era. Stage direction at times points to characters doing a jig, which sometimes was the cue for \u201cKemp\u2019s Jig\u201d to be played, a piece named for its composer Will Kemp, an original member of Shakespeare\u2019s acting company who performed as Falstaff many times.<\/p>\n
The Collegium Musicum is comprised of singers and instrumentalists who perform the music of the late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods each semester using the University\u2019s collection of early instruments.<\/p>\n
For \u201cShakespeare\u2019s Songbook,\u201d the primary performers will include 25 singers and 12 instrumentalists using several instruments used during the playwright\u2019s lifetime. They include a viola da gamba, a six string bowed instrument held between the legs and played like a cello; wooden recorders; a brass instrument that is the forerunner of the trombone, known as a sackbut; a cornetto, which is a wooden lip-vibrated wind instrument with wind holes, and percussion instruments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are instruments people today don\u2019t hear as often unless they come to concerts like ours,\u201d Rice says.<\/p>\n
Songs that are specific to Shakespeare\u2019s plays will include the use of dialogue that lead to the performance of a particular song, such as \u201cThe Willow Song,\u201d which appears toward the end of \u201cOthello.\u201d At that point in the drama, Desdemona is with her attendant and is very sad. She sings the song, which was an existing popular song of the time.<\/p>\n
Other songs from the plays will include \u201cFull fathom five\u201d and \u201cWhere the bee sucks, there suck I,\u201d both by Robert Johnson, from \u201cThe Tempest;\u201d \u201cIt was a lover and his lass\u201d by Thomas Morley, from \u201cAs You Like It;\u201d and \u201cO mistress mine\u201d by William Byrd from \u201cTwelfth Night.\u201d There will also be several anonymous instrumental works performed, including \u201cGreensleeves.\u201d<\/p>\n
A highlight of the program will be \u201cSpem in alium,\u201d a 40-part vocal composition known as a motet by Thomas Tallis. During the performance, student singers will be positioned on the Balcony Gallery of the Benton Museum, high above the main exhibition gallery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an incredibly impressive piece. It\u2019s rarely performed because you need a lot of singers and performing it in the right space is critical to its success,\u201d Rice says. \u201cThe first documented performance of this piece occurred during Shakespeare\u2019s lifetime. We wanted to perform it in the Benton to celebrate the presence of the First Folio on the UConn campus, and because the Benton has this fantastic three-sided balcony it seemed like a perfect opportunity to perform it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Willow Song\u201d (Anonymous) from \u201cOthello\u201d<\/p>\n