Shakespeare, Music and Performance

by Bill Barclay (Editor), David Lindley (Editor)

Overview

Music has been an essential constituent of Shakespeare's plays from the sixteenth century to the present day, yet its significance has often been overlooked or underplayed in the history of Shakespearean performance. Providing a long chronological sweep, this collection of essays traces the different uses of music in the theatre and in film from the days of the first Globe and Blackfriars to contemporary, global productions. With a unique concentration on the performance aspects of the subject, the volume offers a wide range of voices, from scholars to contemporary practitioners (including an interview with the critically acclaimed composer Stephen Warbeck), and thus provides a rich exploration of this fascinating history from diverse perspectives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781316505014
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2021
Pages:	302
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Bill Barclay is the Director of Music at Shakespeare's Globe. His original scores for the Globe include Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet Globe-to-Globe, which toured 197 countries from 2014–16. He has directed or adapted concerts for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the British Film Institute, and the Tanglewood Music Center, and has lectured on Shakespeare and the Music of the Spheres on three continents. He is editor of The Plays of Jon Lipsky (with Jonah Lipsky, 2015).

David Lindley is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Leeds, where he taught in the School of English. He has published books and articles on court masques, on the scandalous history of Frances Howard, and on Thomas Campion. He edited eleven Jonson masques for the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson (2012). His study Shakespeare and Music appeared in 2006, and his substantially revised second edition of The Tempest for The New Cambridge Shakespeare was published in 2013.

Table of Contents

Introduction David Lindley and Bill Barclay; 1. Theatre bands and their music in Shakespeare's London William Lyons; 2. The many performance spaces for music at Jacobean indoor playhouses Simon Smith; 3. In practice I. Original practices and historical music in the Globe's London and Broadway productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III Claire van Kampen; 4. Ophelia's songspace: élite female musical performance and propriety on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage Paul L. Faber; 5. Jangling bells inside and outside the playhouse Katherine Hunt; 6. Music, its histories, and Shakespearean (inter-)theatricality in Beaumont's Knight of the Burning Pestle Linda Phyllis Austern; 7. Changing musical practices in the Shakespearean playhouse, 1620–42 Lucy Munro; 8. In practice II. Adapting a Restoration adaptation: The Tempest, or the Enchanted Island Elizabeth Kenny; 9. The reception and re-use of Thomas Arne's Shakespeare songs of 1740/1 John Cunningham; 10. Processing with Shakespeare on the eighteenth-century London stage Michael Burden; 11. The music for Henry V in Victorian productions by Kean and Calvert Val Brodie; 12. In practice III. Listening to the pictures: an interview with composer Stephen Warbeck Bill Barclay; 13. Film, music and Shakespeare: Walton and Shostakovich Peter Holland; 14. Music in contemporary Shakespearean cinema Ramona Wray; 15. The politics of popular music in contemporary Shakespearean performance Adam Hansen; 16. In practice IV. 'Sounds like': making music on Shakespeare's stage today Jon Trenchard and Carol Chillington Rutter; 17. Music in the 2012 Globe-to-Globe Festival Bill Barclay; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'The book is well edited and presented; it will be a valuable addition to the library of anyone interested in Shakespeare, music and performance.' The Consort Early Music Journal

'The volume is a notable achievement in opening up new ways of appreciating the 'pleasure and creative advantage' offered by music in Shakespeare’s plays throughout the centuries.' Russell Jackson, Shakespeare Survey

From the Publisher