Shakespeare's Music example essay topic

William Shakespeare, who was recognized as one of literature's greatest influences, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, 1564. His baptism was held on April 23rd, but there were no records on the date of his birth, therefore his birthday was pretended to be on April 23rd, 1564. William Shakespeare was the third of eight children to be born of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. William had composed 154 sonnets and written 37 plays through which he added about 1,500 words to the English language, some of which are still used by modern humans nowadays. For instance; cold-blooded, employer, to gossip, to misquote, and worthless. In 1599 Shakespeare paid the acting company a particular amount of money which made 12.5 percent of the cost of building the Globe Theater.

The Globe Theatre, in the Southwark district of London, was the venue at which the best known stage works were first produced. History says that Shakespeare made elaborate plans of where should he place the music in his plays. Shakespeare believed that the music would attract audiences? senses and fall into their imaginations. Music added more life into the plays. It helped in the dramatic purpose in the production. For instance, an example from an internet source, the script for Macbeth calls for many musical attributes: singing, dancing, drums, trumpet fanfares, woodwinds, and bell chiming.

The music gallery was placed on the third level specifically over the upper curtain stage in the Globe Theater. Shakespeare's music could be? divided into 4 main categories? : stage music, magic music, character music, and atmospheric music. The stage music consists of music cued by occasional announcements or actions on the stage. Some examples would be trumpets playing loudly at a battle or background music at a banquet. Magic music comes together with the feelings of love, dreaming, or phenomenal events. For instance, in a Midsummer's Night Dream, the fairies sing a beautiful soothing lullaby for the character Titania's to go to sleep.

Character music shows every detail in personality of the character it portrays. This kind of music could make you understand the characteristics that wont be able to be showed on stage. Just like a character Ophelia in the play Hamlet, who's craziness is unleashed through her voice in songs. Of all the four types of music, Atmospheric is the most complicated. It describes the emotions of the play; love, anger, hate, jealousy and a violent mood.

These music categories were one of many reasons Shakespeare's plays were so successful. They explained Shakespeare's beliefs about music and what a big role it represents in the plays. This kind of music helps the audience with understanding the concept of the play. During the late middle ages and Renaissance period, the instruments were setting a mood for particular scenes like love, hate etc. These are the instruments that were used In Shakespeare's plays: the viol, the lute, the recorder, the bagpipe, the virginal, the cornet, tabor and fife, and the Hautboy. The viol is one of the stringed instruments which were very popular during 16th century.

It has a particularly the same form as violin but larger, has 6 strings, and the neck furnished with frets for stopping the strings. (web) The lute is a plucked instrument having a pear-shaped body and a neck with a fretted fingerboard that is usually bent. Usually the lute accompanied a singer of a serenade, and lute players used their own form of musical notation called "tablature". The recorder attainted popularity through its sweet tone, usually portrayed in plays as a nightingale. The recorder belongs to the flute family, the recorder has a mouthpiece similar to a flageolet. The Bagpipe is a musical wind instrument, now used chiefly in the Highlands of Scotland. It usually referred to in the texts of Shakespeare's plays.

The bagpipe has flexible bag inflated either by a tube with valves or by bellows, a double-reed melody pipe, and from one to four drone pipes. The virginals, named after the Virgin Queen Elizabeth, has a rectangular form, like the small piano. The virginal comes from a keyboard family. The cornet is a wind instrument of the trumpet class, having three valves operated by pistons. It is a type of horn, the cornet had a cup-like mouth piece like the trumpet, with six holes on one side for the fingers, and one hole on the opposite side for the thumb. Tabor and fife is a small, high-pitched hand drum that is paired up with fife in a performance.

It's similar to a piccolo. The hautboy is a wind instrument, sounded through a reed. it's similar in shape to the clarinet, but with a thinner tone. The works of Shakespeare were expanding during the 19th century. Romantic composers like Berlioz and Tchaikovsky were influenced by Shakespeare's wonderful works. An english poet who's intelligent works are considered to be the greatest in English literature. William Shakespeare, this name will never be forgotten.