Cancionero

"Shake-speare's Musicke"

Readings from the plays and sonnets

with songs and music heard at “The Globe”

presented in costume on instruments of the period

as performed on Saturday 23rd July 2005

for the National Trust to a sell-out audience

at Smallhythe Place, Tenterden, Kent.

Twelfth Night: Act 1 Scene1

• Greensleeves to a Ground – Anon.

The Taming of the Shrew

• I cannot come every day to woo – Ballad

Cymbeline: Act 2 Scene 3

• Have I caught my heavenly jewel – Ruggiero ground

Sonnet 128

• Light o’ love – Douce Scrapbook

Romeo and Juliet: Act 4 Scene 5

• Heart’s ease - Playford

• Passamezzo Pavane (Goddesses)

Sonnet 8

• Come live with me and be my love – William Corkine

• Barley Break – William Byrd

The Merry Wives of Windsor: Act 2 Scene 1

• Greensleeves – William Ballett’s Lute Book

• My Lady Carey’s Dompe – Anon.

• Sigh no more ladies – Dallis Lute Book

Twelfth Night: Act 2 Scene 5

• O Mistress Mine – Anon.

• Hold thy peace - Ravenscroft

As You Like It: Act 5 Scene 3

• It was a lover and his lass – Thomas Morley

*** INTERVAL ***

Henry V: Act 3 Scene 7

• Nutmeg and ginger – Matthew Holmes

Sonnet 71:

• O death rock her asleep – George Boleyn

Much Ado About Nothing: Act 3 Scene 4

• The sick tune – Welde Lute Book

Twelfth Night: Act 2 Scene 4

• Come away, come away death – Mulliner Book

The Tempest: Act 3 Scene 2

• Flout’em and clout’em - Ravenscroft

Macbeth: Act 4 Scene 1

• Black Spirits – Packington’s Pound

The Merry Wives of Windsor: Act 3 Scene 3

• Fortune my foe– Dallis Lute Book

Henry V: Prologue

• Pavane de la guerre – Tielman Susato

• Pardon, Goddess of the night – Fitzwilliam Virginal Book

Hamlet: Act 3 Scene 2

• La Volta – William Byrd

Henry V: Act 3 Scene 1

• O noble England – Ballad set to Monsieur’s Almaine

Romeo and Juliet: Act 1 Scene 5

• Sellenger’s Round – Anon.

Othello: Act 3 Scene 1

• When that I was - Playford

Shakespeare’s plays have many references to music. In some cases songs were performed as part of the play and in other cases lines from popular songs were quoted. Present day filmmakers use music to help create atmosphere and to heighten emotions; Shakespeare and other skilled dramatists have employed the same techniques for centuries. The stage directions make it clear that there were musicians working at the theatre and the texts make specific references to a variety of instruments - lutes, recorders and the pipe and tabor amongst others. There are allusions which expect the audience to be familiar with the workings of a harpsichord where the strings are plucked by a quill attached to a moving part called a “jack”. The music performed this evening is either included or quoted or named in one of Shakespeare’s plays. Some of the songs are ballads which were well known at the time. Some are songs by other poets – “Have I caught my heavenly jewel” is by Sir Philip Sidney and “Come live with me” is by Christopher Marlowe. Many of the songs have survived without their tunes so this programme is heavily indebted to the research by Ross Duffin (Shakespeare’s Songbook – published by Norton in 2004). He has tracked down many of the tunes and has demonstrated that in a considerable number of cases new words were written for existing melodies.

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