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Come Away, Death (Shakespeare: Twelfth Night)
My latest original composition for one of Shakespeare’s songs! I hope you enjoy it! The lyrics to this song come from Act II, scene iv, of Twelfth Night (1602). Duke Orsino and Cesario are suffering from unrequited love and ask Feste to sing this song to ease their pain. Shakespeare’s plays include many songs and dances, but these are often excerpted in modern productions (which is something I hope to help change :)). Very few of the original melodies survive, and some of my past work has been to compose music for the lyrics Shakespeare provided, which I really enjoy doing! If you’re planning an upcoming Shakespeare production and are…
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Shakespeare Musical Preshow
Today’s #WeeklyWednesday is a throwback to one of the most fun productions I’ve been a part of ? I hope you enjoy this excerpt from the musical pre-show I designed for Coronado Playhouse‘s production of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”! My talented fellow performers and dear friends are Renee Ulloa-McDonald, Carly Pandza, and Danielle Orner (Gallagher) ? ? The songs featured here are: 0:06 “Sumer is icumen in,” a mid-13th century round, written in the Wessex dialect of Middle English. 0:49 “Fair Phyllis,” an English madrigal by John Farmer, published in 1599. 2:11 “Now Is the Month of Maying,” an English ballett (similar to a madrigal) by Thomas Morley, published…
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Composing a new Shakespeare song!
For today’s #WeeklyWednesday, I decided to show you a new song I’m working on composing and recording! I hope you enjoy hearing it and a bit about the process of writing music for Shakespeare’s plays, which I really enjoy doing! I play it twice, at 1:03 and 7:12. This is my fourth or fifth version of “Come Away, Death” from Twelfth Night. You can hear bits of two others below – one of them is kind of a fugue-ish embellishment on this melody: The goal for this new version is to come up with a simple melody that would be singable for most people; the other two versions I’ve written…
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It Was a Lover and His Lass
Today’s #WeeklyWednesday is a #Renaissance piece by Thomas Morley that was likely composed for the original production of Shakespeare’s comedy “As You Like It.” Two pages sing “It Was a Lover and His Lass” for Touchstone in Act 5, Scene 3. Shakespeare’s plays included a number of songs, but little information about the music used in his productions has survived. Some pieces were popular songs from the period (particularly the dances mentioned), others had lyrics written by Shakespeare set to an existing melody, and some tunes were likely original for each play. Referencing Ross W. Duffin’s excellent book on the topic (p. 221-223 of Shakespeare’s Songbook), this song is likely…
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Pardon, Goddess of the Night
Today’s #WeeklyWednesday is my arrangement of Patrick Doyle’s lovely contemporary composition for Shakespeare’s lyrics from Act 5, Scene 3, of Much Ado About Nothing. I composed a tag for the ending, as Doyle’s version does not include the final lines of the text. In the original work, this song is performed by Claudio, but in our production at the Coronado Playhouse, music was performed by Beatrice (Danielle Orner), Margaret (Renee Ulloa-McDonald), and Ursula (me ?). This is one of the many songs in Shakespeare’s plays for which no original music survives (for excellent reading on this topic, check out Shakespeare’s Songbook by Ross W. Duffin. This song is discussed and…
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O Sweet Oliver
Today’s #WeeklyWednesday is a #Renaissance piece from Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It. The character Touchstone sings “O Sweet Oliver” in Act 3, Scene 3. Shakespeare’s plays included a number of songs, but little information about the music used in his productions has survived. Some pieces were popular songs from the period (particularly the dances mentioned), others had lyrics written by Shakespeare set to an existing melody (though the name of the melody often was not included), and some tunes were likely original for each play. When Shakespeare used a popular song, it often communicated an additional meaning – a joke or common reference that period audiences would have well-understood…
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Julius Caesar excerpts!
I’ve often recorded duets with myself, so why not a whole scene? ? I wanted to share something from the (very abridged) production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that my #NYU grad acting class performed this past semester (“Teeny Tiny Caesar”) – so for today’s #WeeklyWednesday, I’m bringing you a couple of excerpts! It was a lot of fun to work on this together (and to take a ‘stab’ at a Shakespearean tragedy), especially under the instruction/direction of the very talented and clever Jessica Bashline! If you’re in NYC and looking for coaching, I’d highly recommend her! In our production, I played Decius Brutus, a conspirator who convinces Caesar to come…
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Shakespeare: Queen Margaret
from Henry VI, Part III ~ Act 1, Scene 1 Today’s #WeeklyWednesday comes straight out of the #NYU Acting Lab! We’re working on Shakespeare this semester and I’m loving it! We’ve only coached these twice (and just performed them today), but I thought I’d show you my progress so far. I really love this monologue! From Henry VI, Part III, this is Queen Margaret’s first monologue (Act 1, Scene 1). It’s 1455, and England is in the bloodbath of the War of the Roses, with rival families vying for power (King Henry VI, House of Lancaster, versus Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York). Recovering from the loss of a battle, King…
