‘Sounds and Sweet Airs’: Music in Shakespearian Performance History

Summary

In 1887 an anonymous editorial in The Stage observed that:

The more leisurely we reflect upon the diverse effects music has upon the human mind the more certain does it seem that the addition of music to a drama which is intended to touch our stronger sentiments is the very wisest way of enhancing the powers of the drama itself.

The terminology might be distinctly Victorian, but the majority of modern Shakespearian directors also take advantage of the ‘enhancing’ power of music. In so doing they create a network of reactions and interactions between the familiar text of the play, the values and emphases of their production and the feelings of their audiences. Understanding the nature of those interactions requires attention both to the particular theatrical culture within which the music is generated, and to the wider musical understanding a diverse audience might possess, since music's indeterminate meanings are always constructed in relation to a repertoire of already familiar musical ‘languages’. Anahid Kassabian's comments on film music are equally pertinent for the theatre:

any story of identifications with films must take account of engagements between filmgoers and film scores…those engagements are conditioned by filmgoers’ relationships to a wide range of musics both within and outside of their filmgoing practices.