IN SHAKESPEARE'S DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 40, 16 February 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

IN SHAKESPEARE'S DAY.

MUSIC OF THE TIME.

DRAMATIST AS CRITIC.

HIS MUSICAL PHILOSOPHY.

(By R.H.)

To notice a statement in one's casual reading that Shakespeare frequently referred to music is not to learn anything tew. But to meet the statement that only one who loved and. '"thoroughly understood" the scientific side of music, could make reference to it with such unerring accuracy is to have the attention arrested. What, one wonders, was 'he musical condition of the England Shakespeare knew; what opportunities did his everyday contact with his fellows offer for the development of musical knowledge?

Writing of Elizabethan airs, C. M. Crabtree remarks that they constitute perhaps the most extraordinary phenomenon in music, the art suddenly springing with a full maturity. Six] hundred or more eongs, all composed' within about sixteen yeans, by several different composers, all of almost equal excellence, and with wide-ranging variety; that is the musical flowering of the remarkable period that produced so much of which England has cause to be proud, the Elizabethan era. Queen Elizabeth herself was an excellent performer on the virginal, a keyboard instrument named for her, "the Virgin Queen." One who could not play or sing, read music at sight, or improvise parte, either vocally or on some instrument, was considered an illiterate. Although the English masters of the Elizabethan period did not employ orchestral combinations, there was a great deal of concerted music. The Queen always had music with her meals, her orchestra consisting of "twelve trumpets and two kettle-drums, with fifes, side-drums and cornets. 0 Every gentleman's house was equipped with what was called "a consort of instruments" consisting of either all viols, in various sizes, or viols, virginal, flutes and lutes. Rogues and Sturdy Beggars.

On these instruments, the host and his friends were wont to play for their evening's entertainment. It is remarkable, but true, that every barber shop was similarly equipped, so that customers could play while waiting their turn. But while music was held in considerable esteem, the professional musician was of little account. A law of the time promised strict punishment to all minstrels wandering abroad, classing them as "rogues, vagabonds, and eturdv beggars." There seems, indeed, to have been at one time so much music made by "unprofitable pipers and fiddlers," that it was declared a public nuisance. The singing of rounds or "catches" was very popular with the frequenters of the taverns. Among the higher classes, catches developed into canonical singing, often of an intricate nature. The singing on madrigals was also enjoyed by many of te young people of the day. With England musically in this condition, when seemingly all classes, high or low, were to some extent active performers, it is not surprising that Shakespeare, the finest flower of England's finest period, should frequently show not only interest, but also deep knowledge, --'vj?:. ...v .;-;;-. '\.'' .-.--*..,. "Tax Not So Ead a Voice."

Including both his plays and his poems, Shakespeare refers to things musical about two hundred times, often displaying a keen critical faculty, as this from "Two Gentlemen of Verona." "The music likes yon not." '""You mistake; the musician likes me not." And again, "Tax not so bad a voice, to slander music any more than once."

A modern critic at his nasty best could hardly better that! Bottom, in "Midsummer Night's Dream," is surely permitted to yearn for the jazz age of three centuries later, when he says, "I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have the tongs and the bones." Here is truth indeed, "How sour is sweet music, when tune is broke, and no proportion kept." In Hamlet, Shakespeare appears to have foretold present-day conditions, "Come, some music! Come, the recorders," until one remembers that the "recorder" of Shakespeare's day was a musical instrument quite unrelated to the gramophone. One of the many popular airs of the time was, "GreenSleeves," which was both song and dance in one, a bright affair. Shakespeare makes Mistress Ford say of Falstaffs letters: "I would have sworn his disposition would have gone to the truth of his words; but they do no more adhere and keep place together than the Hundredth Psalm to the tune of 'GreenSleeves.' " Another of the popular airs Shakespeare mentions in "Romeo and Juliet," "Oh, an' you will have me live, play "Heart's ease.'" Here's gentle rebuke, "The general so likes your music, that he desires you, for love's sake, to make no more noise with it."

But in "The Merchant of Venice," the bard puts into the mouth of Lorenzo, a whole philosophy that leads finally to a very well-known quotation; so well known, indeed, that it may be worth while to include it in its context. Here will we sit. and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears; soft stillness end the night. Become rhc touches of sweet harmoiir. There's not the sma!:- t orb which thou beloltlest. But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed eherubims : Such harmony is in immortal souls; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it— . . . Jessica: I am never merry when I hear sweet music. Lorenzo : The reason is your spirits are attentive: For do but note a wild and w.vnton herd I Or any air of music touch their ears. Fetching mad bounds, bellowing, and iiei?hing loud. i Which is the hot condition of their Mood : J If they but hear perchance a trumpet J sound. Of any air of music touch their ears, You shall perceive them make a mutual staucJ, Their saiage eyes turned to i modest gaLe By the sw»-et power of aiusic. Therefore the poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods; Since nought so stockish. hard, full of rage. But music for the time doth change his nature : The man that hath no music in himself. Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds. Is fit for treasons, statagems and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night And his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted." The Elizabethan era is associated with thoughts of greatness on the high 'seas, adventurers faring forth and laying foundations of vast Empire, and of < high literary accomplishment. What is far less often appreciated is ; that it was also a time of really great 1 musical development, that prepared the ; way for the climax of English musical ; art in the genius of Henry Purcell the 1 following century. i