Then Let the Trumpets Sound
Words were not the only theatrical reality. There was much music. The little group of musicians in the balcony, no more than six or seven, would have included a trumpeter, a drummer, as well as players of horns, recorders and lutes. There have been reports of actors playing instruments and the players certainly performed songs and ballads on stage. Certain plays were probably closer to musicals than dramas. Music was associated on stage with sleep and healing, love and death. It was used as a prelude to supernatural visitation and accompanied the numerous dances that were required in Shakespearean drama.
Many of the lyrics of the songs in Shakespeare’s plays were written by the dramatist himself and there is evidence in his later life of collaboration with such skilled musicians such as Thomas Morley and Robert Johnson. Morley had been his neighbour in Bishopsgate and was also part of the circle around the Countess of Pembroke. It was Morley who wrote the musical setting for one of Shakespeare’s most famous songs, “It was a lover and his lass.”
Robert Johnson was related to Emilia Lanier who through her influence had him indentured to Sir George Carey and collaborated extensively with Shakespeare in the music of the late plays. He is largely remembered for two songs from The Tempest. It is telling that when Shakespeare does import songs from other sources, however, he generally chooses the popular ballad material of sixteenth-century England. These were the ballads he had heard in childhood.
It is clear that Shakespeare had a technical knowledge of music and musical term. This was an almost commonplace skill in the period, where music-making was an indispensable aspect of social life. He possessed a sensitive ear and despised discord in all its forms, even though his pays thrive on a kind of harmonious discord. His characters frequently burst into song, among them, unlikely vocalists such as Hamlet and Iago, and there are endless references in his plays to the power and sweetness of music. It can be argued that Shakespeare was the first English dramatist to make song an integral part of the drama and thus be seen as the begetter of musical theatre. It has been said that England was once “a nest of singing birds,” and it was a matter of particular comment among foreign visitors that music was closely woven within London stage performances.
Towards the end of Shakespeare’s career, the “outdoor” playhouses were being replaced by “indoor” theatres. In those quitter surroundings, there was music between the recently introduced “acts” and there was often a musical performance before the play actually began. Conditions at the Globe, in the open air and in front of a larger and more restive audience, were not helpful to such refined entertainment.
The stage itself was full of noises. Plays were accompanied by the simulated sounds of horses’ hooves and birdsong, of bells and cannons. Voices offstage would have amplified war scenes with cries of “Kill, kill, kill” Loud shouts, shrieks and general clamour. The sound of pebbles in a drum could counterfeit the sea, and a piece of canvas tied to a wheel would mimic the wind.
Lighting was another source of stage effects. Torches or tapers were used to signify night. There were certain scenes where supernumeraries would come upon the stage carrying candles as an indication of a night-time banquet or meeting. On occasions, lights were placed being bottles of coloured water to provide sinister or supernatural illumination. In the late sixteenth century the stage was the centre of public enchantment.
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