Music in The Tempest Dance Theatre Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Thempest. October, 2007, McLennan College Theatre, Waco, Texas

Music and sounds. Meaning of the SOUND of the SEA Music in The Tempest Music and sounds. Meaning of the SOUND of the SEA Prevalence of HEARING rather than SIGHT Physical quality which defines the island Voices of nature, people, and noises of the island MUSIC is linked to the concept of DRAMA. It doesn’t represent a moral conflict, but underlines the movement and rhythm of life Forecast of development of the plot Opposition between MUSIC and TEMPEST Perpetual methamorphosis of life and reality A means of communication without words Tool of action and structure of the play Only Connect ... New Directions

Only Connect ... New Directions Music in The Tempest An excerpt from The Tempest 1. Nature In nature, there is an element of fury and an element of tenderness Act I, Scene 2 Re-enter ARIEL, invisible, playing and singing; FERDINAND, son of the King of Naples, follows him ARIEL SONG Come unto this yellow sands, And then take hands: Courtsied when you have and kiss’d 380 The wild waves whist: Foot it featly here and there, And sweet spirites bear The burthen. Hark hark! Preciousness, elegance of nature rhyme Personification of waves as wild beasts Only Connect ... New Directions

Only Connect ... New Directions Music in The Tempest 2. Sounds of animals These are expressed by onomatopoeias or the corresponding verbs. [BURTHEN DISPERSEDLY] Bow – bow. ARIEL 385 The watch dogs bark. [BURTHEN DIPERSEDLY] Bow – bow. Hark Hark! I hear The strain of strutting chanticleer Cry [BURTHEN DIPERSEDLY] Cock a diddle dow. Only Connect ... New Directions

Only Connect ... New Directions Music in The Tempest 3. Music In the play, concrete and abstract elements coexist FERDINAND Where should this music be? i’ th’ air or the ‘arth? It sounds no more: and, sure it waits upon Some god o’ th’ island. Sitting on a bank, Weeping again the King my father’s wrack, This music crept by me upon the waters, 395 Allaying both their fury and my passion With its sweet air: thence I have follow’d it, Or it hath drawn me rather. But ‘tis gone. No, it begins again. Music is a mystery: it is not easy to identify where it comes from Music as the sound of the sea. Physical reality which defines the island It’s not the man who decides but the music which drives him Only Connect ... New Directions

Only Connect ... New Directions Music in The Tempest 4. Change Nothing dies but turns into natural elements that represent magnificence ARIEL SONG 400 Full fadom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change 405 Into something reach and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: BURTHEN: Ding-Dong ARIEL Hark! Now I hear them, - Ding-Dong, bell. Symbols of metamorphosis Perpetual change; life begins once more after death The adjectives reflect Alonso’s personality and social status. Link to reality and the passage of time. Theatre as the mirror of life. Only Connect ... New Directions

Only Connect ... New Directions Music in The Tempest 5. Mystery Music, as symbol of remembrance, surrounds the characters, creating a mysterious atmosphere personification FERDINAND 410 The ditty does remember my drown’d father. This is no mortal business, nor no sound That the earth owes. I hear it now above me. The memory of the past, of what happened after the shipwreck Something unidentified Only Connect ... New Directions