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

4. 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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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