(CM204: 11 cues) Perhaps the best-known attempt to reconstruct the music of Act I scene v played at the Capulet ball and banquet into which the masquers intruded occurred on the 1968 film soundtrack (Verona Productions) of the play with The London Early Music Consort directed by David Munrow (directed by Zeffirelli). pGP ii 170 suggests the use of instruments: trumpets, cornetti and drums. GPc v 72-3 suggests a recorder consort which Paris brings to the wedding, perhaps playing off stage as a ‘tragically ironic accompaniment to the lamenting at Juliet’s bedside. The recorders could play for the dance at Capulet’s house, but a consort of viols is perhaps likelier here, for there is dialogue throughout the music.’ John Stevens (SM34) points out ‘it would seem likely that a *broken consort of lute, rebec, pipe and tabor would have m et the play’s needs’.
Brissenden notes how Shakespeare emphasises the divine quality of Romeo and Juliet’s love by his use of dance as a prelude and a background to its revelation and how the allusions to dancing no longer occur after the first death (Mercutio’s) (BR64). Auden summarises the status of musicians as portrayed in IV iv ‘whose lives mean nothing to Capulets; they are things which make music: the lives of the Capulets mean nothing to the musicians; they are things which pay money.’ (ALd 512)
| act | scene | line | Click here to find out more about suggested song | |
| Prologue | 0 | (B211/252) 3 trumpet blasts | ||
| I | iv | 9-19 | [let them measure us by what they will, We’ll measure them a *measure, and be gone./ Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling…./ Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance./ Not I, believe me, You have dancing shoes with nimble soles; I have a soul of lead… I cannot move…Which of you all Will now deny to dance?] | |
| 115 | [Strike, drum]. They march about the stage. (B252) a lively *courante at front of stage | |||
| v | 0, 15 | {Musicians waiting}; Enter {Musicians}…at another door, the masquers | ||
| 25-{130} | [Come musicians, play. Music plays, and the masquers…dance. | 272 | ||
| B253 describes the scene and steps. BR *pavane (S218 broken consort plays a pavan; LH40-1: broken or viol consort with tambourine or small drum). B253 violins and guitars + 1-2 recorders perhaps. GPs ii 37=c iv 73=d ii 328 recorders, or more likely, viols | ||||
| a) LH40: ALISON bcM1: The *quadro-pavan (*passamezzo moderno) l/t (BO 19v-20r 57}/ lute/k LU15; ۞BaW13/۞St9;; 2 lutes LR30 | ||||
| b) C316-7: rSATB + g / (B252): English coranto: kF201/Fc2; gFd10; 2gFe 1; kDF134 (+ steps)/ NE iii; rSA Fb3; rS + k HU7 | ||||
| c) (B253): 1581 passamezzo pavan DF133-5 (+ steps); N196; 2 lutes LR49 | ||||
| d) N194-6 1611 BULL [passamezzo] pavan (*cinquepace) ‘St Thomas Wake’; kMB ixx 126a | ||||
| e) ۞BroS30 My Lord of Essex measure | (105b) | |||
| 26 | [A hall, A hall! Give room, and foot it, girls.] | |||
| 31 | [… For you and I are past our dancing days] | |||
| 33 | [how long is’t now since last yourself and I were in a masque?/ By’r Lady, thirty years./ …five and twenty years; and then we masqued.] | |||
| 49 | [The *measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand,] | |||
| 54-5 | […dares the slave come hither, covered with an *antic face.] | |||
| 83 | {A dance ends} | |||
| {87} | {The music plays again, and the guests dance} [i.e. the galliard?] | 273 | ||
| a) LH41: 1599 ALISON Galliard to the Pavan (272a above); bcM2; rSATB ET5 2 lutes LR31 | ||||
| b) N194-6: 1613 attrib. BULL galliard to [passamezzo] pavan (cinquepace) ‘St Thomas Wake’ (272d above); kF36/ MB ixx 126b | ||||
| 93-109 | […This holy shrine…/Good pilgrim,..] DO422-4 ‘Walsingham’ tune and words; | 274 | ||
| as lute song ۞DO i 64 | ||||
| 126 | Exeunt…masquers, musicians…begin to leave | |||
| 131 | [What’s he…that would not dance?] | |||
| 142-3 | [A rhyme i learnt even now Of one I danced withal] | |||
| Prologue II 0 | 0 | (B252) 3 trumpet blasts | ||
| II | i | 13-14 | [Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim When *King Cophetua loved the Beggar maid] reference to old ballad whose music is lost. | (141) 275 |
| DO235-240 (10 verses) set to ‘The Old Almain’ | (320b) | |||
| 209-211 | [It is my soul that calls upon my name: How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night, Like softest music to attending ears!] | |||
| iii | 19-21 | [He fights as you sing *prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion. He rests his minim rests: one, two, and the third in your bosom] | ||
| 125-130 | [6]. [sings] An old hare hoare (unaccompanied burst of song) … | 276 | ||
| a) LH41: 1610 ‘Up tails all’ (refrain) RE47 iii;‘A Toye’ PI 72/ PI6/ E99/ Eb 102/ SB479/ C196/ CW149/ SC iii 3/ SCt v 3; ۞HeP6/ ۞OH2; kFARNABY F242/ MB xxiv 48; ۞ChF9; viols and continuo ۞DeE12; especially opening 4 bars; note, the source [GB-Cu D. d. 9.33 f77v] lute PO 6, appears to be a variant. | ||||
| b) uLH44: ‘King Solomon’ tune | (350a) | |||
| c) B253: (DY23, p. 91) Stanes morris CW243-7/ C125-6; tune RE34 ii; 46 ii/ E89 much altered; Eb97/ SC ii 9/ SCt iv 9/ MK229/ PE28; rSS/AA Ec13; ۞BroL18/ ۞BroS9/ ۞Gt21/ ۞Wn10; rS HO 32; DH13, 65, steps 64, ۞DH no 18; cornett, sackbut, rAT b-curtal ۞YM 14. 1610 COBBOLD ‘Stanes morris’ from the quodlibet of popular tunes of the time ‘New Fashions’ S+tr-v A+a-v T+t/b-v B+t/b-viols MB lxxi 22 bars 242-6; SE iii ; ۞Mh2 i; ۞Tv 2 v | ||||
| d) uCM205 adapted from ‘In Pescod time’ + rSATB | (55a) | |||
| e) uDO284-5 set to ‘Come o’er the burn. Welde lute book. Melody and words ۞DO ii 46 | (135c) | |||
| f) uDO284 set to ‘The Hunt’s up’ (‘O sweet Oliver’) (Thysius lute book.) ۞DO i 49 | (18) | |||
| 133-4 | [Farewell, ancient lady. Farewell] {sings} (refrain) ‘Lady, lady, lady’ | (cf 350) | ||
| iv | 23 | [thou shamest the music of sweet news By playing it to me with so sour a face.] | ||
| v | 26-29 | [Sweeten with thy breath This neighbour air, and let rich music’s tongue Unfold the imagined happiness that both receive] | ||
| III | i | 44-48 | [Mercutio, thou consort’st with Romeo./ ‘Consort’? What, dost thou make us minstrels? An thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords{Touching his rapier} Here’s my fiddlestick; here’s that shall make you dance. Zounds—‘Consort’! | |
| 74-78 | [Tybalt, you rat catcher, come, will you walk?] DO326-9 ‘There was a rat-catcher’ set to ‘Tom a Bedlam’ | (130c) 277 | ||
| ii | 37-39 | [Ah, WELL-A-DAY! He’s dead…] DO429-32 melody and text | (36) 278 | |
| v | 2-5 | [It was the nightingale, and not the lark. That pierced the fear-full hollow of thine ear. Nightly she sings on yon pom’granate tree. Believe me, love, it was the nightingale./ It was the lark, the herald of the morn, No nightingale.] | ||
| 21-34 | [Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat The vaulty heaven so high above our heads/…It is the lark that sings so out of tune, Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps. (cf N&27-8, 179-180). Some say the lark makes sweet *division; This doth not so, for she divideth us. Some say the lark and loathèd toad changed eyes. O, now I would they had changed voices, too, Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, Hunting thee hence with *hunts-up to the day.] cf IV iv 23 below | |||
| 60-62 | [O *fortune, fortune, all men call thee fickle… Be fickle, fortune…] Juliet speaks words which echo a haunting Elizabethan air (Rowse 176 suggests that Juliet may have sung a version of it to herself after Romeo had gone) | (115b) 279 | ||
| IV | iii | 57 | entr’acte LH47-8 music continues off stage between the scenes and through the clamorous lamenting until | |
| iv | {0} | {Play Music.} N&72: *Hunt’s up: or any rousing morning song (aubade) | (1) 280 | |
| 4 | [The curfew bell hath rung] | |||
| 21-22 | [The County will be here with music straight, For so he said he would]. | |||
| Music plays within. [I hear him near.] GPs ii 37=c iv 74=d ii 328 recorders N&72, 185-6/ LH45-8/ K49 (B254): 1537 Hunt’s up tune in 6/4 time; tune and words DO205-6 (cf tune in 6/4 time used for ‘O Sweet Oliver’ C60); ۞DO ii 28 | (18) | |||
| 59 | Enter…with Musicians. | |||
| 113-5 | [Our instruments to melancholy bells,… Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change] | |||
| 124 | [Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.] | |||
| (102-146) | includes much ironic musical punning and banter between Peter and the musicians with their ‘improvised’ names (v 133, 135, 140) Simon Catling, Hugh Rebeck and James Soundpost – related to stringed instruments (see N124) | |||
| 128-141 | [Musicians, O, musicians!, ‘HEART’S EASE’, ‘Heart’s ease’: O, an you will have me live, play ‘Heart’s ease.’/ Why ‘Heart’s ease’?/ O, musicians, because my heart itself plays ‘My heart is full of woe’; O, play me some merry *dump to comfort me./ Not a *dump, we; ’Tis no time to play now./ You will not then?/ No./ I will then give it to you soundly…I will give you the minstrel] | 281 | ||
| a) C209-210/ CW97-8/RE42 viii; k or 3vn + pf+vc N p. x, xi, 1: (CHf44 lute alman in duple time: 26 bars) ۞Ph33; b-v DN11; ۞Lg6; rS/AS/T + k DP i 9; arr. lute by Takheuchi ۞Sf9; HOLBORNE ‘The Honiesuckle’ à 5 H60/ H1048/ MB ix 68; rSSATB RC i 46; ۞BreW16/ ۞BroL 14/ ۞CamS6/ ۞CwM12/ ۞DoP19/ ۞Ec22/ ۞FA ii 1/ ۞FH2/ ۞Ge 18 i/ ۞Go 1:1/ ۞HsT20/ ۞MgO 27/ ۞Pb28/ ۞Sf9/ ۞To 1/ ۞YC26:2; rSSATB RC i 46; rSAATB Hp4; rSS + g Hl 1; rS/A+S/T+ k DP ii 9; rSATB + g CM 351-6; bq Hs 1; à 4 Hg 16; ۞Bw3; l/tk HB43 as Almain no 1/ JE8; cittern HC1; tune N xi-x; tune and steps DI iv 18; as lute song ‘Complain my lute’ ۞DO i 32; DO189 melody and words | ||||
| b) note also the ‘rhythmic dance tune’ in triple time E55/ Eb38/ SB187/ C210/ CW98-9/ Mo-S181; VH5; RE42 viii/ K96/ SC iv 5/ Di iv 18/ MoS 181/ VH5; à 4 CM351-6/ kSCt vii 5/ SMI 68-9; DH1 57, steps 56, ۞BroJ 1 ii/ ۞DH 14/ ۞EnG 18 i; steps NE iii ; rS+k MG5; rSA/T SR6; rSSA + pe Ek 13; rSATB TD35/ ND iv 18; rSSA Ez3; ۞BroS22/ ۞EnH 18 i | ||||
| c) attrib. ASTON ‘Queen Maries *Dumpe’ lute (RAf51; BA2, p.4-5) WM i 49 | ||||
| 144-6 | [I will carry no crotchets: I’ll re you, I’ll fa you. Do you note me?/ An you re us, and fa us, you note us]. | |||
| 152-4 | {Sings} WHEN GRIPING GRIEF…doleful *dumps…music with her silver sound– | 282 | ||
| Sweet music hath a salve therefore.. c1550 [Gooch 14193] N&72, 124, 126, 187 (SATB) / S119-20 in 7 sources / St 11/ SMI71-2/ CM206 (unacc.) anon. setting of the poem attributed to Richard Edwards ‘In praise of Music’ + 3 viols Rooley Penguin book of early music 24; CM343-4 + rSATB; kMB i (108v): 113/ MB1s; 113; ۞CamS7/ ۞DeC 10/ ۞DeS8/ ۞Ge3/ ۞Lg7; rA + g MB l d 10; see note in ME164-5. Melody and the 4 verses of the poem DO 444-5; as lute song ۞DO i 71/ ۞KjE 1/ ۞Ph31; gRZ ii 6; with piano N3-4 | ||||
| 155-6 | [Why ‘silver sound’, why ‘music with her silver sound’?…/…because silver hath a sweet sound./…I say ‘silver sound,’ because musicians sound for silver./…you are the singer; I will say for you. It is ‘music with her silver sound’ because musicians have no gold for sounding.] | |||
| 167-8 | {Sings} Then music with her silver sound With speedy help doth lend redress. | (282) | ||
| iii | 186 | (B252) ceremonial flourish |