From the inside jacket - Shakespeare lovers have long lamented that so few songs in his plays survive with original music; of about sixty song lyrics, only a handful exist in musical settings. For over 150 years, scholars have aspired - without success - to fill that gap. In Shakespeare's Songbook, Ross W. Duffin does just that.
Eight years in the making, Shakespeare's Songbook contains 160 songs - ballads and narratives, drinking songs, love songs, and rounds - that appear in, are quoted in, or alluded to in Shakespeare's plays. Drawing substantially on the unmatched resources of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Duffin brings complete lyrics (many newly recovered) and music notation together for the first time.
Included with the book is an accompanying audio CD containing 81 tracks. From Feste's words in Twelfth Night, to the fairies' lullaby in "You Spotted Snakes" in A Midsummer Night's Dream the performances give listeners unprecedented entry into the songs that Shakespeare's audiences actually heard.
With music from Shakespeare's plays including lyrics and melodies this is a great book for a musician, director, sound designer, or someone who simply loves music of the era.
*Because of the enclosed CD, this book is not returnable if the seal over the CD is broken. | |
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