Music interpretation of Shakespeare’s plays poetry in the beginning of the XX century into the solo song genre

Abstract

The purpose of this scientific article is to prove the potential of Shakespeare’s poetry „Fear no More” for giving rise to multiple interpretations in a genre of a solo song. Methods. This study is based on a historical approach, which is used to determine the types of musical genres present in Shakespeare’s plays and trace the history of setting playwright's texts by British composers. The systems approach, comparative and analytical methods are used by investigator to determine the specifics of the form and music interpretation of texts. The scientific novelty of this investigative article is determined by the fact that the comparative analysis of the songs „Fear no more the heat o’ the sun” by British composers of the beginning of the XX century R. Quilter and G. Finzi is, for the first time, carried out and described in this publication. The main target, in this case, is to link the literary component to the music of the song and confirm the possible existence of multiple interpretations of songs from Shakespeare’s plays. Conclusions. Nearly all Shakespeare's plays call for music of some kind which often bears a direct connection to the action of the play; thus is created by the characters on stage in the form of a song. These songs often transgress the boundaries of the plays becoming independent works that are combined together and published as such in separate opuses. For instance, Shakespeare’s song „Fear no More” from the play „Cymbeline” exists in more than a hundred of music versions; the most well known of which are those by R. Qulter and G. Finzi. Comparison of these interpretations proofs the great intrinsic value of Shakespeare’s texts and potential for producing its various readings, as well as the possibility of existence of these songs beyond the narrow confines of the stage action.