Music in the
plays of William Shakespeare includes both music incidental to the plot, as song and dance, and also additional supplied both by Shakespeare's own company and subsequent performers.[1] This music is distinct from musical settings of
Shakespeare's sonnets by later composers.
Music in Shakespeare's own theatre productions
Songs as text within the plays
The following are among the most notable examples of songs in Shakespeare's plays:
Attempts at reconstructing and performing the "original" songs from the plays and related folk songs have been recorded by various musicians, from
Shakespeare Songs by
Alfred Deller (1967), to the recordings of
Philip Pickett.
References
^David Lindley, Shakespeare and Music (2014) 1408143666 "Focusing throughout on the plays as theatrical performances, this work analyzes the ways Shakespeare explores and exploits the conflicting perceptions of music at the time and its dramatic and thematic potential."