Music in Shakespeare: A Dictionary

523 Pages·2005·1.32 MB·English

by  Christopher R. Willson

Music in Shakespeare:
A Dictionary
CHRISTOPHER R. WILSON
MICHELA CALORE
Thoemmes
Music in Shakespeare
ATHLONE SHAKESPEARE DICTIONARY SERIES
Series Editor
Sandra Clark (Birkbeck College, University of London)
MusicinShakespeare Christopher R. Wilson &
Michela Calore
Shakespeare’sReligiousLanguage R. Chris Hassel, Jr
Shakespeare’sLegalLanguage B. J. Sokol & Mary Sokol
Shakespeare’s Military Language Charles Edelman
Shakespeare’sBooks Stuart Gillespie
Shakespeare’sTheatre Hugh Macrae Richmond
Shakespeare’sNon-StandardEnglish N. F. Blake
ATHLONE SHAKESPEARE DICTIONARY SERIES
Music in Shakespeare
A Dictionary
CHRISTOPHER R. WILSON & MICHELA CALORE
Thoemmes Continuum
The Tower Building 15 East 26th Street
11 York Road New York
London SE1 7NX NY 10010
www.continuumbooks.com
© Christopher R. Wilson and Michela Calore 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
ISBN: 0–8264–7846–8 (hardback)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilson, Christopher R., 1952–
Music in Shakespeare : a dictionary / Christopher R. Wilson and Michela Calore.
p. cm.—(Athlone Shakespeare dictionary series)
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 0–8264–7846–8
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Knowledge—Music—Dictionaries.
2. Music and literature—History—16th century—Dictionaries. 3. Music and
literature—History—17th century—Dictionaries. 4. Music in literature—History—
17th century—Dictionaries. 4. Music in literature—Dictionaries. I. Calore,
Michela. II. Title. Series.
PR3034.W55 2005
822.3′3—dc22
2005051430
Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Contents
Series Editor’s Preface vii
Preface (including acknowledgements) viii
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
A–Z 9
Bibliography 477
Index 505
v
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Series Editor’s Preface
The Athlone Shakespeare Dictionaries aim to provide the student of
Shakespeare with a series of authoritative guides to the principal
subject areas covered by the plays and poems. They are produced by
scholars who are experts both on Shakespeare and on the topic of the
individual dictionary, based on the most recent scholarship, succinctly
written and accessibly presented. They offer readers a self-contained
body of information on the topic under discussion, its occurrence and
significance in Shakespeare’s works, and its contemporary meanings.
The topics are all vital ones for understanding the plays and poems;
they have been selected for their importance in illuminating aspects of
Shakespeare’s writings where an informed understanding of the range
of Shakespeare’s usage, and of the contemporary literary, historical
and cultural issues involved, will add to the reader’s appreciation of his
work. Because of the diversity of the topics covered in the series, indi-
vidual dictionaries may vary in emphasis and approach, but the aim and
basic format of the entries remain the same from volume to volume.
Sandra Clark
Birkbeck College
University of London
vii
Preface
The Elizabethans seem as reluctant to commit themselves to a definition
of music as modern-day commentators are. It was only in the most
recent edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001)
that ‘music’ appeared as a dictionary term. Previous editions, like many
specialist music dictionaries, had not thought it necessary to include it
‘on the assumption that no definition is needed, or perhaps because
none would be totally satisfactory’ (vol. 17, p.431). New Grove dis-
tinguished between language dictionary definitions of ‘music’ and the
place the term has in musicology. Language dictionaries concentrate on
either a broad-ranging definition, attempting ‘to specify all salient traits
of music’ using ‘Western music in the fine art tradition’ as the basic
model, ‘seeing music principally as a series of sounds and ... composi-
tions’ (vol. 17, p.426). Musical activity was seen primarily as com-
position whose art lay in ‘combining sounds’. Musicology has sought to
locate music in composition, performance and cultural contexts. Its
meaning has changed, developed, varied from age to age and from
country to country. Musicologists have provided ‘a bewildering set of
definitions’ (vol. 17, p.431).
For the Elizabethans, music was either a performing art, or com-
position, or a philosophical concept, or all three. In his laudatory verse,
‘In Musicam Thomae Tallisii, et Guiliemi Birdi’ in Cantiones ... Sacrae
(1575), Richard Mulcaster, for example, alludes to all three elements
whilst defending the pedagogical qualities of music. He refers to the
power of music and its basis in mathematical science in his opening
words: ‘Quanti sit precii res Musica, quamque regendis / Insanis animi
motibus apta, docent ...’ (‘How precious a thing is Music, and how
appropriate for governing the mad passions of the mind, is revealed by
those who teach that numbers are the foundation of everything having
form, and that music is formed from these’, The Byrd Edition, 1977,
vol. 1, p.xxvi, ed. Craig Monson). He reminds his reader that for a
healthy and sound human ‘exercise should maintain the body and sober
music govern the mind’. The Queen herself, he continues, not only
viii
Preface
takes pleasure in hearing music, she also delights in practising music –
‘she sings and plays excellently’. He rejoices in the fact the English
composers, namely Tallis and Byrd, may now rival the distinguished
composers of ‘other nations’ and that their reputation will spread
abroad.
Shakespeare’s use of music depends on the contemporary significa-
tion of music, the Elizabethan understanding of trumpet signals, differ-
ent meanings of bells ringing, knowledge of the Orpheus myth, the
opposition between stringed instruments and pipes, ‘haut’ versus ‘bas’
and many other symbolic musics. Where appropriate, discussion of the
Elizabethan usage of a musical term is dealt with under that term. For
wider ranging accounts of music in Elizabethan England, see David
Wulstan’s Tudor Music (1985), Iain Fenlon (ed.), The Renaissance (1989),
David Price’sPatrons and Musicians of the English Renaissance (1981), Bruce
Pattison’sMusic and Poetry of the English Renaissance (2nd edn, 1970), Peter
Holman’sFour and Twenty Fiddlers (1993) and Walter Woodfill’sMusicians
in English Society (1953, reprint 1969).
Music in Shakespeare: A Dictionary includes terms which an Elizabethan
and Jacobean commentator would quickly recognize. Many are unique
to the Elizabethan age and are no longer in use as musical terms. Others,
such as ‘ordnance’, ‘noise’, ‘thunder’, might puzzle some because they
do not appear to be connected with music. But the dictionary aims to
include any term which could have a musical meaning or relevance in
the broadest sense of the word, either created sound or ‘the combin-
ation of sounds’ relating to the human world, which includes, for
example, the songs of birds. It is not restricted to terms of Western art
music. If it were, ‘trumpet’, ‘horn’, ‘drum’ and many other musical
instruments which were not art-music instruments until the seventeenth
century would be excluded. On the other hand, this is not a dictionary
of vocal songs, ballads, instrumental music or other music that is
intended to be performed in the plays. Where the name of a ballad (e.g.
‘Greensleeves’) is found as a term, it is there because it occurs in the
body of the text of a play and has symbolic reference.
Each entry is divided into three sections. The first (A) explains the
meaning of the term in music; the second (B) discusses its signification
in specific Shakespeare locations; the third (C) offers selected biblio-
graphical references. The entries are not intended to be comprehensive.
Some terms occur only once in the Shakespeare canon in a musical
sense (e.g. ‘degree’, ‘pavan’); others are numerous (‘music’ is found in
ix