Songs from Shakespeare

New Zealand Listener, Volume 23, Issue 583, 25 August 1950, Page 8

Songs from Shakespeare

[UNDERSTANDABLY enough, songs in Shakespeare’s works have always appealed to English composers, and since the 16th Century a great many settings for them have been composed. Probably Shakespeare wrote many of his songs to music which was popular» at the time, but most of his performing manuscripts and music were lost when the Globe Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1613. As a result there are only e@ few cases in which there is any certainty about the original music. : Listeners to 1YC will hear some of these original settings contrasted with those of a later date, in two programmes called Music to Shakespeare’s Songs.

The first will be broadcast at 9.0 p.m. on Wednesday, August 30, and the second on the following Wednesday at the same time. Both programmes have been prepared in the Auckland recording studios. of the NZBS, and will later be heard from other national stations. The narrators ‘are Lawrence Hepworth and Peter Gwynne, Harry Davis

(violin), June Taylor (’cello), and Kathleen Harris (piano) provide the music, while the singers are Douglas Stock (baritone) and Sybil McKinney (contralto). Short excerpts from the plays themselves have been used so that the songs appear in their right context. These are read by Joe Allen, Ernest Blair, Cynthia Dale and William Austin. Songs to be heard in the first programme include "The Willow Song" from Othello, "O Mistress Mine" from Tweltth Night, and "Take, O Take Those Lips Away," from Measure for Measure. In the second programme listeners will hear "Lawn as White as Driven

Snow," from The Winter’s Tale, "Where the Bee Sucks" and "Full Fathom Five" from The Tempest. Of these, "Take, O Take Those Lips Away" and "Lawn as White as Driven Snow" are subject to some doubts; though they were performed in Shakespeare’s lifetime they have been attributed to Dr. John Wilson by some, and by others to Robert Johnson.