After Robert Armin joined the Chamberlain's Men, singing in
Shakespeare's dramas catapulted from 1.25 songs and 9.95 lines of
singing per play to 3.44 songs and 29.75 lines of singing, a
virtually unnoticed phenomenon. In addition, many of the songs
became seemingly improvisatory-similar to Armin's personal style as
an author and solo comedian. In order to study Armin's
collaborative impact, this interdisciplinary book investigates the
songs that have Renaissance music that could have been heard on
Shakespeare's stage. They occur in some of Shakespeare's most
famous plays, including Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night,
Hamlet, and The Tempest. In fact, Shakespeare's plays, as we have
them, are not complete. They are missing the music that could have
accompanied the plays' songs. Significantly, Renaissance vocal
music, far beyond just providing entertainment, was believed to
alter the bodies and souls of both performers and auditors to agree
with its characteristics, directly inciting passions from love to
melancholy. By collaborating with early modern music editor and
performing artist Lawrence Lipnik, Catherine Henze is able to
provide new performance editions of seventeen songs, including
spoken interruptions and cuts and rearrangement of the music to
accommodate the dramatist's words. Next, Henze analyzes the
complete songs, words and music, according to Renaissance literary
and music primary sources, and applies the new information to
interpretations of characters and scenes, frequently challenging
commonly held literary assessments. The book is organized according
to Armin's involvement with the plays, before, during, and after
the comic actor joined Shakespeare's company. It offers readers the
tools to interpret not only these songs, but also vocal music in
dramas by other Renaissance playwrights. Moreover, Robert Armin and
Shakespeare's Performed Songs, written with non-specialized
terminology, provides a gateway to new areas of research and
interpretation in an increasingly significant interdisciplinary
field for all interested in Shakespeare and early modern drama.
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