Shakespeare and Music (PDF)

This is a study of the rich and diverse range of musical responses
to Shakespeare that have taken place from the seventeenth century
onwards. Written from a literary perspective, the book explores the
many genres and contexts in which Shakespeare and his work have
enjoyed a musical afterlife discussing opera, ballet, and classical
symphony alongside musicals and film soundtracks, as well as folk
music and hip-hop traditions.

Taking as its starting point ideas of creativity and
improvisation stemming from early modern baroque practices and the
more recent example of twentieth-century jazz adaptation, this
volume explores the many ways in which Shakespeares plays and poems
have been re-worked by musical composers. It also places these
cultural productions in their own historical moment and
context.

Adaptation studies is a fast emerging field of scholarship and
as a contribution to this field, Shakespeare and Music: Afterlives
and Borrowings:

* * develops theories and practices from adaptation studies to
think about musical responses to Shakespeare across the
centuries

* * brings together in an exciting intellectual encounter ideas and
methodologies deriving from literary criticism, theatre history,
film studies, and musicology

* * explores music in its widest context, looking at classical
symphonies including the work of Berlioz and Elgar and operas by
Verdi and Britten as well as Broadway musicals, film scores by
Shostakovich, Walton, and contemporary performers, and the jazz
adaptations of Duke Ellington and others.

This is a timely study that will appeal to a wide readership
from lovers of Shakespeare and classical music through to students
of film and historians of the theatre.