Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-03-25


BLEW. blow. thou wintry wind,
Thou are not so unkind
AS mans ingratitude,'
tells us very clearly which way tn.
wind blows, and We know that thu
ban.shed Duke and his followers have
had reason to lose their faith in hu
manity. and that love is sometimes
I rather serious under the greenwood
tree" At the end OF the play. when
the love story has come to a happy
ending and his lands are restored Ia
the banished Duke. the song:
1T was a lover and his lass.
With a hey and q no and a hey
nonino,'
exactly fits the mood of the audi
ence. This song was published in
1000 in book Of Little Short Songs
/ to play and sing to the lutte. This
particular accompaniment Is founded
upon Thomas Aorley's own bass part,
written for the bass riol. Ii was I'M
donbtedly intended to be sung as q
duet. Note the burden of refrain de-
scribed. With a hey and q he and a
hey nonino" also 1Ding a ding, ding.
hey ding a ding, ding" When the
two pages are asked to sing. Shake.
speare introduces one of his playful
touches in music. as in the talking of
the musician, fishing for compli-
ments, very much as the lesser kind
do today. The page says, Shall we
clap into it roundty without hawking
or spiting or saying We are hoarse,
which are only the prologues to u
bad yoiSe?"
In play it is often desirable for
the audience to be; made aware Of a
situation of which the characters in
the play are supposedly kept in
ignorance. 1t would be inconsistent,
to say the least, for a character 10
tell what he does not know. Although
the people in the audience cannot be
made to know something unless they
are told, they can be made to feel it,
and to produce an emotional state,
what is SO proper as music? What
can so easily sway the heart? The
death of Desdemona would not, in It.
self be so awful as Shakespeare has
made IT. 1t tears our hearts because
We are Mortified before the scene oc-
ours. Terrible is. the sense of APP
preaching doom. In the play "Othello"
we know beforehand that the limo
cent Desdemona must die.
MY mother had maid called Bar
bara.
She was in love, and he she loved
proved mad -
And did forsake her; she had song
of willow
An, old thing twas, but it expressed
her feeling,
And she died singing it; that song
tonight
Will not go from my mind;
Sing willow, willow, willow.
Prithee HE thee, he'll come anon"
Othello has not yet come, but we
know he is coming and on what er-
rand, and when Desdemona sings the
willow song her death knocks at our
hearts. This song is most interesting:
not only because of its intrinsic.
beauty, but because it was in this.
form undoubtedly sung under Shake
speafe,s own direction. The refrain
"0h willow, willow, willow offers
another illustration of the burden.
This was derived from the old plant
Language of England, where the vii
low was an emblem of blighted affec-
ton.
midsummer Nights Dream" had It's
chief musical result in Mendelssohn,s
incidental music. As a boy Of IL he.
drought forth an overture to this play
that may be called the most dainty bit
of musical humor In his entire roper
tOire. One hears Titania and her
train and the tricks OF Puck upon
the yiolins. the braying OF Bottom In
his asinine character upon the. has
soon and his subsequent snoring
most graphically depicted, Years
afterward Mendeissohn was commits
stoned BY the King of Prussia to write
more music TO Shakespeare's text, but
the high level OF the overture could
not be attained TO order. This, ar.
ranged for eight hands, is the next
number on the program. - -
tHere follows one OF, the musical
interpretations
Another number or this music of
Mendeissohn's is imperishable. 1t has
been maliciously stated that the Mar
seillaise" and Mendelssohns Wed
ding March" have led more people
into combat than any other music in
the world and the latter was inspired
by Shakespeare's play. This has
been arranged for the piano by List.
Song to Help Dialogue.
In an opera We are accustomed to
hearing the entire play developed
through the means of songs, but ID
hear music in play for that pur-
pose is unusual. Yet Shakespeare
often employs a song to help the dia-
logue or the action in such q way that
the suggestion of the song is much
more artistic than the spoken words
would be. Imagine in a play a scene
in which the lover is to tell his lady
that he loves her. He might show
by action and spoken words that she
is the object of his devotion, but in
the play, as in real life, 1t is a very
difficult thing to do and say before an
audience without appearing ridiculous
II - l,,k,