Category: Essays

28 March 2016

“We’ll Strive to Please You Every Day”: Music and its Implications in Twelfth Night

From the first line of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will, the importance of music is introduced. As in any production, music is integral in setting the scene, and this play features it abundantly. Music begins the play as well as concludes it, and there are several songs inserted into the dialogue in the middle. The songs of this play work in several ways. Different characters’ varied reactions and amount of involvement in the music help the audience interpret their characterization.… Read the rest

22 February 2016

Musical Relationships in the Broadway Theatre

Two years ago, I saw Les Misérables on Broadway with a friend and we sat in the very front row. Reading Christopher Small’s Musicking; The Meanings of Performing and Listening led me to ponder this performance. There were a few discrepancies between the connections that occur between people during a performance as described in Small’s book versus what I experienced at the Broadway musical. Looking back, I thought about distinct relationships that took place within the theatre during that performance: the relationship between the space and the audience, the relationship between members of the audience, the relationship between the audience and the performers, and the relationship between everyone in the theatre and the music.… Read the rest

… Read the rest