Introduction:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies and one of his most well-known works. It has been performed thousands of times across the globe, since it was first published in 1600. The play owes it success to a multitude of factors, one of them being the detail and depth to which Shakespeare describes and portrays the characters as well as the way in which he writes the narrative, entrancing the audience, letting the characters and their stories enthrall them. Several productions of the show have used various theatrical techniques to help create the magical world in which the characters live yet the one technique that I believe is the most significant is their use of music. In many of Shakespeare’s plays, music is used to underscore the character’s personalities such as the play Twelfth Night where the character Feste performs songs that reflects the essence of his persona. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream music is also written in for the fairies, however, the lyricism of the words also creates the same song like effect, showing how music had such a strong influence on Shakespeare’s writing. The fairy Puck in this play, is a key example of a character whose lines show this rhythmical flow which reflects the personality of the character for the reader, and also influences an actor when performing. With these musical links and the idea of this magical world created through the narrative, this is the perfect character to explore through music and transport the audience into the lives of the fairies.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Critical Responses and Recent Productions
To create a piece of music that can communicate this ethereal and otherworldly atmosphere, it is vital to explore interpretations and critical appreciations of the play (and characters), as well as analysing the writing and Shakespeare’s intentions. Many critics highlight how important the poetic style of writing is to help convey the personalities of the characters, through the language, rather than the physical characterisation, and Shakespeare even includes this in the lines of this play. Puck is very much an observer of the play and many of his speeches are directed towards the audience. He exclaims ‘What, a play toward? I’ll be an auditor’ showing his connection with the audience, as he is listening at the same time as them. Shakespeare choice of words here is highlighted by the critic Maurice Hunt who states ‘Shakespeare’s choice of the word “auditor” rather than “spectator” as a term for playgoer suggests that he valued dramatic appeals to playgoer’s ears as much (or more) than those designed for their eyes’. In her text it goes further on to explain the importance of the voice and language in the play, to help define clear characters that the audience can connect to. This text shows the importance of having a clear idea when writing music. In musical terms, the voice could be seen as a melody line, which helps to determine the main theme and idea of the music, and the language can be seen as the specific instruments used. Other critics also talk about the poetic language used in the play and how Shakespeare could make music out of language,such as D.J. Snider who compliments Shakespeare’s work saying ‘There is no work of our author that is so universal’. This comment could show how poetry and music a very closely linked, with music often being known as the universal language. These comments made by critics has really helped to show how important the language is, so the descriptions used in the speeches has also influenced the mood of the music, and helped determine the instruments used.
A source of inspiration for writing the music was also watching recent productions of the play. In June 2019, I saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre in London. This incredibly immersive production used music to set the mood and atmosphere and makes you feel like you are walking into another world when you step into the theatre. Unlike critics interpretation of the text, designer Bunny Christie has gone to great detail with the set design, including a glass cage , (I CANT WRITE ANY MORE AT THIS POINT AS I HAVE NOT SEEN THE PLAY YET AND AM GOING NEXT WEEK) – I will talk about their use of music, and also their portrayal of puck. – also not sure how to footnote this
Shakespeare and Music/ Other compositions of the play – eg Mendelssohn and Britten
There has always been a close relationship between Shakespeare and music, which can be seen in many of the plays that he has written. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play that has influenced many composers over the years, including well known composers, such as Mendelssohn and Britten. Both of these composers wrote works which are incredibly well known today, and have been used in various productions of the play.
Felix Mendelssohn wrote a concert overture in E major, based on the play, in 1826, and later went on to write incidental music for the rest of the play, four years before he died in 1847. His incidental music also included sections where music interjects between lines on speech, such as the section with the fairies, where a repeated leitmotif is played between every other line. These works of music became one of Mendelssohn’s most successful and well known, and many critics have praised him saying that it is the ‘greatest marvel of early maturity that the world has ever seen in music’. There are many things that inspired Mendelssohn’s composition, as well as the play itself, such as the Victorian perception of the fairy. Critic Mariane Wilson Kimber states that ‘Victorian fairies, from the nude supernatural creatures cavorting in fairy paintings to the diaphanously gowned dancers treading lightly on the boards of the stage, were typically women.’ These Victorian stereotypes has affected Mendelssohn’s music, and the piece is often regarded as feminine, with fast, semiquaver scalic movements, creating a sense of lightness and flow and ‘lends the fairies airiness’. (THERE IS ANOTHER CRITICAL TEXT THAT I AM YET TO ANALYSE SO MORE WILL BE ADDED IN THIS SECTION)
Another major work, based off A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is the work of Benjamin Britten,
Character analysis
For my project I have decided to focus on the character Puck from this play. Personally this character has always stuck out for me as he is one of the biggest catalysts that pushes the story forward. Puck