Contextualisation and problem statement
“All sounds, all colours, all forms, either because of their pre-ordained energies or because of long association, evoke indefinable and yet precise emotions, or, as I prefer to think, call down among us certain disembodied powers, whose footsteps over our hearts we call emotions; and when sound, and colour, and form are in a musical relation, a beautiful relation to one another, they become as it were one sound, one colour, one form and evoke an emotion that is made out of their distinct evocations and yet is one emotion. The same relation exists between all portions of every work of art, whether it be an epic or a song…” (Masson, 1953:219; Yeats, 1900)
Why does Shakespeare’s poetry grasp hold of our hearts? What makes his language musical and so appeal to our deepest emotions? Does the musical nature of the language have an emotional impact on the reader and is there a correlation between the musical impact of song lyrics and sonnets?
The universal appeal of Shakespeare’s sonnets has been an intriguing aspect of critical enquiry over the past centuries. Various analyses have been done on his poetry to determine the metrical properties, syntactical elements and imagery that appeal to all generations. I will not endeavour to do another analysis along these lines, but I would like to determine the relationship between Shakespeare’s sonnets and certain musical lyrics in order to determine the musicality inherent in the former. Why are his sonnets so pleasing to the ear? What do the sounds convey that make us want to listen to them over and over again? Might there not be a suggestion of musicality in the very language used, an association with musical sound and rhythm? C.M. Bowra argues, according to Winn, “that poetry is in its beginnings intimately welded with music” (Winn, 1981:1). This is the idea which underlies all the investigations in this study.
Music had a special place during the age of Shakespeare, in the Renaissance period: “Music was commonplace on all levels of Elizabethan society” (Budd, 1976:4). Music was therefore naturally interwoven with drama and poetry. “Under the influence of the Renaissance, in the second half of the sixteenth century dramatic songs became more poetic in manner and in feeling” (Moore, 1929:166). Poetry and music became virtually inseparable, the one influencing the other. Dowland, being one of the most prominent composers of Shakespeare’s era, wrote many lute songs, which had a profound influence on Shakespeare’s works. Dowland’s early lute songs were in turn “influenced by a variety of musical and poetic forms”, indicating the extent to which music and poetry were interfused (Brown, 1968:25).
It is therefore not surprising that Shakespeare’s poetry and drama are interwoven and infused with musical elements and structure. Even before Shakespearean drama, song was a “recognized and popular device for entertaining spectators at plays. It made little difference whether the songs contributed directly to the atmosphere or action of the plays; they were provided, among other bits of entertainment, to amuse audiences” (Wright, 1927:262). Music has thus played an important role in drama and poetry of various kinds. Shakespeare’s drama is no exception. “The designated songs in Shakespeare’s plays are clearly designed for sung performance in terms of their metrical form” (Ingham, 1972:223). Musical imagery “adorns every play and a significant number of poems by Shakespeare” (Wilson, 2011:1). In this study certain Shakespearean songs will be analysed to determine their prosodic characteristics with relation to music.
In a study of the prosody of songs and poetry, sound plays an important role in the relationship to music. It is therefore important that a proper study of the different theories and studies already done be investigated. Various studies have been conducted on the relationship between sound and music with regards to language and poetry. Music and language have been seen to be interrelated for decades; when “music is based on words, and words have different rhythmic properties in the languages under study, then it would be no surprise if musical rhythm reflected linguistic rhythm” (Patel & Daniele, 2003:42). “Musicality seems to be the most salient – if not the distinctive – property of poetry” (Tsur, 1992:52).
Because sound plays an important role in the musical appreciation of poetry, it is therefore a crucial part of this study. According to Perloff & Dworkin there has been large-scale indifference with regards to the current discourse of sound in poetry (Perloff & Dworkin, 2009:2). Thus, it is important that we look closely at the sounds in poetry in order to identify its relationship with music, to see whether it contains musical characteristics. Sound is perhaps, of all topics, the most closely connected with poetic feeling, “not only because it comprehends within its widely extended sphere, the influence of music, so powerful over the passions and affections of our nature; but because there is in poetry itself, a cadence – a perceptible harmony, which delights the ear while the eye remains unaffected” (Perloff & Dworkin, 2009:15). Sound portrays emotions, feelings and atmosphere, which correlate closely with the sound of music, where different sounds will enhance meaning and sense. Thus “each sound has a distinct quality or character” (Shimane, 1983:51). In view of the aforementioned, “the sound should be an echo to the sense…” (Shimane, 1983:51). Sound, therefore, plays an important role in the meaning and sense of poetry where the “perfect agreement of sound and sense in rhyme chains…encouraged belief that words alike in sound naturally agree in sense, or that sound originates sense much as noise begets an echo” (Ferry, 2002:173). The interpreter will thus mobilize “the sound effects of the poetic text to reinforce his argument on the poem’s meaning” (Hrushovski, 1980:39). Thus, the “whole sound pattern is perceived as expressive of a certain ‘meaning’, tone, or mood” (Hrushovski, 1980:42).
Now that we’ve seen the importance of sound in poetry, we can endeavour to investigate the sound and rhythmic elements in the sonnets in particular, since, “today the sonnet is probably the most widely read, taught, practiced and written-about of lyric forms” (Cousins & Howarth, 2011:4). And as so aptly stated by Schoenfeldt, “Shakespeare’s sonnets, with their unequaled idiomatic language-contours (written, after all, by a master in dramatic speech who shaped that speech into what C.S. Lewis called their lyric cantabile), are preeminently utterances for us to utter as ours” (Schoenfeldt, 2010:28). The study will endeavour to see if there is any relationship between song lyrics, i.e., words deliberately set to music, and the sonnets. Furthermore, it will investigate how and to what extent there is a musical relationship between the song lyrics and the sonnets in order to come closer to the beauty of Shakespeare’s language. There is a certain musicality “inherent in Shakespeare’s sonnets, whether [through] the combination of rhythm, rhyme, assonance, alliteration and imagery that is common to much poetry, or some idiosyncratic quality residing in the specific sonnets, that are selected for musical setting” (Ingham, 1972:220). While the dissertation focuses on one sonnet in particular, a wide acquaintance with the other sonnets by Shakespeare also informs the study.
In conclusion, one can see that music and poetry are interwoven and cannot be separated. It is therefore of crucial importance to investigate to what extent Shakespeare’s sonnets are similar to musical structures or more specifically to the lyrics of Elizabethan songs. This will then open up further avenues of study to determine the extent to which the sonnets lend themselves to music, and furthermore it will open up opportunities of exploration to determine the extent of the musical nature of the language of Shakespeare. Through this study, we can maybe just touch the hem of the vast and beautiful garment of Shakespeare’s language.