Shakespeare and music

Songs like 'Tom o' Bedlam,' mad-songs they were called, were very commonly sung in England in the 17th century. The tune and words of the original 'Tom a Bedlam' are to be found...

_Tucket._ Rare, only _seven_ times in six different plays. This is one of the several trumpet calls we have noticed. It seems to have been a French term, _toquet_, or _doquet_,...

For clarity, in this e-text the "fractions" have been converted to a one-line citation, e.g., _Rom._ III, v, 25 (signifying Act III, scene v, line 25). Where the original does n...

This interesting book on the Art of Dancing was published at Mâcon [Transcriber's Note: corrected from Maçon] in 1588. [The date on the title page is 1589.] The author was Jehan...

There is plenty of evidence, though more indirect in kind, that the lower classes were as enthusiastic about music as the higher. A large number of passages in contemporary auth...

"A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus, And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth." Merry and tragical! Tedious and brief! That is, hot ice, and wonderous strange snow. How shal...

Hawkins (1776) does not add much of interest to the above account of the Elizabethan dances, except (p. 704) that there is no authority for a Jigg having generally a pointed (_i...

Adrian Le Roy's book, published in Paris about 1570, says the six strings were tuned as follows--1st (minikin), C in third space, treble staff; 2nd (small mean), G on second lin...

The Carman's Whistle was a popular Elizabethan tune, and was arranged as a virginal lesson by Byrd. This arrangement can be had most readily in Litolff's publication, 'Les maîtr...

The history of Serenades is as ancient as that of Songs. In the middle of the 15th century, Sebastian Brant, a lawyer, wrote in Dutch his 'Stultifera Navis,' or 'Ship of Fools,'...

Quibbles, verbal, on musical terms, 4, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 32, 36, 39, 40, 43, 44, 51, 53, 60, 76, 87, 88, 89, 93, 99, 103, 104, 120, 121, 122, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 135,...