Shakespeare′s Songbook - Hardcover

Duffin, Ross W

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393058891 ISBN 13: 9780393058895

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004

Synopsis

Winner of the Claude V. Palisca Award of the American Musicological Society Shakespeare lovers have long lamented that so few songs in his plays survive with original music; of about sixty song lyrics, only a handful have come down to us with musical settings. For over 150 years, scholars have aspired-without success-to fill that gap. In Shakespeare's Songbook, Ross W. Duffin does just that. Eight years in the making, Shakespeare's Songbook is a meticulously researched collection of 155 songs-ballads and narratives, drinking songs, love songs, and rounds-that appear in, are quoted in, or alluded to in Shakespeare's plays. Drawing substantially on the unmatched resources of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Duffin brings complete lyrics (many newly recovered) and music notation together for the first time, and in the process sheds new light on Shakespeare's dramatic art. With performances by leading early-music singers and instrumentalists, the accompanying audio CD brings the songbook to life. Shakespeare's Songbook is the perfect gift for lovers of Shakespeare and an invaluable reference for singers, actors, directors, and scholars.

About this title

Review:

A wonderfully concise and informative guide to the songs and ballads. . . . The first complete collection.

Synopsis:

Shakespeare lovers lament that so few songs in his plays survive with original music; of about sixty song lyrics, only a handful have come down to us with musical settings. For over 150 years, scholars have aspired-without success-to fill that gap. Shakespeare's Songbook does just that. Eight years in the making, Shakespeare's Songbook is a meticulously researched collection of 160 songs-ballads and narratives, drinking songs, love songs and rounds-that appear in, are quoted in or alluded to in Shakespeare's plays. Drawing on the unmatched resources of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Ross W. Duffin brings complete lyrics (many newly recovered) and music notation together for the first time, shedding new light on Shakespeare's dramatic art. With performances by leading early-music singers and instrumentalists, the CD brings the songbook to life. With a Forward by Stephen Orgel, the J.E. Reynolds Professor in Humanities at Stanford University.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0393058891
• ISBN 13: 9780393058895
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 528