UT Dallas: Shakespeare in Song

Introduction
The performers for the UTD Chamber Singers performed the event, Shakespeare in Song on the Saturday, March 27th at 8 pm at the Jonsson Performance Hall. Shakespeare in Song is a concept where different plays of Shakespeare are performed with a combination of Opera and Dialogue. These plays do not contain complete stories rather parts of various stories by Shakespeare. The group used to rehearse on campus at UT Dallas’s Arts and Humanities Building where they have their own room.

Music
According to the director of the event she mentions that the plays that where performed during that day originated from three different sources. One of them being the authentic songs by Shakespeare, the solo songs had been composed by a British composer Roger Quilter, and the choral arrangements for the plays were composed by Julliard graduate Matthew Harris. Even though the various songs had different composer they all had a Shakespearean flavor and element of 17th century music. The lyrics of the songs where sung in Old English, which was mainly used during the time period of Shakespeare. All the songs in the play either had a very happy mood or a dull mood to it. When the music wanted to express a happy mood the rhythm of the song was faster whilst for a sad song the piano had a very slow and melodic rhythm. The choral arrangements during the play were done in a way that two different groups would sing the same phrase but at different timings. The melody in the two groups would start of initially and then would be joined by another group and together they would finish the phrase together. This difference in timing of the two groups provided an echo effect and made each line stand out more due to the repetition. These groups were divided into four main categories: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. Each of these divisions would sing in response to another group in a different pitch level to distinguish the groups. Some of the songs consist of solo performances with the accompaniment of the piano. The piano gave different ready marks during the performance to indicate that he was ready, if it was a group song he would play one note and for a solo performance would play the introduction without any indication he is ready. The solo performers used a lot of vibrato to provide expressions to the song by varying the hand gestures and facial expressions. Usually all the songs in the performance ended on a very low pitch and long note.

Performers
On the stage, there were the UT Dallas Chamber Singers, the pianist and the director. The singers on the stage were a bunch of UT Dallas students that had signed up for this class. The names of the pianist and the director are Michael Mc Vay and Kathryn Evans respectively. To bring forward the time frame during which it is set, all the personal on stage were dressed in costumes that fit that time period. The singers followed the director to guide them through the song, since she can indicate changes that needs to be done during the songs by hand gestures such as pitch changes, tempo, and keeps beat for the singers. The pianist also follows the director since she has the freedom to such the tempo at her discretion. Since piano is the only instrument on stage it often starts the song before the singers join in. In between the various songs there were dialogues between different characters such that the audience gets background knowledge of the performance. This technique used by the cast helped them transition from one story to another.

Audience
Since the play I attended took place during a Saturday night the audience was very limited, at most there would have been about 30 people in the hall at any given point. From the present audience consists mostly of students from various music classed taking notes, families of the performers, and a few Shakespeare in song listeners. Surprisingly no one tried to clap in between the various songs until the director bowed down to thank you for listening. One thing I noticed was that entire audience was surprised to find out that one of the singers was actually blind. Once she had finished her solo performance people started to cheer and clap loudly to show their appreciation for what a beautiful performance she had done.

Time and Space
Due to the lack of audience the mood was very dull. Most of the students were just there such that they can take notes and the families were just there to provide support. Since there were no real music lover there was absence of energy from the audience. Due to the size of the hall the audiences were able to visually see the singer from a near distance. To help the audience keep track of the song currently being played there were power point slide shows that showed the title of the song and a picture related to the song.

Conclusion
The Shakespeare in Song event helped spread the works of Shakespeare. To provide the audience with a realistic feeling of what would have been present during Shakespeare’s time they used a combination of Old English and costumes to showcase a 17th century play in today’s world.


Works Cited:

• Shakespeare in Song. Dir. Director Kathryn Evans. Perf.
UTD Chamber Singers. University of Texas atDallas,
Jonsson Performance Hall, Richardson, 27 Mar. 2010.

• Program notes. Shakespeare in Song. Mar. 27. Richardson,
University of Texas at Dallas Jonsson Performance Hall.