Shakespeare
in Three
Genres
I think these genres helped me understand how many different genres are incorporated in each other. That meaning, especially in theatre, how collaborative the art form is with other art forms. The show is dependent on the music to give the show a sound, and the type of music that the production uses with bring different meaning to the text and evoke a different emotion from the audience depending on the genre. The advertisements need to lure the audience in and give them a visual representation of the show in one image. And finally, showing the similarities and differences between the contemporary song and the Elizabethan song helps to show how different Shakespeare’s text can be interpreted musically and how much music has changed since he wrote his text. I was challenged in a different way than I was writing my papers. In my papers, I was just challenged in how to express my analysis and research through writing. This project challenged me to show how much research I’ve done and show my analysis on my research artistically. I don’t listen to popular music, so it was interesting making myself listen to the “Top 100” playlist on Spotify and analyzing what was popular. I assumed that artists would use the easiest of the chord progressions: I-IV-V-I, maybe throw in a V7. I assumed that because based on music theory, this is guaranteed to sound good and not have any musical errors. It was interesting to find out that an artist who I expected to follow that pattern in fact wrote her most popular song in a completely different chord progression than what’s popular and “easy”. This in turn challenged me because I didn’t know what melody would sound good with the chords she used. She also used all seventh chords which interested me because it gave the song a little bit of a jazzy feel. I think that’s what popular music is leaning towards now. The poster challenged me because I did not know how to make a poster nor how to make it look good. I tried my best to make it clear and combine the looks of popular music albums with Broadway show posters. The chart allowed me to articulate what I discovered musically about both the Elizabethan song and the contemporary song. This then helped me better write my song.
I decided to write a song, inspired by a popular song. Therefore, I decided to take inspiration from Ariana Grande’s song “Thank u, next…”, because of its intense and immediate popularity. I analyzed the composition of the song to try and find how to create this sound in Shakespeare’s lyrics of “Come Away Death”. Her song is interesting in the fact that the chord progressions are unusual but she uses the same four chords in the same order throughout the entire song. Typically, a song starts on the tonic chord, which is what the key starts in. But she starts on the IV7 chord then goes to the iii7 chord followed by vi7 chord and then finally ending on the I7. She completely breaks from the traditional music theory chord progression which is interesting and adds a different vibe to her sound. Therefore, I took those chord progressions and used it in my song. I slowed it down a little bit, because Shakespeare’s lyrics are more somber than empowering. The last section, however, I decided to break away from that to emphasize those lyrics. I also noticed that a lot of the contemporary rhythms emphasized the off beats (syncopation), so I tried to incorporate that in my songs.
Project 3
"Come Away
Death"
This is pretty self-explanatory. Here I have a side by side comparison of my version of “Come Away Death” that was inspired by “Thank u…Next” by Ariana Grande, to an Elizabethan version of the same song. This chart highlights the progression of music and music theory from Shakespeare’s time to modern day. Modern music now experiments with different chord progressions, adding a lot of 7th chords rather than just having the standard diatonic chords. However, it just sticks with chords and does not incorporate accompaniment. Often, the different chord progressions muddle the sound of the song and confused a trained ear. Modern music allows artist flexibility with the melody, often allowing them to incorporate riffs and different variations of the melody. The Elizabethan voice utilizes classical vocal technique that eliminates “breathiness” and sounds full with the usage of space and vibrato. The contemporary voice, however, has an emphasis on the “talkiness” of the text, therefore using more breath and almost speaking the lyrics. Also, the rhythms have simplified as time has gone on. Now, to emphasize important words, modern artists will have a lot of short notes followed by one long note on the most important word. This highlights what is important about each phrase. In the Elizabethan version, often time signatures were changed thus complicating the rhythm.
Modern vs.
Elizabethan
This is pretty self-explanatory. Here I have a side by side comparison of my version of “Come Away Death” that was inspired by “Thank u…Next” by Ariana Grande, to an Elizabethan version of the same song. This chart highlights the progression of music and music theory from Shakespeare’s time to modern day. Modern music now experiments with different chord progressions, adding a lot of 7th chords rather than just having the standard diatonic chords. However, it just sticks with chords and does not incorporate accompaniment. Often, the different chord progressions muddle the sound of the song and confused a trained ear. Modern music allows artist flexibility with the melody, often allowing them to incorporate riffs and different variations of the melody. The Elizabethan voice utilizes classical vocal technique that eliminates “breathiness” and sounds full with the usage of space and vibrato. The contemporary voice, however, has an emphasis on the “talkiness” of the text, therefore using more breath and almost speaking the lyrics. Also, the rhythms have simplified as time has gone on. Now, to emphasize important words, modern artists will have a lot of short notes followed by one long note on the most important word. This highlights what is important about each phrase. In the Elizabethan version, often time signatures were changed thus complicating the rhythm.
Here, I have a poster for the show that incorporates today’s popular music. I studied some albums of popular music today and I found that often, the album covers include the artist’s picture front and center as well as a handful of graphics. Broadway, nowadays, relies on the name of a big star in their show to draw in box office appeal, so I chose to have Margot Robbie star as Viola and have her picture in the front to sell the show. So, poster making skills limited, I attempted to incorporate both of those aspects of music albums and Broadway show advertisement. With the show being about Viola pretending to be a guy, I added the transparent male and female figurines on Margot Robbie’s photo to display that duality of both of her characters as Viola and Cesario, her male alter ego. I added the line down the middle in inspiration of Mulan with the sword dividing her face in half. I also embodied the duality of her two characters through the mustache and lipstick in the title. I felt that having those aspects found middle ground between Broadway advertisements and popular music albums.
Twelfth Night
Starring
Margot Robbie
