A New Sonnets to Music Collection

~ duane ~ 3 Comments

I’m a fan of using music to teach and memorize Shakespeare. I think long time readers know that.  My kids learned Sonnet 18 because David Gilmour’s rendition was my ringtone.  Heck, I learned Sonnet 29 because of the way Rufus Wainwright sings it.

A new collection is coming out next week, this one by Thomas Magnussen & Bjørn Palmqvist.  Here’s a video sample of one of them (no idea which one :)) doing Sonnet 18.

Their interpretation is clearly more in the “spoken word” category, with music underneath.  In all honesty it’s not my cup of tea – I think that it’s the matching of words to the rhythm of the music that helps with learning and memorization.  But they did write me and ask if I could help get the word out about their new album, and I’ve always said that Shakespeare is for everyone so don’t let me stop you!

Good luck with your effort, gentlemen!

This year’s Shakespeare Day Celebration is sponsored in part by Shakespeare Is Universal: Shakespeare truly is for everyone, and nothing demonstrates that sentiment better than his most famous quote of all, translated here into languages from around the world.   In celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday, show that you believe his works are just as relevant, powerful and important as they’ve ever been!

Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

Why have I just heard of this now?

While cruising some “Shakespeare quotes” pages I noticed a citation to this work dropped in there amid Venus and Adonis, the sonnets and the plays just like it was no big deal.  Stuck out like a sore thumb!

The wiki seems to have the truth of it — people lump the whole collection under Shakespeare’s name, but in reality it’s a collection of sonnets from other sources and authors.  Shakespeare’s contribution comes from Love’s Labour’s Lost, while Marlowe’s is “The Passionate Pilgrim To His Love.”

Is there more to this?  Should I pay more attention?  Or does this about sum it up?

This year’s Shakespeare Day Celebration is sponsored in part by Shakespeare Is Universal: Shakespeare truly is for everyone, and nothing demonstrates that sentiment better than his most famous quote of all, translated here into languages from around the world.   In celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday, show that you believe his works are just as relevant, powerful and important as they’ve ever been!

Romeo & Juliet Trailer

~ duane ~ 3 Comments

Let’s talk about the new trailer that was released for Julian Fellowes’ adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, starring Hailee Steinfeld (which we first reported back in 2011).

First of all, as far as trailers go, I really liked it.  I think it’s paced well, I think the soundtrack is excellent, and I think it does a good job of capturing what your typical audience knows of the “greatest love story ever told.” Special note of attention to Paul Giamatti as Friar Laurence at 2:00, by the way.

Now, let’s talk about the Shakespeare.  This is not a true interpretation of the original source. Fellowes has gone off on his own in some places (and I’m not always sure how far or how frequently). I’m pretty sure Tybalt never said, “Romeo! Come settle with me, boy!”  Nor did Romeo say something about “I have murdered my tomorrow.”   Is all the dialogue Fellowes’ creation, and not Shakespeare’s?  Not necessarily.  The trailer also has Juliet’s “cut him out in little stars” speech, which appears to stray not too far from the original (although it is acted pretty poorly).

What do we think? Are you going to be in line for this one?  It feels like it’s going in the same bucket as the 1996 Romeo+Juliet did – namely, you either hate it as an interpretation of Shakespeare, or you love it for its attempt to bring Shakespeare to a modern young audience in the way that their receptive to.  Personally I’m for that.  If a movie like this comes out, and I hear random people talking about Shakespeare because of it?  That’s a win.

“Shakespeare” by Jaden Smith

~ duane ~ 3 Comments

Truthfully this story has little to nothing to do with Shakespeare, but it was all over the headlines recently so I feel obliged to at least open up the discussion.

Jaden Smith, son of Will Smith (both of whom starred in The Pursuit of Happyness) has released a new music video for his song, Shakespeare.  Your first thoughts are probably the same as mine – what’s this got to do with Shakespeare? Is there Shakespeare material in this?   Go check it out, I’ll wait.

Ok, did you watch?  I’ll be honest, I got about 19 seconds into it before I tried to give up.  “The truth is Jaden Smith is probably the coolest making these jokers lose it”? Is that what he said?  Are those supposed to be rhymes?  The complete lack of facial expression or attempt at annunciation made me just completely bail out.

But then I decided to give it another chance.  I don’t have to like it to experience it.  Maybe I’m just not the audience.  I still want to figure out what it’s got to do with Shakespeare.  So I kept going.

He appears to call himself the “reincarnation of Shakespeare” at about 2:20 or so.  The best I can figure that’s the only Shakespeare connection.  Other than that the song appears to be about the wonderful life of being Will Smith’s kid (*), travelling the world while surrounded by beautiful women.

(*) Or maybe it’s supposed to be that everybody loves him and wants to hang on him because of his mad rap skillz.  But it’s probably the Smith thing.

I did give it a chance.  I still don’t like it.  It’s not that I don’t like this style of music – my regular playlist is loaded up with Eminem.  I just don’t like Jaden Smith’s offering here.  Other than his ability to speak very fast while slurring all of his words together, I don’t see what it brings to the table.  The beat is redundant, the rhymes are weak, and the lyrics are just a variation on “I got hoes in different area codes.”

Oh my god …. maybe he’s the reincarnation of Edward de Vere?

 

Synetic Shakespeare

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

Imagine Shakespeare without the words.

That looks like one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.  And it also gets to the theme of universality in Shakespeare’s works.  Someone who is familiar with The Tempest will recognize everything that happens in the clip – oh there’s Stefano and Trinculo! Oh, Caliban looks cool.  Yup, there’s the scene where Prospero casts a spell on Ferdinand…  But what if you haven’t read that one?  Then it’s all on the physical acting ability of the cast to convince you of the story.  Even if you “get” the story, are you any closer to Shakespeare?   Or is it now a completely new work of art?