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Sunday, August 2, 2009

Shakespeare and how to play music.

  I've always believed that literature, art, philosophy and science bring invaluable depth and meaning to our lives and our music. Today I thought I'd send you some  important teaching from our greatest English bard,  Mr.  Shakespeare himself.  In fact,  the renowned violin pedagogue Josef Gingold often had his students read these exact lines below.   The lines are from Hamlet,  as he is giving advice to those about to perform a play. It is interesting how so much of this speech can be internalized for a fine musical performance! The lines are below, but if Shakespeare's language does not come trippingly on the tongue for you,  read the text first,  then follow the link below for a "translation"  of sorts.   Then get to work making connections to your own practice!  Enjoy.

http://www.bardblog.com/trippingly-on-the-tongue/


Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the
word to the action; with this special o'erstep not
the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is
from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the
first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the
mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone,
or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful
laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the
censure of the which one must in your allowance
o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be
players that I have seen play, and heard others
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely,
that, neither having the accent of Christians nor
the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of
nature's journeymen had made men and not made them
well, they imitated humanity so abominably.


2 comments:

  1. You need more comments :)

    ~mystery biker

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah, but to have more comments, I'd need to have more followers. Ha!

    ReplyDelete