Music in Caroline plays
Abstract
This thesis is the first comprehensive study
dedicated to music in Caroline plays. The drama of the
Caroline period marked the end of the great
'Elizabethan' theatrical tradition. Unfortunately, this
has resulted in the Caroline theatre and Caroline plays
being virtually subsumed into the Elizabethan and
Jacobean. The music in the plays, which has received
little critical attention, has never been studied as a
body in its own right. Moreover, a relation between
Caroline, Elizabethan and Jacobean traditions has nearly
always been assumed; to such an extent that the
traditions have largely been treated as identical. Those
few commentators who have bothered to consider changes
in musical practice have been influenced by
preconceptions resulting from an erroneous historical
perspective; and this has led them to a general
undervaluing of Caroline theatre music. The issue of the
music in the plays constitutes a notable omission from
the recent important studies of Caroline drama and
theatre, and a detailed examination and revaluation is
long overdue.
I set out to do a more thorough survey than has
hitherto been attempted. In particular, this is the
first study to be based on a survey of all 260 new plays
dating from 1625 to 1642 of which texts survive, and on
extensive research into musical sources and
transcription of a large number of pieces of music. This
work has provided a substantial amount of new material.
There are some significant findings and conclusions, and
I demonstrate that the music in Caroline plays merits
neither the neglect nor the cavalier dismissal which it
has received in the past.
I begin by discussing the composers and performers of
theatre music and the location of the latter. Next I look at evidence of the types of music in Caroline
plays: song, instrumental music and dance. I then go on
to discuss the uses of music in the plays, referring
where possible to surviving music (a neglected issue)
and discussing it in dramatic context. I give special
emphasis to instrumental music and dance, which have
previously been given little attention, and I take a
more theatrical approach in my analysis of the uses than
has been pursued in the past. I deal first with music
integral to the plot and emotionally supportive music;
then with technically supportive music, music included
purely to amuse the audience and music as structural
articulation. I identify many musical conventions, and
investigate the use of 'conventional types' of music
(certain kinds of music which are consistently
associated with particular types of dramatic situation).
Finally I evaluate the importance of music in the
Caroline theatre.
I have sought to establish that song, instrumental
music and dance had an important role in drama of the
time, and that all were important as part of the
theatrical experience. The music in Caroline plays is
also important historically. There were indeed many
similarities with the Elizabethan and Jacobean
traditions, but traditions were not static. The view
that there was a decline in the use of music compared to
earlier practices is refuted. Although the closing of
the theatres in 1642 was in many ways a moment of
decisive discontinuity, musical practices provide a link
between the Caroline and Restoration periods. The extent
of Caroline foreshadowing of Restoration practices is
striking and to many will be unexpected. The overall
pattern is one of basic continuity in musical practices
in plays throughout the seventeenth century.
One of the main aims of this study has been to
identify as much as possible of the music that survives. An important finding is that a substantial body of music
is extant, much more than was thought. There are musical
sources for settings of or tunes for a total of 113
lyrics from Caroline plays (including settings which are
new to musical scholarship); for thirty-one of the
instrumental tunes which are called for by name in
specific Caroline plays; and for another fourteen
instrumental tunes which may be associated with plays.
The sources for this music are listed in Appendix 1,
which provides a current catalogue of all surviving
music associated with specific Caroline plays. Appendix
2 is an edition which makes available thirty-one
settings of Caroline dramatic lyrics and symphonies for
three further songs, none of which has previously been
published in a modern edition; they include newly
identified songs. These Appendices are an important
adjunct of the thesis, as are Appendices 3 and 4, which
are a comprehensive listing of all the specified
instances of instrumental music and dance contained in
Caroline play-texts, classified by their dramatic
context or function.