Blogged Performance Reports 1: Shakespeare in Song

Introduction
The Shakespeare in Song event I attended happened on Friday at 8 p.m. in the Jonsson Performance Hall. The performance room had a stage with a choir stand and a grand piano on the right accompanying the singers. In addition there were four music stands in the front for some of the performers to speak lines from different plays and sometimes sing a solo.

Music
The music texture over all had many western styles of timbres and keys. Multiple layers of voices created a thick texture. Most of the songs contained a duple meter and simple meter. The music also used heterophony textures with the piano as support, sometimes with monologues, soliloquies, or dialogues inserted between pieces. Occasionally on two or three songs there was a monophony, but was usually afterward accompanied by the rest of the choir. Timbres mainly consisted of deep diaphragm choir harmonizing types of sounds that created an over all sense of unity. The old English language used for the Shakespeare in Song along with a play like quality of dialogues put the audience in the time period of 1500-1600’s during the Victorian Era. Some songs ranged from being somber to being jolly. The somber music had a more slow darker tone, while the more joyful songs had a more upbeat with faster rhythms than the sadder ones. The music seemed to never stop other than the intermission, which gave an almost musical like quality to it. The most humorous thing was in Act II, Scene 4: Orsino’s court, Duke Orsino played by Andrew Pham had a role into shouting “FOOL”. Though it went with the script it seemed out of place. Over all the music was generally harmonious and fluent throughout the performance.

Performers
The performers were dressed in what seemed to be Shakespearian clothing, some of them had hats. Even the pianist was dressed in Shakespearian clothing, adding to the atmosphere of Shakespeare’s time. Performers entered the stage with normal choir conduct, with the choir singers in single file with the conductor at the end. People from the choir would then enter the front where they would lead a solo or recite verses from the plays to start off the song, sometimes accompanied with the choir at different moment to add to the soundscape of the performance.

Audience
The audience didn’t seem to be abnormal from any other performance I have attended mainly consisting of senior citizens, parents, and fellow students. Oddly enough I stumbled across one brought a friend who was a previous student at UTD and lived on my street, who also told me that he attended the performance to support a friend. He along with some others and one friend I brought I’ve noticed at this performance. The crowd was relatively smaller than other performances, since it was easy to spot people I knew, and also I find it strange, because I’ve never went to an event at UTD where I know more than three people.

Time and Space
The space was large for plenty of leg room. The space on the stage however was used quite frequently due to the amount of moving and role taking of different speeches and roles throughout the performance. Most of the singers didn’t move other than one to four singers at a time for dialogues and solos, but the cheers over all were quite reluctant in the audience. At the end surprisingly there was a standing applause since the performance ended on a high note.

Conclusion
Leaving the Johnson Performance Hall, dress ups, and music, I felt I was leaving the Victorian Era and back to modern day. Away from rehearsed song and continuous harmonious melodies and back to normal comprehendible English speaking UTD of the 21st century.