Hamlet Theme: How Does Music Help to Portray Character?

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COMPOSER - BRETT DEAN | LIBRETTIST - MATTHEW JOCELYN HAMLET THEME: HOW DOES MUSIC HELP TO PORTRAY CHARACTER? Explore the characters found in the OPHELIA RHYTHM Glyndebourne production of Hamlet. Ophelia is Hamlet’s girlfriend, and the daughter of Polonius. She struggles with HAMLET Hamlet’s mood swings, the expectations of The first character we meet in this opera is her family and finally with the tragic Hamlet himself. It is not easy to put your demise of her father. This triggers a severe finger on the character of Hamlet – he is psychological response. one of the most enigmatic characters in all literature. However, what is certain is that he Watch Ophelia’s “mad scene”. What has is a man on the brink. He is crippled by grief, composer Brett Dean asked his singer to do? INSTRUMENTS self-doubt and a belief that he should be How effective is it in defining the nature of doing something, even though he is terrified her “madness”? of what it is that he might have to do. Taking inspiration from this scene, think Listen to perhaps the most famous of about how you would craft a vocal line for Hamlet’s speeches as it occurs in the opera. a character in a state of psychological or emotional turmoil (remembering opera What elements can you pick out? singers have to be very protective of their • Instrumentation? voices!) List five specific ideas that you might employ when writing music for a “mad” • Tempo markings? character. Think about text and vocal effects. • Time signature? List the types of instruments you would use to compliment your vocal line and the types Think about the texture of this piece - what of rhythms they would play. might these textural moments signify? What does this tell us about the character of Hamlet? ARTS AWARD WORKSHEET: HAMLET 1.

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CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 Purdue University Press ©Purdue University Volume 6 (2004) Issue 1 Article 13 Bibliography for the Study of Shakespeare on Film in Asia and Hollywood Lucian Ghita Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <[email protected]> Recommended Citation Ghita, Lucian. "Bibliography for the Study of Shakespeare on Film in Asia and Hollywood." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 6.1 (2004): <https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1216> The above text, published by Purdue University Press ©Purdue University, has been downloaded 2531 times as of 11/ 07/19.
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