Ross W. Duffin

One of my favourite acquisitions of 2013. Duffin has endeavoured here a feat that (weirdly) has not been previously done: collecting the lyrics of EVERY known song performed, referenced, parodied, or alluded to in Shakespeare's canon with, where possible, an original setting or close setting from Elizabethan and Jacobean music.

As a reference, this is already a staggering work, with a dense list of sources at the end that should basically allow any interested party to research the subject comprehensively. And the fact that the book comes with a CD (with a second, independently-released CD completing the set) means that this is a genuinely valuable book.

But it's not just the stuffy academic or ambitious director who will gain something from this. "Shakespeare's Songbook" serves to remind us of how lively and interactive Shakespeare's plays (and most plays of the era) were. As with a modern farce that might include a sing-a-long, or a contemporary play that makes a reference to One Direction, or a sly allusion to Gershwin or ABBA, we must remember how vital and popular Shakespeare's plays were in his time. We are doing a great disservice to his plays to ignore the roughly 200 references that exist to specific songs. By learning this, we get one step closer to reviving the utter vitality of these plays. A… (meer)

This is a good basic introduction to the history of the development of equal temperament, with a focus on the problems this creates for performing music, especially works created before the acceptance of equal temperament. However, for many readers, the lack of audio supplements will render much of the details of various tuning systems meaningless. For many casual listeners the distinctions Duffin discusses may just seem esoteric.

While Duffin covers trends in the modern performances of Renaissance & early classical music that include a return to non-equal tempered scales, I'm disappointed that there's no discussion of the various 20th and 21st century composers who have used just intonation tunings in their music. There are many. Some created new acoustic instruments to play music using unusual intervals and tunings. These include the pioneering Harry Partch, as well as Ellen Fullman, Kraig Grady, among others. Others made compositions for traditional instruments tuned in just intonation. These include Lou Harrison, Ben Johnston, Pauline Oliveros, James Tenney, again, among others. Still others use electronic instruments and/or software to make create music in just intonation.

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