The Use of Music and the Lack Thereof

This will be my last post, in a series of 4, (the previous posts you can find here, here and here) speaking about the music used in movie adaptations of Hamlet.


The last film I would like to talk about is the 1996 Kenneth Branagh version of Hamlet. This film is considered to be one of the best interpretations of Shakespeare's masterpiece. It is rather long, considering it lasts for more than four hours, but stays close to the original text in almost every aspect. In the scene that I am going to post below, the music is very subtle. At times, it is hard to even recognize its presence. By not letting the music become overpowering, Branagh shows that what is said is more important in our interpreting of the scene than the music. As I have previously mentioned, the music used in movies often helps determine our perception of the emotions in a specific scene. Here, the scene is more open to interpretation than others in which the music is extremely over powering.

Lastly, I would like to post a video from Olivier's film on Hamlet. Here, there is no music used.

As always, which one do you like better? Do you think having subtle music is better than having no music whatsoever? Why?

"Friends, Romans, Classmates, lend me your comments!!!"

Two Comparisons of the Music Used in Hamlet Movie trailers

As a continuation of my posts on the music used in movie adaptations of Hamlet (you can find both of my previous posts here and here), I would like to do a comparison of the music used in two different movie trailers of Hamlet.


The first trailer I would like to discuss is the 1990 Zeffirelli trailer. Zeffirelli's film is full of star power. It stars Mel Gibson as Hamlet, Glen Close as Gertrude and Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia. When the trailer begins, very upbeat and happy music is used to perk the viewers interest in the film. As it gradually goes on, the music changes from happy and upbeat to more dramatic. The switch between the dramatic and the upbeat music happens when the narrator of the trailer begins to describe the premise of the movie. This technique of using both upbeat and happy music as well as more dramatic music is used to appeal to all sorts of different viewers. It gives the film more of a universal feeling in that it appeals to different demographics. You can see the trailer below:

The second trailer I would like to discuss is for the 2000 Almereyda movie. Unlike Zeffirelli who did a more classical interpretation of the work, Almereyda's film takes place in the year 2000 in New York City and uses contemporary situations and themes to portray Shakespeare's play. The music used in the trailer is very contemporary. The first song used is techno style showing from the start that this is not your typical Shakespearean film. The second song used is a cover of David Bowie's song, "Heroes." The use of this song suggests the film is meant to show the heroic nature in the characters. You can see the trailer below:

Now I would like the reader to give me some input on the two trailers. What different feelings do both trailers evoke? How does the music used in the trailers determine our perception of both movies? Do you think the modern music used in Almereyda's trailer works with Shakespeare?

Give me your thoughts!!!

Much Ado About Nothing

This is going to be a short post. I went to see the BYU Theater's performance of Much Ado About Nothing two days ago, so I thought I would blog about that before going back to my analysis of musical scores in movie adaptations of Hamlet. I would highly recommend going to see BYU Theater's rendition of Much Ado About Nothing. The actors did an exceptionally good job at portraying their characters accurately and uniquely. The director devised the play so that it was WWII based, bringing a new dynamic to the work. While I enjoyed the WWII concept, I wish they would have adapted the language to be more representative of the WWII era. One thing that I did enjoy that is connected to my blog focus, was the music they used in different parts of the work. The music brought a unique feel to the play, considering the majority of plays do not use music in their performances.

Kozintsev and Hamlet

This is my second post on musical scores of Hamlet. Here is a link to the first post in the series.

In 1964, Grigori Kozintsev directed a dark and mysterious version of Hamlet shot in Denmark. From the scenes that I have seen it is obvious that Kozinsev was trying to bring out the dark tenants of one of Shakespeare's most famous works. The music, as well as the camera angels, play to these dark tenants as well. As I watched the scene below, I could not help but feel a little bit frightened as Hamlet enters Ophelia's bed chamber. As Leonard notes in her book, "the music for Kozintsev's production was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich, who had already composed music for two different productions of Hamlet before he worked on the 1964 film" (16). To describe Shostakovich's work, Leonard quotes J. Lawrence Gunther who said,"Shostakovich's score counterpoints, highlights, and comments on the action itself, transforming each shot into a microcosmic Gesamtkunstwerk, a unified work of art in image and sound." I could not agree more with Lawrence's quote. The music and images join together to create a mood that is undeniably dark, yet accurate in their portrayal of Hamlet's story.

Here is a YouTube clip from Kozintsev's work:

Mark Anthony's Speech

So I thought I would take two adaptations of Mark Anthony's speech, one being the Marlon Brando version and the other being an amateur production, and analyze the music they use. However, I have encountered a slight problem...they don't use music in either of the interpretations! Despite this fact, I would like to talk a little bit about the music of silence. Although they did not use music per say in either of the two productions, there is a certain power behind the noise of the people. I feel like the noise they make, as they are listening and commenting on Anthony's speech, is very important to the scene. The silence sets a very serious tone to what is going on. This serious tone is important because they are talking about a serious subject, the murder of an emperor. By withdrawing the use of conventional instruments, both interpretations capture the viewer so that the seriousness of the scene cannot be denied.

Here are both interpretations that I am referring too:

This is the Marlon Brando version.

This is a thematic interpretation actually done on stage by live actors.

While this idea of the music in silence may be new to many of you, this is actually a fairly old concept. In 1953, experimental composer, John Cage, presented his work 4'33" to a crowd in Woodstock, New York. His score consisted of three different movements in which the musicians were instructed not to play their instruments for 4'33". By doing this experiment, Cage was trying to show that there is music all around us and that it does not necessarily need to come from conventional means.

For those of you interested in finding out more about Cage's performance of 4'33'', here are two links, one to a book analyzing the work and the other telling the basic facts about its composition. Both are very informative.

General Information on 4'33"

A Scholars Analysis of the Work

Interpretations of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Che Guevara

So, I thought I would take Professor Burton's advice and use our book to do some research. Just like he reassured us in class, I found some very interesting things about Julius Caesar by just reading the introduction to the play. In the introduction, it makes reference to various interesting ways in which Julius Caesar has been adapted. Two of my favorite adaptational ideas are the Jerry Turner adaptation, in which Caesar is likened to South American revolutionary Che Guevara, and Orson Welles' adaptation, in which Caesar is made out to resemble Benito Mussolini. As far as I have read, both adaptations were received positively.

Here is a link to the review of the Turner adaptation (Warning: To read the whole article you must be a member of JSTOR): Che Guevara and Julius Caesar

Here is a link to the review of the Wells adaptation: Fascism and Julius Caesar

I am also including a link to the wikipedia article about the 1953 film adaptation of the play: Maniewics' Film Adaptation

Enjoy!