Don't Fear the Reaper... Literally

First I would like to make a comment about last Friday's forum with Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. For those of you who did not go, you missed out! It was really cool to hear what he had to say about education and the internet. He seemed pretty optimistic that the internet and Facebook would continue to be an important part of the learning process for all students, young and old. I was secretly hoping that Senator Orin Hatch would ask him about how his feelings towards the use of blogs for educational purposes but, sadly, he didn't. I saw Max there, so I know at least one other person went!

Now I will be continuing my posts on modern music and Shakespeare (you can find my two prior posts here and here). For those of you who are not familiar with the Blue Oyster Cult song, "Don't Fear the Reaper," there are some pretty overt Shakespearean references in the song. This song, like the other two I have blogged about, also makes reference to Romeo and Juliet (the fact that I am finding so many modern day songs with references to Romeo and Juliet makes me wonder, what is it that appeals to modern day musicians about Romeo and Juliet? Is it the fact that it is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays and that is the only one they have read or is there something else? Give me your insight!). I am not particularly fond of this song, but I find it relevant for my blogging purposes (here is a link to the focus of my blog)

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!!!

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:

Scoring Hamlet

This is my first post, in a series of five I plan to do, regarding the music used in film adaptations of Hamlet.

I took Professor Burton's advice and decided to actually walk to the library(I know, how brave of me!) to check out some of their books on music and Shakespeare. One book, which I have found very useful as of late, is Kendra Preston Leonard's Shakespeare, Madness, and Music. The book talks about the use of music in some of the most popular Shakespearean movie adaptations ever made. Here is a link to a book description of Leonard's work, Shakespeare, Madness, and Music. I would now like to talk about the music used in a movie adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet as mentioned in Leonard's book.

The first screen adaptation of Hamlet was made in 1948 by Laurence Olivier. As Leonard states in her book, Olivier's film was the first full-length film adaptation of Hamlet shot with fully integrated sound. Leonard writes the following when speaking of this technical innovation: "For the first time in the cinema, audiences overheard the machinations of Claudius and Polonius alongside Hamlet, Heard Hamlet's interior thoughts, and received information conveyed by an orchestral score created to promote the director's vision of the work and the roles that inhabit it"(11). The music for the movie was composed by composer William Walton. Walton's music is used in the film for one-third of its duration. Many of Walton's musical compositions are used to establish the specific mood of a scene, rather than to accompany spoken dialogue.

Here is an exert from Olivier's film in which music is an important dynamic in setting a specific mood.

Leonard's book talks about five specific movie adaptations of Hamlet and the music they use. I plan to highlight the music used in each Hamlet interpretation mentioned in the book.

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