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)

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