Quotes – Shakespeare songs

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Shakesongs.com is the home of original Shakespearean song on the web. Many people don’t realize that the plays of Shakespeare are filled with music. Out of the 37 canonical plays of Shakespeare, there are no less than 32 that mention music in the text itself; there are also over 300 stage directions that are musical in nature. The age of Shakespeare was an age of song, and Shakespeare certainly appreciated the importance of music for his audience. Throughout his plays, Shakespeare scattered songs of beauty and delight. All of the plays make some use of music, and many of the most commonly taught and performed plays (such as Othello, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It) contain several songs each. Unfortunately, Shakespeare’s songs are often neglected in modern productions, due to lack of musical knowledge or musical resources.

On this site you will find original modern musical settings of famous songs from Shakespeare, as well as musical settings of some of his most famous passages and lines of text. It is my hope that visitors to the site will become more aware of the rich treasure of song Shakespeare’s dramas have to offer, and utilize these settings in musical performance, research, or dramatic productions of Shakespeare.

Michael Mikulin

Give me some music-music, moody food
Of us that trade in love
Antony & Cleopatra 2.5.1-2

If music be the food of love, play on...
Twelfth Night 1.1.1-7

I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
Merchant of Venice 5.1.69