Singing Shakespeare on the Bard’s birthday
April 23, 2024
Andrew Curry writes: It’s William Shakespeare’s 460th birthday today, probably, so we’re using that as an excuse to share a few of the Shakespeare lyrics in the folk repertoire.
(Shakespeare mural near the Globe Theatre in London. Photo: Peter Trimming/Geograph, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Up first, Marianne Faithfull, from her folk record North Country Maid, recorded in 1966, when she was 21.
It’s a good record—her voice hasn’t yet turned gravelly from all of the cigarettes, and there’s a whole set of folk standards on here.
Scarborough Fair, Ewan MacColl’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Sally Free and Easy, and She Moved Through The Fair, in decent arrangements. There’s a Bert Jansch song as well. But it’s Shakespeare’s birthday, so what we have here is How Should I Your True Love Know, from Hamlet.
I’m going to skip past Donovan’s contribution to the Shakespeare genre here—but if you’re interested there’s a full-on hippie-folk version of Under the Greenwood Tree on his 1967 record A Gift From A Flower To A Garden.
Instead, let’s head to Ireland, where Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, once part of the Celtic Woman phenomenon, has recorded a version of Full Fathom Five, from The Tempest. Her work generally draws on Irish traditional music, and there’s lots to like about it. Méav added the music, which I think conjures the strangeness of the play.
And our last stop on this whistle-stop tour is Bjarte Eike and Barokksolistene, who recorded a version of Over Hill, Over Dale on their Playhouse Sessions record.
He’s a Norwegian violinist, and they are a group of Scandinavian baroque musicians, and I’m not going to resist the temptation to describe their music as baroque and roll, because you wouldn’t, would you.
But what they actually do is recreate the music of the 17th century tavern and theatre, and it’s exuberant music—like a baroque version of Bellowhead. And happy birthday, Will!
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