Manipulation of Lyrics in Shakespeares As You Like It Essay -- Shakes

Manipulation of Lyrics in As You Like It While it is a comedy of the turmoil of savor and the experimentation with gender roles and identity, William Shakespeares As you Like It is a historical preservation of renascence music. The play is fraught with spontaneous song and poetry, yet Shakespeare strategically manipulates these melodious elements. Specifically, the lyrics and poetry of the play function to establish a soundtrack and a carry on appeal to their Elizabethan audience, while providing Shakespeare with a valuable shorthand for cause development. It is necessary to understand that music in Shakespeares time functions as a complete renovation of sound, voice, and function. Paul Brian emphasizes that whereas the music of the middle ages is predominately sacred, there is a great flourishing of ideas dedicated to secular topics, predominantly love, in the fifteenth through early 17th centuries (1). From this comment, we can understand that the demand for love music an d poetry in Shakespeares time is indeed influential on As You Like Its musical content. In addition, Mason proffers that the chief aura of Elizabeths age was ... the development of its secular vocal music, which reached a high head of artistry. It did so, of course, because Elizabethans received perhaps even more enjoyment from singing in concert socially then they did from singing psalms together in church (3). In this development of secular music and emphasis on communal singing, the numerous musicians and singers who painfully extend Shakespeares cast of characters should be entern as symbols of musics well-heeled popularity in the Elizabethan age. In scenes of As You Like It, we can see the influence of communal music on... ... As You Like It chooses a few individuals to symbolize the importance of music to an entire society, whether it is the merrymakers of the Forest of Ardenne or the inhabitants of conversion England. Works Cited Brian, Paul. Renaissance Love Songs Study Guide. 6 June 1997. Online. http//www.wsu.edu/brians/love-in-the-arts/renaissance.html. 7 November 2002. Elson, Louis C. Shakespeare in Music. Boston LC Page & Company, 1900. Long, John H. Shakespeares Use of Music. Gainesville University of Florida Press, 1955. Mason, Dorothy E. Music in Elizabethan England. Ithaca Cornell University Press, 1958. Pattison, Bruce. Music and Poetry of the English Renaissance. (2nd ed). London Methuen and Company, 1970. Seng, Peter J. The literal Songs in the Plays of Shakespeare A Critical History. Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1967.