イギリス中世演劇とシェイクスピア作品におけるクライマックスの音楽

Musical Functions in the Climax of Medieval and Shakespeare’s Plays

Tomimura Noritaka

英語英文學研究

Hiroshima studies in English language and literature

[ISSN] 02882876

[NCID] AN0002064X

The recorded history of British drama begins with the Quem Quaeritis trope used in Christian masses, the name of which is derived from the opening interrogation meaning “Whom do you seek in the sepulchre?” The fact that the oldest extant dramatic text in British drama is connected to liturgy suggests that music was very close to drama even at its earliest stage. Intimate connection between music and drama is also present in Greek tragedy, in which the chorus plays indispensable parts.
Medieval religious drama in Britain gradually changed in the process of incorporating secular aspects in its content. In the 15th century, plays like morality and miracle plays clearly separate speech and music, and different styles of employing music began to be present. The texts of Elizabethan drama show traits of further exploration in the manner of music usage. This study compares the uses of music in seven medieval plays and 37 plays of Shakespeare with a focus on their quantitative aspects and characteristics of functions in their dramatic highlights.
First, a quantitative analysis reveals a contrast in the general characteristics of musical usage in the two groups of plays. The instances of music in the above-mentioned plays are divided into two large categories: “Situational Music” and “Non-situational music”. Formulaic uses of music, which means that similar patterns in the relation of the context and music are observed, fall in the category of “Situational Music”, and other unique usages are grouped as“ Non-situational music”. Each category has several subdivisions, according to the kind of scenes and the relationships between the performers and the listeners of each instance of music. This comparison between the medieval and Shakespeare’s plays being considered here, using a single categorization scheme, reveals two major characteristics. One is that in both the two groups of plays most uses of music are formulaic, approximately 82% and 87% respectively. The other is the differences in the frequencies of subcategories. The medieval plays provide the largest number of examples of these formulaic uses in the subcategory of “Entrance/Exit of Characters”, followed by music sounded with “Change of Scenes”, and both subcategories account for 65% of the uses of “Situational Music”. In Shakespeare’s plays, on the other hand, the largest number of cases of music are found in “Battle Scenes”, with “Entrance/Exit of Characters” as the second, providing 78% of the examples of “Situational Music” altogether. This difference implies that strengthening the transition of actions and scenes, or structure of the plays, is a major function of music in these medieval plays, whereas music largely contributes to the representation and reinforcement of the action on the stage described by speech in these Shakespeare’s plays.
Second, various instances of music in the climaxes of these plays symbolize diverse approaches to musical usage. In the medieval plays examined here, psalms and other religious music are frequently performed during the culmination of the plot. The closing lines of Mary Magdalen and other three plays also suggest that the audience are invited to sing Te Deum with the cast. These practices of using music can be considered as a way of reinforcing a particular ideological framework, specifically Christianity, and incorporating spectators in the system through acoustic stimuli and engaging them in musical activities. In contrast, the styles of music used in the highlights of Shakespeare’s plays range from secular songs to dead marches. An especially noteworthy example is the music in the statue scene of The Winter’s Tale. The music played in this scene outwardly signifies a conventional association of music to therapeutic or supernatural power. However, the dialogue of three gentlemen preceding the scene imply that the resurrection of Hermione is merely a pretense. In this case, the role of the cue music for Hermione’s movement can be seen as creating a dramatic impact. This ambiguity regarding the primary function of the music suggests that this example of music deviates from accepted styles, and thereby weakens an existing framework of music usage. This instance of The Winter’s Tale is considered as a specimen of the transition of the relationship between music and drama from the medieval period and the Elizabethan era.

jpn

広島大学英文学会

The English Literary Association of Hiroshima University

著作権は，執筆者本人と広島大学英文学会に帰属するものとします。

日本学術振興会

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

[Crossref Funder] https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001691

イギリス中世・ルネサンス演劇の音楽機能分析のための新体系構築 研究課題

イギリス中世・ルネサンス演劇の音楽機能分析のための新体系構築 研究課題

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