Musical Offerings, Fall 2017

Musical Offerings ⦁ 2017 ⦁ Volume 8 ⦁ Number 2 41 Musical Offerings , vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 41–50. ISSN 2330-8206 (print); ISSN 2167-3799 (online); © 2017, Emily A. Sulka, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ) Shakespeare’s Philosophy of Music Emily A. Sulka Cedarville University illiam Shakespeare is one of the most important figures in literary history. During the course of his lifetime, he authored over 37 plays and 150 sonnets, and in accordance with this extensive output, nearly everyone in the Western world has at least a passing knowledge of his works. However, while a large percentage of people study Shakespearean drama in literature courses, it is rare for these classes to address the musical aspects of staging a Shakespearean production or the attention that Shakespeare gives to music philosophy. As a result, it is surprising to see how big of a role music plays in Shakespeare’s works, especially because his use of music reveals a wealth of information regarding music’s influence in his time. Shakespeare was born in 1564 in England and died in 1616, which places the span of his life near the end of the Renaissance. Although the philosophy of the music of the spheres came from several centuries earlier, it was one of the most prominent ideas about music at this time, and Shakespeare was highly influenced by it. This influence shows itself in most of his works, and can be seen in the literary structure of his plays, his presentation of madness and other psychological states, and the use of the supernatural. The philosophy of the music of the spheres was developed by Boethius, a Roman philosopher who lived around AD 500. Boethius outlines three types of music in his De institutione musica , or The Principles of Music : musica mundana , musica humana , and musica instrumentalis . Boethius defines musica mundana as the “objective music of the cosmos,” while understanding musica humana as the “subjective music of the soul.” 1 The idea of objective music in the cosmos reflected a theory originated 1 Nadezhda Prozorova, “The Philosophy of Music in Shakespeare’s Drama,” European English Messenger 23, no. 1 (2014): 39 , Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost 96269892 . W