Description
Juliet at her Window
4 songs after Shakespeare
Composed by Daneil S. Godfrey
For Soprano, Flute, Clarinet in Bb, Violin, Cello, and Piano
Published by Carl Fischer
Includes score and parts
Program Notes:
The four texts for Juliet at her Window are taken primarily from Act II, Scene II of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, with supplemental passages from elsewhere in the play. Lines are combined and/or rearranged in one way or another to form brief, thematically related stanzas in each song. The texts suggest states of mind on Juliet's part, with no intention to represent the scene or play as narrative. Also, the words chosen and their musical context reflect only on Juliet – Romeo is not mentioned – and my intention was to focus on her breathless optimism and extrovert declarations of love, while hinting somewhere beneath the surface at the pathos, denial and isolation from reality that (in my view) underly them. Ultimately, though, the point is not to interpret Shakespeare but to seek, as have so many composers, a musical path into and through the human spaces opened up by his words.
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