Scenes and songs, with original words by the Bard, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, As You Like It and more, in musical settings from Shakespeare’s time to the 20th century, features the UTD Chamber Singers, soloists and members of the RATPAC Theatre Club, under the direction of Kathryn Evans.   

Director’s Notes by Kathryn Evans
The songs contained in the plays of Shakespeare have long been a source of inspiration for composers.  But of the over 70 songs found within the plays, there are surprisingly few compositions that can be authenticated to Shakespeare’s time.  There are a few well known ones:  Thomas Morley’s It was a lover and a lass and O mistress mine from  “As You Like It”; and Robert Johnson’s arrangements for Full fathom five and As the bee sucks from “The Tempest.  Two songs were known to exist before Shakespeare’s time and were undoubtedly borrowed by him for his plays:  Ay robyn (which appears in “Twelfth Night”) was published in Henry VIII’s manuscript ca. 1510-1520; and The Willow Song (which was also used so effectively in the opera “Otello” by Verdi) was a well-known folk song.  The character of Desdemona even refers to it as a song her maid Barbary sang, that “will not go from her mind.”) 

Shakespeare’s use of song is of interest also.  In some occasions, it gives an added dimension to the character:  Desdemona singing a song by her maid who “was in love and he she lov’d, proved mad and did forsake her,” clearly foreshadowing her murder by Otello; Ophelia’s several mad-songs in “Hamlet” after she loses her mind upon hearing of the death of her father; and the many songs of Ariel, the sprite of “The Tempest” (one of which is sung while she is invisible).  In other cases, they are used to annoy other characters (Feste, the clown, sings Ah robyn to Malvolio’s discontented interruptions).  Sometimes they either introduce scenes (When daffodils begin to peer opens Act IV, Scene 3 of “A Winter’s Tale”; Mariana enters singing Take, o take those lips away to open Act IV of “Measure for Measure”) or finish the entire play, as in the case of the Clown’s final song of “Twelfth Night” When that I was a little tiny boy.  And in many cases, they are merely the response of a character or group of characters (often “musicians”) to some lord’s request to “give us some music.”

The compositions chosen for this performance come from three sources:  the authentic songs referred to above; the solo songs of the British composer Roger Quilter (whose rich song literature rivals that of his contemporary Ralph Vaughan Williams); and the choral arrangements of the songs of Shakespeare by Juilliard graduate Matthew Harris, who is now living and composing in New York City.  Not surprisingly, they all have a Shakespearean flavor and many of the elements of early 17th century music compositions. 

We have “surrounded” these compositions with some of the lines from the plays (which will be read by members of the UTD Theatre Club RATPac) to set them in context.  It is somehow more poignant to hear The Willow Song after Desdemona tells her maid Emilia that her maid “died singing it.”  How can one not be enchanted by the lines of the page before It was a lover and a lass that it should be sung “like two gypsies on a horse!”  The love song Tell me where is fancy bred from “The Merchant of Venice” takes on a new meaning when we learn it is sung while Bassanio is trying to select the right box (from three of gold, silver and lead) in order to win Portia’s hand in marriage.  And Ophelia’s songs of madness are all the more striking when surrounded by the comments of Laertes, her brother, who laments “Oh heat dry up my brains! Tears seven time salt, burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!”

Please join us for Shakespeare in Song, Friday, October 20 at 8 pm and Saturday, October 21 at 2 pm in the Jonsson Performance Hall on the UTD campus.  As Shakespeare said (the first line of “Twelfth Night”), “If music be the food of love, play on!” 

The UTD Chamber Singerswas formed in 1994 as a performing ensemble of 20-24 singers. The repertoire for the ensemble is selected from a broad range of chamber vocal literature, including both sacred and secular music spanning the Renaissance to the contemporary periods of music history and modern jazz arrangements. The ensemble performs regularly on campus, including performances at the Annual Holiday Sing during the Fall Semester, and in concert as a Jazz Singers Ensemble in the Spring Semester. The UTD Chamber Singers collaborates with many other ensembles on campus, including the Jazz Ensemble, Guitar Ensemble and Dance Ensemble. They also perform on the Winter and Spring Arts Festivals every semester. In the Spring, the Chamber Singers join the UTD Chorale for a choral concert of large works with orchestra.  Past concerts have included “A Tribute to the Manhattan Transfer,” “All Mozart Concert,” “Swing Thing,” “Birds, Beasts and Bugs,” “A Victorian Christmas” “A Celebration of Monteverdi”, Philip Glass’s “Ahkenaten” and last year’s popular performance of “La Vie Boheme:  Scenes from “La Boheme” and “Rent”.    Students must audition and be accepted in order to enroll in Chamber Singers. Auditions are arranged in the Spring for new students and before every long semester during the registration periods.

Kathryn Evansjoined the faculty of the University of Texas at Dallas in 1994.   Currently, she serves as the Associate Dean for the Arts in the School of Arts and Humanities, teaches vocal and choral music, and directs the UTD Chamber Singers. She is an accomplished recitalist and chamber musician, performing in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and in Europe. Before coming to UTD, she was the Director of the Bach Society Chamber Orchestra and Chorus in La Jolla, California and the Musical Director of the Orpheus Ensemble. She founded and directed the Washington Pro Musica and the Early Music Ensemble of San Diego.   She has directed European concert tours of Switzerland, Germany, France and Italy. Ms. Evans holds Master of Arts degrees in Music and in Mathematics from the University of California at San Diego. Ms. Evans has completed tours of music for voice and guitar with fellow faculty member Dr. Enric Madriguera in Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Mexico.  Ms. Evans released the CD "Voz y Guitarra" with Dr. Madriguera in October of 2003 and is the Executive Director of the Annual Texas Guitar Competition.  She appeared as the Mother Abbess in the “Sound of Music” and directed the UTD Chamber Singers in “La Boheme/Rent” at UTD in 2005.  Ms. Evans has recently formed the Dallas Pro Musica, a vocal quintet dedicated to the performance of Medieval and Renaissance music.  Their first concert will be November 1, 2006.