Shakespeare Songs

There are songs in Shakespeare, you say? Who knew?… Yes, there are over 70 songs in his plays, although no one thinks of his works as being musicals… This series of Shakespeare songs were originally written in 2005 and 2006, as part of a Master’s Degree Thesis I was working on. The Thesis, entitled Teaching & Learning Shakespeare Through Song, is available through the UBC Library and the Faculty Of Graduate Studies. Some of the song lyrics here were intended by Shakespeare to be songs, while others, such as A Plague On Your Houses and The Palmer’s Sonnet are simply famous passages of text from the Bard’s plays which I have chosen to set to music. Numerous composers have set Shakespeare’s texts to music over the years, but only two, Thomas Morley and Robert Johnson, are know to have collaborated with Shakespeare during his lifetime. I hope you enjoy this collection of songs, which I think stand on their own merits independent of the source material. I wish to credit some of the guest singers featured here, including Ashley Macdonald, my duet partners Jennie Emery and Amy Koop, and the wonderfully funny Angus Macdonald.