Place:Hickey:Linell - Music for Shakespeare's Theatre

Music played an important role in the Renaissance theatre and Shakespeare brought new subtlety to its use. In a theatre without lights and sets, it fell to music to underline mood, whether for magic, comedy, feasting or pathos. Here are thirty or so settings from Shakespeare's lifetime by composers including Morley, Johnson, Dowland, Byrd, Ferrabosco and others, including lyrics set to ballad tunes that would have been very familiar to the actors in his company.