„Die süße Macht der Töne …“

Shakespeare’s linguistic artistry is full of music, presumably because music was within him. His poetry has inspired an incredible number of musicians from the Renaissance to the present day. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream the lovers in the underworld describe the “strange sound” of (poetic) fantasy and classify it both rationally and emotionally. And in The Merchant of Venice the young Lorenzo answers the central question, “What is music?” by referring to the “Sweet power of music,” which only artistically-inclined souls can perceive.

Shakespeare uses many musical aspects in his choice of words and images, symbols and metaphors, in some respects reflecting the highest contemporary musical standards and in others surpassing them. So it comes as no surprise that many studies have engaged with the theme of “Shakespeare and music”. Recent research has even considered his comedy The Tempest as a form of musical. In this publication, intended to mark the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, the principal aim is to make clear the musical potential inherent in this poetry and to consider how it calls for appropriate musical settings and when and where it has been interpreted in a manner true to the original.