Sir Philip Sidney was one of Elizabethan England's greatest poets, producing an enormous body of poetry, voluminous letters, and his seminal treatise, The Defence of Poesie. He also loved music, describing "words set in delightfull proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for the well enchanting skill of Musicke." Most notably, his pastoral romance, Arcadia, is filled with poems described as songs, with descriptions of characters singing, sometimes to a particular instrument, and to tunes that are variously "joyful," "doleful," "lamentable," or "ravishing." Aside from a few specific tune titles provided by Sidney, however, most of these "songs" remain without known music. Enchanting Arcadia fills this void, setting almost 100 of the Arcadia's songs to period music. Using his extensive knowledge of early modern English song, Ross W. Duffin has carefully matched musical models to Sidney's poems using works by composers such as William Byrd, John Dowland, Thomas Morley, Thomas Campion, Robert Jones, and William Corkine, all of whom had some connection to Sidney or his family. Enchanting Arcadia aims to realize at long last the musical enchantment of Sidney's poems, allowing modern readers to experience them not only as poems to be read silently or aloud but also as songs to be sung and enjoyed.
Ross W. Duffin is Fynette H. Kulas Professor Emeritus of Music and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Case Western Reserve University.
Preface Introduction Editorial Notes Musical Contents Figures Old Arcadia Singing Characters Synopsis First Book First Eclogues Second Book Second Eclogues Third Book Third Eclogues Fourth Book Fourth Eclogues Fifth Book Astrophel and Stella (1591) Arcadia (1593) (New Arcadia) First Book First Eclogues Third Book Third Eclogues Arcadia (1598) Certaine Sonets Lady of May Appendix Accession Day Tilt (1577) A Poetical Rapsody (1602) Conclusion Music Sources Index to Poems & Song Models Index of Instruments Cited Index of Singing Characters
"This is an unabashedly experimental and practical book of musical sources, with introductory headnotes supplied for each of the settings that spell out the reasons for pairing the music with the poetry, and enumerating any difficulties, caveats, or special features to be considered in playing or listening to the music."-Andrew Zurcher, author of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene: A Reading Guide "Ross Duffin has a well-established reputation for his ability to breathe musical life into texts that have lost their tunes. This edition, however, breaks new ground in providing melodies not for songs dramatic works- Shakespeare's plays, comic plays and court masques-but rather literary and poetic works not so readily associated with performance, at least to modern readers. As such it challenges preconceptions of Sidney's verse as literary and design to be read (even if aloud), by enabling us to rehear his lyrics as tuneful, harmonised, song."-Katherine Butler, author of Music in Elizabethan Court Politics
