I decided to talk about my Hamlet Symphony for the Third Monday Music post because I wanted to draw a skull.  Can you think of a better reason to choose a topic?  (Actually, I’ll be talking mostly about the second movement).

The Hamlet Symphony is by far the largest music project I have ever undertaken.  This six movement piece scored for a large orchestra lasts just under an hour.  Almost every note, be it a main theme or a background part, has some “meaning” in the larger scheme of things.

That being said, here we are mostly concerned with the second movement, Hamlet.  Without further ado, here it is:

So, while you are listening I’ll give you a little information on what this is about.

In my opinion Hamlet is the greatest work of fiction ever written and the character Hamlet is perhaps the most complex character ever created.  This movement is a quick character sketch that is intended to give my interpretation in music of Hamlet the character.

I hate it when people make Hamlet out to be two dimensional.  There is quite a bit to this young man.  He’s a thinker, a dreamer and a philosopher.  In the play he talks about and thinks about the many guises of death, from armies marching to war, to his father’s death to his own death.  And yet he is also a man of action.  He jumps onto the pirate’s ship fighting with all of his might (we are told about this, it happens off stage).  He easily beats the best swordsman in the land, Laertes.

He doesn’t lose because he sits around moping and refuses to take action.

Hamlet doesn’t kill Claudius at the beginning because he has no proof.  In fact, there is a possibility the ghost was a demon there to tempt him into murder.  He can’t murder the king and think everyone will be happy about it.  Once he has the proof, though, he tries to act.  He stays his hand at first because he thinks Claudius is praying.  According to his religion, killing Claudius while he was praying would send him to Heaven but for his revenge Hamlet needs Claudius to go to Hell.  Next he strikes down poor Polonius hoping it’s Claudius behind the curtain.  In the end the people are almost revolting trying to put Laertes into the kingship so he has to win him over before he can strike down Claudius.

Now let’s move onto the music.

An atmospheric mood helps set the stage.  The first real theme (after the atmospheric part) of this highly modified sonata form movement is the philosopher theme.  Say, “to be or not to be,” over the top of the music.  I spoke the whole monologue out and worked out the rhythm of the words. It might not be perfect, but most of it’s there.  The second theme is the “heroic and romantic” Hamlet.  In the middle there is a bit of a “fugato”, which spirals off to chaos.  Don’t try to figure out this bit of chaos for there, madness lies.  In fact, a lot of the material either came up in the first movement or is foreshadowing later music.

Hope you enjoy!

Symphony Layout

A Few words about the Symphony in C – Hamlet, aka the Hamlet Symphony.  The whole thing, which lasts just under an hour is in 6 movements as follows:

Hamlet Symphony Movements:

I The Midnight Watch – Along the battlements with a ghost.
II Hamlet – that’s what this post has been about
III Mad North by Northwest – madness/insanity real and imagined
IV Remembering Ophelia – Another character sketch
V At the Gravesite – continuation of IV. With Yorick and all
VI Final Scene – swordplay, poison and death

The first, fifth and sixth movements follow the play.  Two and three are character sketches and three is, as it says, about madness as described in the play.

The whole symphony is based on three 12-tone rows.  I’d love to explain what that means, but it would take pages 🙂 Briefly, all 12 tones in the western music scale (think a piano keyboard from c to but not including the next c up) are played in a specific order.  This is the row.  It can be manipulated in several ways.  besides the rows, there are a couple of short motifs, little snippets of melody.  These rows and motifs change, grow and develop though out the symphony.  You can’t understand what’s happening musically in the middle unless you’ve heard ho it got there.

In some small way the music is my attempt to describe the complexities of the play, the way the lives interact, in music.

–

Note: You can now here the CD version of the Second Movement with this YouTube video