On Music in the Elizabethan Period and Shakespeare
An Essay

by Kimber

In the Elizabethan period, life was, to say the least, difficult; for rich and poor alike. There were very few distractions from the daily routine of making ends meet. Between plagues, wars and oppressive class systems the people had a great deal to handle. There was one thing that went a long way to help: music. It didn't cure disease, stop wars or change society in any major way but it did do a great deal for the people of the time.

In periods of both bad and good times, the people needed something to lift their spirits and keep them going, so they would have festivals. At these festivals they would often have food, drink and games of chance but one thing that no good festival would ever be without was a minstrel troup. Groups of men known as itinerant minstrals playing their lutes, harps, guitars, psaltries and viols would travel throughout Europe playing lively tunes of the day to which the people would dance, sing and celebrate life.

Music was used in times of war as both encourager and comforter. When the men marched off to fight they would always have drums and/or bugles to mark cadence or send signal to other troops. And at night in the camps someone would have a small instrument which he would play to keep away the ghosts of the days battles. Back at home the women and children would attend church to pray for their husbands and fathers. There they would listen to the chants of the priests and hymns of the choirs exulting God. "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord" the Bible says. Music gave them hope and purpose in uncertain times.

Another aspect of the minstrel that lost it's importance as time went on and more people moved into the cities was passing on news to those not connected to the rest of the world. People in the outlying regions would rely on the minstrel to bring him the latest news of the court, what town was having a festival, when the market would open and often what the prices were said to be for produce and stock. If there was a war on the minstrels would often take news from the front around to those concerned. A less artistic, but equally important role for the musician.

In these days there were, as there is today, two basic classes of people: acceptable and unacceptable. There were places that unacceptables couldn't go and places that acceptables wouldn't go. One thing that made them all alike, however, was the fact that they all enjoyed music. Maybe not the same kind of music. Unacceptables may have liked drinking songs and sea chanties whereas acceptables preferred orchestras and operas but they both got the same good feeling from listening to the beat and humming the melody. Their emotions made them equal.

In the drama of the time music also played an important role. It was in almost all of Shakespeare's plays in one form or another. In The Twelfth Night in stirred Orsino's love-sick heart and in Romeo and Juliet it helped kindle the fledgling flame of young romance. The greatest thing that music did for the dramas, though, was give all members of the audience from the groundlings on up something they could all identify with. Not a major contribution admittedly, but when you look at some of the plays of the day you see how much it meant. The common man couldn't be expected to understand all of the political nonsense and flowery speeches, but when the music played, that was something they could understand and they wouldn't feel totally alienated from the play. With that they can feel more comfortable with the rest of it. Music simply aided the playwright in reaching the people.

So, although it was a highly underrated art, music did play a useful role in Elizabethan society. It provided happiness, escape, courage and consolation to a people in great need of all. It wasn't an essential asset to survival but it did make the general tedium of life a bit more bearable.