Masques and Theatre Music

While the rambunctious rabble who attended Shakespeare’s Globe as the groundlings are well known, it should come as no surprise that the more elite audience who could afford performances at the indoor Blackfriars Theatre were treated to the deployment of subtle musical effects and allusions and dances imported from the fabulous (and fabulously expensive) Court Masque entertainments. In this series of interviews with leading scholars of the theatre, masque, music and dance, we investigate the changes in theatre music in Shakespeare’s lifetime and beyond and hear music from plays performed by the MIO Violin Band: Matt Antal, Brandon Chui, Sheila Smyth, violas, Laura Jones, bass violin, John Edwards, lute, led by Christopher Verrette, violin, and Felix Deak, viola da gamba.