Doublemono – Sonnets 8 /10
Did Shakespeare really wear an earring?
IN THE MP3 AGE, when sounds are compressed and limited, hearing something sonically wonderful is unusual. Enter Cara Dillon and Doublemono, who decided to put Shakespeare’s sonnets to music using period instruments.
She borrowed priceless harpsichords, virginals, lutes, harps and theorbos from museums and found hand-made replicas for those too fragile to use. The result is a surprisingly modern-sounding folk album with sounds you have never heard before.
Nov 19, 2012 @ 19:02:35
Hi Tinny ! I see what you mean about the instrumentation, lovely sounds. But I wonder if those Sonnets can be successfully set to music ? I heard a clip from a recent Clive James interview, where he distinguished between lyrics which “invite music in”, and poetry which “has its own music” and thus “shuts music out”. I’m not saying that all poetry does that, I can think of lovely settings of Robert Burns or John Clare… But the Shakespeare sonnets make me think there’s truth in what Clive James says.
Nov 19, 2012 @ 19:43:14
I probably shouldn’t admit this in public but I didn’t really listen to the words all that much. I keep getting lost in the timbre and richness of those old stringed instruments.