Hamlet's Tunes
Mar. 23rd, 2014 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinAs any reasonably long-term reader of this blog will know, I am head-over-heels in love with the ISC's production of Hamlet, and as anyone who's known me in person will know, I never tire of writhing over how good it was. (It was so good.) Perhaps someday I will finally get to writing down everything so fantastic about it, and my Pixar Story Notes on Hamlet, which are not what you think. But that day is not today.
The topic came up again when I found out that, this week, Radio 4 is finally airing the Hamlet they recorded a while back. I resigned myself, that frigid August night at the back of the crowd in Griffith Park when I saw the ISC the first time, to the fact I would never enjoy another Hamlet again: despite forcing myself to 'just try it' a couple times since then my conclusion has been correct. But I'll give this one a go because it was directed by Marc Beeby and has Carl Prekopp in it, which are both good indicators of a quality radio production.*
In the spirit of the occasion I thought I'd share the Hamlet playlist I put together in the depths of my infatuation in 2012 ... It's a combination of music that evokes the atmosphere of the play and songs Hamlet might have on his iPod.
MUSIC:
From The Secret Garden score by Zbignew Preisner:
Leaving the Docks
Mary Downstairs
Craven to the Garden
Vitamin String Quartet:
Elliot Smith: Waltz #2
From Chocolat, score by Rachel Portman:
Mayan Bowl Breaks
Fire
Yann Tiersen:
Le Moulin
Comptine d'une autre été
Franz Schubert:
Sonata in B flat major, Andante Sostenuto**
Erik Satie:
Gnosiennes I & Gnosiennes III
From Road to Perdition, score by Thomas Newman:
The Farm
Edvard Grieg: Anitra's Dance (for Ophelia)
From Lady in the Water, score by James Newton Howard:
Charades
Walkie Talkie
Danny Elfman:
Victor's Piano Solo from The Corpse Bride
I Forget from Serenada Schizophrana
The Bird Girl from Circus Contraption's Grand American Travelling Dime Museum
From Pan's Labyrinth, score by Javier Navarrete
Ofelia
The Funeral
A Tale (possibly the most perfect Hamlet music)
The Refuge
The Fairy and the Labyrinth
Pan's Labyrinth as a whole is basically my soundtrack to Hamlet, but these are the most exemplary tracks.
SONGS
From The Tragic Treasury by The Gothic Archies:
How Do You Slow This Thing Down
Things Are Not What They Appear
Dreary, Dreary
The Decemberists:
Eli the Barrow Boy
Record Year for Rainfall
Culling of the Fold
Silly Sisters:
Agincourt Carol
How Should I Your True Love Know (can it be, there is not a version on YouTube? The one explicitly Hamlet song on the list!)
Simon & Garfunkel
Sound of Silence
Coldplay
A Rush of Blood to the Head
Don't Panic
The Baltimore Consort, Watkins Ale
Unto the Prophet Jonas I Read (a song for everyone who has had a supernatural commission and really really doesn't want to follow through on it)
The Scissor Sisters
I Can't Decide, because hello.
Radiohead
Exit Music for a Film
I usually listen on shuffle, because apparently I like my emotions in a blender, but I always start with 'Sound of Silence' because it just feels right. However you wish to consume this vortex of delicious despair is up to you. If you know any pieces that might fit this set please do send them by! I'm always open to expanding the runtime of the endless loop this playlist is usually on, when I'm in the mood.
Well great, now I'm all hopped up on Hamlet again, how am I supposed to sleep?
*Sadly Mr Prekopp is not playing the title role. It's everyone's loss, really.
**To be frank, this is mainly on my playlist because in the film of Copenhagen, it features prominently in the scene which concludes with the line 'The whole appearance of Elsinore, you said, was changed by knowing that Hamlet had lived there ... every dark corner there reminds us of the darkness in the human soul.' But I think it works all the same.
The topic came up again when I found out that, this week, Radio 4 is finally airing the Hamlet they recorded a while back. I resigned myself, that frigid August night at the back of the crowd in Griffith Park when I saw the ISC the first time, to the fact I would never enjoy another Hamlet again: despite forcing myself to 'just try it' a couple times since then my conclusion has been correct. But I'll give this one a go because it was directed by Marc Beeby and has Carl Prekopp in it, which are both good indicators of a quality radio production.*
In the spirit of the occasion I thought I'd share the Hamlet playlist I put together in the depths of my infatuation in 2012 ... It's a combination of music that evokes the atmosphere of the play and songs Hamlet might have on his iPod.
MUSIC:
From The Secret Garden score by Zbignew Preisner:
Leaving the Docks
Mary Downstairs
Craven to the Garden
Vitamin String Quartet:
Elliot Smith: Waltz #2
From Chocolat, score by Rachel Portman:
Mayan Bowl Breaks
Fire
Yann Tiersen:
Le Moulin
Comptine d'une autre été
Franz Schubert:
Sonata in B flat major, Andante Sostenuto**
Erik Satie:
Gnosiennes I & Gnosiennes III
From Road to Perdition, score by Thomas Newman:
The Farm
Edvard Grieg: Anitra's Dance (for Ophelia)
From Lady in the Water, score by James Newton Howard:
Charades
Walkie Talkie
Danny Elfman:
Victor's Piano Solo from The Corpse Bride
I Forget from Serenada Schizophrana
The Bird Girl from Circus Contraption's Grand American Travelling Dime Museum
From Pan's Labyrinth, score by Javier Navarrete
Ofelia
The Funeral
A Tale (possibly the most perfect Hamlet music)
The Refuge
The Fairy and the Labyrinth
Pan's Labyrinth as a whole is basically my soundtrack to Hamlet, but these are the most exemplary tracks.
SONGS
From The Tragic Treasury by The Gothic Archies:
How Do You Slow This Thing Down
Things Are Not What They Appear
Dreary, Dreary
The Decemberists:
Eli the Barrow Boy
Record Year for Rainfall
Culling of the Fold
Silly Sisters:
Agincourt Carol
How Should I Your True Love Know (can it be, there is not a version on YouTube? The one explicitly Hamlet song on the list!)
Simon & Garfunkel
Sound of Silence
Coldplay
A Rush of Blood to the Head
Don't Panic
The Baltimore Consort, Watkins Ale
Unto the Prophet Jonas I Read (a song for everyone who has had a supernatural commission and really really doesn't want to follow through on it)
The Scissor Sisters
I Can't Decide, because hello.
Radiohead
Exit Music for a Film
I usually listen on shuffle, because apparently I like my emotions in a blender, but I always start with 'Sound of Silence' because it just feels right. However you wish to consume this vortex of delicious despair is up to you. If you know any pieces that might fit this set please do send them by! I'm always open to expanding the runtime of the endless loop this playlist is usually on, when I'm in the mood.
Well great, now I'm all hopped up on Hamlet again, how am I supposed to sleep?
*Sadly Mr Prekopp is not playing the title role. It's everyone's loss, really.
**To be frank, this is mainly on my playlist because in the film of Copenhagen, it features prominently in the scene which concludes with the line 'The whole appearance of Elsinore, you said, was changed by knowing that Hamlet had lived there ... every dark corner there reminds us of the darkness in the human soul.' But I think it works all the same.
