The Music to "Macbeth"
Author(s): Robert E. Moore
Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Jan., 1961), pp. 22-40
Published by: Oxford University Press
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THE MUSIC TO MACBETH
E. MOORE
By ROBERT
I
T
HE Hecate scenesin Macbethare to the modernreaderpitifully
tinnyafter the austere grandeur of what has preceded. It is no
greatsurpriseto findthat,in so far as can be discovered,theyseem not
to have been in Shakespeare'soriginalplay at all, but were added fora
courtperformanceof about 1610, in whichotherimportantchangeswere
made.' The Folio printsthis later versionof the play, a witnessof its
continuedpopularityover the lost originalversion,which indeed it has
supplantedforall time. That the Jacobean audience should want to see
Hecate and her sisterwitchessing and dance, despite the incongruous
tone that such antics introduceinto the tragedy,is a commentaryupon
the growingtaste for the music and spectacle of masque-likeentertainments,both at courtand in the professionaltheater.For the Restoration,
Davenant doubled these suspect riches by introducinga new musical
scene in the second act to match the two that alreadyexisted.To Pepys,
who adored the witchesand is the most enthusiasticcommentatorupon
their cavortings,it seemed entirelynatural that musical scenes should
be added to Shakespeare. By the beginningof 1669, the year in which
incipient blindness forced him to abandon the Diary, he had seen
Macbeth nine times. Although it is now impossibleto fix the date of
Davenant's revival,it was in full swing by 1666, when Pepys firstreferredto its "variety,"and it was givenwithgreatsplendorin the opening season of the theaterat Dorset Garden in 1671-72, threeyears after
Davenant's death. Thereafterthe centurysaw frequentrevivals.
During most of the 18th century,Macbeth achieved the remarkable
average of fiveto six performancesa year.2It will soon be abundantly
1J. Dover Wilson's introduction to the Cambridge Macbeth (1951) gives a
convenient surveyof the complex and voluminous scholarship on this matter.
2 See C. B. Hogan, Shakespeare in the Theatre, London, 1957, II, 717.
22
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The Music to Macbeth
23
clear that a major elementin thispopularityis the musical spectacle of
the witchscenes,a phenomenonwhollyunfamiliarto modernaudiences
of Macbeth. One version of the witch music became the entrenched
favoritefromthe verybeginningof the centuryand could be heard as
late as 1888 in a productionof Irving's. Whetherthe text of the play
was Davenant's or Shakespeare's did not matter,the musical scenes
resistedall change and were almost never omitted; furthermore,
it is a
rare advertisement
that does not call attentionto the music. The history
of thisfamousscore, which held the stage a great deal longerthan any
of the operas of Handel and Haydn, and the identityof its composer
have never been satisfactorily
explained.
This particular score, which Covent Garden began advertisingas
"the original Musick" about the middle of the 18th century,a highly
ambiguous claim, has been assigned to all manner of composers,most
frequentlyto Matthew Locke, and consequentlyfor more than one
reason has earned its epithet,the "Famous Music." Whetherthis title
pleases us or not is irrelevant,forit is not only the most convenientbut
is indeed the only titlewe can adopt here to avoid confusion.
When the Famous Music firstappeared on the stage cannot be
positivelyknown,althoughwe shall see thatthe mostlikelydate is 1702.
What is positiveis its longevity.When Davenant's altered text of the
play, used continuouslysince the mid-1660s, was finallysupplanted
eightyyearslater by Shakespeare'sown, in Garrick'srevivalof January
were left intact,3
7, 1744, all the witches and musical divertissements
revivals.'
and theycontinuedto be a featureof most 19th-century
The presentstudy attemptsboth to illustratethe nature of all the
3 Dr. Burney writingin the 1770s says that he has seen Macbeth in its alteration
by Davenant and finds "that little was curtailed from the original play, or sung, but
what is still sung, and to the same music . . . of which the rude and wild excellence
cannot be surpassed" (A General History of Music, ed. Frank Mercer, 1935, II, 643).
Numerous 18th-centuryquartos of the play - e. g. 1734, 1745, 1768, 1770, 1780,
1794, all acting editions--include not only the two Hecate scenes from the Folio
but also the songs in Act II added by Davenant during the Restoration, indicating
that all available musical spectacle was retained. Jaggard lists other quartos, which
I have not seen, but most of these mention the songs on the title page. The Bell
edition of 1773, Garrick's version, omits the song Black spirits and white from Act
IV, but includes "Musick, a dance of Furies." The Hecate scenes from Acts II and
III are given in their entirety,so that three distinct musical scenes remain.
4 For accounts of particular productions see, for example, Michael Kelly's Reminiscences, London, 1826, II, 64 and 333; and George Hogarth's Memories of the
Opera, London, 1851, pp. 81-82.
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24
The Musical Quarterly
Macbeth music and to clear up some (at least) of the obscuritiessurroundingits compositionand subsequentfortunes.
II
Any attemptto identifythe composerof the Famous Music, or to
bringany sort of clarityto the tangled problemsof the Macbeth music
in general,mustbegin with an inquiryabout the music in Shakespeare's
originalplay. Althoughthe amount and the type of music vary widely
in Shakespearefromplay to play, in the originalMacbeth it is certainly
simple- an alarum fora battlescene, a flourishfora ceremonialentry
- and is not of the firstimportance.But by 1610 the witcheshad two
musical scenes.
We knowforcertaina numberof the composerswho wrotemusicfor
Macbeth. The composerof what reallyis the originalwitch music was
mostprobablyRobertJohnson,a friendof Shakespeareand Ben Jonson,
who was writingincidentalmusic forthe Blackfriarsproductionsof the
King's Men throughoutthe years 1608-1617. He is the composerof the
originalsettingsof the Tempest songs and of music for Cymbelineand
The Winter'sTale as well.5The music for the firstHecate scene of the
Folio, the song beginning"Come away" (III, vi), has survived; and it
is logical to creditJohnsonwith the other Folio song, Black spiritsand
musicforthe
white(IV, i). Doubtlesshe wroteas well some instrumental
that
demonstrate
shall
witches'dances which followedthe songs. Later I
Johnson'sscore is the germ of most of the later music, especiallyin its
and generalmood; forthisreasonwe suspectthatit was familiar
rhythms
duringthe Restoration.What is most curious about it is the manner in
which it survived.The words to the two songs we now know are from
Middleton's Witch (1610),; which was not published until 1778 - the
Folio gives only the opening words of each song- yet they were well
knownto all the Macbeth composersof the Restorationand were printed
in Davenant's alterationof the play in 1674 as well as in the quarto of
the previousyear.6Justas Davenant, upon receivingthe King's patent
5 John P. Cutts, Robert Johnson: King's Musician in His Majesty's Public Entertainment, in Music and Letters, XXXVI (1955), 110-25. Mr. Cutts has ascribed
Come away to Johnson on stylisticgrounds. See note 26, below.
6 Recently Mr. J. M. Nosworthysuggested that since Middleton's witch is genermore
savage than the prima donna and prima ballerina of Macbeth, Middleton
ally
himself may have been vandalized by some unknown author who was instructedto
interpolate the songs and dances into Shakespeare's play, which accordingly had to
undergo cuts. (The Hecate Scenes in Macbeth in Review of English Studies, XXIV
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The Music to Macbeth
25
fora theaterin 1639, and as the custodianof the company,had inherited
some of the King's Men's plays, so the original manuscriptsof stage
and masque music were handed down among the King's Men's musicians.7Not long afterRestorationaudiences firstsaw Macbeth in 1663,
to his enchantmentwith its songs,dances, and maPepys was testifying
chines.Davenant verylikelyused Johnson'smusic,for,as I have said, it
was familiarto later composers,who presumablywere impressedupon
in the theater.8
seeingits effectiveness
All this seems straightforward
enough until it is rememberedthat
Davenant in his famous alterationof Shakespeare's text added in the
second act a new Hecate scene of his own which doubled the amount
of singingand dancing. Unfortunately
we have only an idea of the date
of this version,since the text was not published until 1674, six years
afterDavenant's death. We have no record,that is, to tell us whether
the revival in 1663 employedthe Folio text,with only the two Hecate
scenes,or whetherDavenant had already made his extensivealterations
of the entiretext,with the additional music and spectacle.?Unless new
evidence should some day emerge,the problemis incapable of solution.
But the next notice of new music is most revealingwith respectto
the musical practicesof Davenant in his alteration.In November 1671
the Duke's Company, under the managementof Davenant's widow and
her son Charles, moved to a resplendentnew theaterat Dorset Garden,
where one of theirmajor effortswas a spectacularrevivalof Macbeth.
Our only account of it comes from an eye-witness,the prompterat
[1948], 138.) The identityof Hecate's author is irrelevantto my purpose, for it does
not affectthe problems of the music.
7Both actors and musicians served together in the King's private and public
entertainment. See John P. Cutts, The Original Music to Middleton's Witch,
in Shakespeare Quarterly, VII (1956), 203-09.
8 A portion of Johnson's music was finallypublished in the 19th centuryby J.
StaffordSmith in Musica Antiqua, 1812, and E. F. Rimbault in Ancient Vocal Music
of England, 1847. Mr. Cutts has located the manuscript used by Smith, and has
transcribedit for Shakespeare Quarterly,loc. cit.
9 The firstMacbeth quarto (1673) is merely a reprint of the Folio with the
addition of Davenant's new Hecate scene and the texts of Come away and Black
spirits,though the title page claims "Acted at the Dukes-Theatre," a bold falsehood.
The second quarto (1674), probably a retaliation by the Duke's Company (Davenant's), is the version that was actually being acted, "With all the Alterations,Amendments, Additions, and New Songs. As it's now Acted at the Dukes Theatre." In 1673
the new Hecate scene is divided into two parts (after II, ii and II, iii), whereas in
1674, and thereafter,it is run all together at the end of the act.
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26
The Musical Quarterly
Dorset Garden, John Downes, in his Roscius Anglicanus (1708), in a
descriptionof the firstimportance:
The Tragedy of Macbeth, altered by Sir William Davenant; being dressed
in all its finery,
as new clotkles,new scenes,machines,as flyingsfor the witches,
with all singingand dancingin it: the firstcomposedby Mr Lock, the otherby
Mr Channell and Mr JosephPriest;It being all excellentlyperformed,being in
the nature of an Opera, it recompenseddouble the expense: it proves still a
lastingplay.'0
This notice, aside from enlighteningus on what was considered an
the huge popularityof this version,was for two
opera, and affirming
centuriesthe single source by which the name of Matthew Locke was
associated with the Macbeth music. It was to confuseall discussionsof
the music for generationsthereafter.
The notice makes it appear that Locke composed a score especially
for this revival,which indeed he may have done. The most frustrating
aspect of searching for theatermusic of this period is that while the
play was usually printed,with consequentlya good chance of survival,
the accompanyingmusic seldom got beyond the state of manuscript;
even of these, many undoubtedlywore out in time, or were lost, or
burned,or else were discardedwhen a revivalbroughtin anothercomposer to set new music. When music survives,most often in printed
collectionssuch as those of Playford,we cannot always identifythe
composer, and newspaper announcementsare maddeninglyperverse.
At any rate, two centurieslater a musical scholar found scraps of
Locke's Macbeth music in collections published as early as 1666."
Thus it is clear that though Locke may be the sole composer of the
1672 revival,he had alreadybeen engaged by Davenant in the mid-'60s
to supply music for Macbeth. I should conjecturethat his task was to
supplementthe Johnsonscore,principallyof courseby composingmusic
forDavenant's new witchscene. In fact one of these Locke dance tunes
fitsexactly the Davenant text "Let's have a dance upon the heath,"
but it is possiblethat all the music to Davenant's 1663 revivalis Locke's.
What is certain is that Locke modeled his dance tunes upon the old
Johnsonscore, which was in the theater'spossessionand which he had
is 1672.
date, by implication,
six yearslaterin the
11E. F. Rimbault,Musical Times,May 1, 1876; reprinted
same periodicalby W. H. Cummings.One tune appears in threeplaces: Musick's
10 The
Delight on the Cithern, 1666; Apollo's Banquet for the Treble Violin, 1669; and
The Pleasant Companion, or New Lessons and Instructionsfor the Flageolet, 1680.
The second tune, The Witches Dance, is in Apollo's Banquet only.
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The Music to Macbeth
27
obviously studied. Since Downes's note of the 1672 revival mentions
Locke as the only composer (Priest and Channell were choreographers),
I should think it likelythat up to that time some of the older music
was retained. All that now survives of Locke's music, for whatever
production,are the two dance tunes reprintedby Dr. Rimbault; the
on this early stage of the
songs have vanished.'2 More definitiveness
is
I
fear impossible.
history
The confusionsrevolvingabout Locke's name began many years
later,in the second half of the 18th century,when William Boyce came
to printthe Famous Music for the firsttime and, on the strengthof
Downes's notice, erroneouslyascribed it to Matthew Locke.'3 It did
not occur to him that theremightbe numerousRestorationrevivalsof
the play,each witha new musicalscore. (The two usuallywenttogether,
as newspaperadvertisements
in the early 18th centurytestify.)'4In the
same decade both Dr. Burney and Sir John Hawkins accepted the
ascriptionto Locke in their pioneer historiesof music, both published
in 1776. Concurrentlythe theatersin their newspaper notices forsook
the simple claim of "the original music" for the seemingly more
authoritative"Locke's original music.""
Not until well into the 19th century,when musicians and scholars
began to learn more about Locke's fairlyextensiveoutput, did misgivingsarise. The Famous Music sounded like nothingelse by Locke;
it must thereforebe by somebodyelse. To rehearsethe extensivecon12It is not completely safe to assume that because Locke is the only composer
mentioned by Downes no other composers are involved. Yet I am inclined to accept
his statement,for in the seven other instances where Downes names the composer to
an opera or play we know that he is correct.
13 Boyce's edition, which is dedicated to Garrick, is undated. For unaccountable
reasons some critics,including Cummings and Lawrence, settledon 1750, twentyyears
too early. I have discovered the advertisementof the firstpublication in the Public
Advertiserfor May 23, 1770. This materiallyalters the argumentsabout the authorship of the music.
14The manuscriptused by Boyce is BM Egerton 2957, a much worn theatercopy
with Leveridge's name insertedabove the firstHecate solo. Boyce has figuredthe bass
and added a tenor part to the chorus Come away; otherwise he is faithfulto the
manuscript,which is scored for stringsalone. Other manuscriptsof the Famous Music
I have examined are two in the BritishMuseum (RCM 2232 and Royal Music 21.c.
42), both early 18th-centurycopies, one at the Fitzwilliam Museum dated about 1708,
two at the Folger (one 1715 to 1725, the other 1785), and one each at the New York
and Boston Public Libraries.
15The firstadvertisementI can find is for Drury Lane, November 25, 1776, in
which nineteen singersare listed. Afterthis it persistsuntil the late 19th century,when
Hecate was at last banished from the play as a singer.
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28
The Musical Quarterly
here
troversyon this subject would require many pages. It is sufficient
to know that the composersmostfrequentlyawarded the Famous Music
were John Eccles and his great contemporaryPurcell."6In the musical
analysis that follows presentlyI shall, in discussingthe music itself,
show why it is impossibleto accept any of these composers,and why
we must look to a slightlylater generation.
The most probable composerof the Famous Music, for reasons of
both chronologyand musicology,is Richard Leveridge (1670-1758).
Principallyknown today as the composer of the familiarballads The
Roast Beef of Old England and Black-EyedSusan, he was forover fifty
years the leading basso of the London stage, the successorto Gostling;
he showed particularmasteryof the virtuosoarias of Purcell,who wrote
for him the celebrated song Ye twice ten hundred deities from The
Indian Queen. He was as well the popularizerof a great many songs
written by himself. Several musicologistshave tentativelysuggested
Leveridge as the Macbeth composer,since the music seems early 18thcentury,but have carried the matterno further.'7
That Leveridge wrote some music to Macbeth is a certainty.On
November 19, 1702, the Daily Courant announced the evening'sMacbeth at Drury Lane "with Vocal and InstrumentalMusick, all new
Compos'd by Mr. Leveridge,and perform'dby him and others." For
the next fifteenyearshe was nearlyalways announced as the composer
as well as one of the singers,his role being Hecate. After 1717 the
composeris nevermentioned,doubtlessbecause the music was no longer
new and could not be claimed as a novelty.Thereafterall advertise16Much of the confusionis summarizedby W. J. Lawrence, who worse confounds
it in his article Who Wrote the Famous Macbeth Music? (in The Elizabethan Playhouse and Other Studies, First Series, 1912, pp.209-24), by doggedly championing
Purcell, though entirelyon non-nrusicalevidence. This widely known essay has established Purcell as the Macbeth composer in the opinion of most literaryscholars and
historians of the theater including Nicoll, Summers, Dover Wilson, and Hazleton
Spencer. Some musicologists,like Barclay Squire and Dent, continued to express
doubts, but what literary scholars read musicologists? Furthermore,the latter advanced no other candidate.
17Loewenberg and Westrup, for instance. Loewenberg in the new Grove's
Dictionary (1954) thinks the music may be Leveridge's, but then adds, "So far,
however, his music has not been identified beyond doubt, and the relationship
between the various settingsof the time, by Purcell, Eccles, and Leveridge, and the
edition published by Boyce in 1750 as by Locke (but almost certainlynot by Locke),
still remains to be settled." Dent prints an excerpt from the Famous Music under
Leveridge's name preceded by a question mark, but in the text he considers it as
possibly early Purcell and does not consider Leveridge. (Foundations of English
Opera [1928], pp.129-36.)
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The Music to Macbeth
29
ments announce "with original music" or "with all songs,dances, and
other decorationsproper to the play" and so on. A manuscriptof the
Famous Music in the FitzwilliamMuseum carriesthe title page, "The
Musick of Macbeth sett by M. Leveridge."'" The vocal parts, instead
of Hecate, First Witch, etc., are writtenLeveridge, Harison, Larson,
and so on, indicatinga playhousecopy. As anotherevidence of Leverquartos printthe texts
idge's authorship,a numberof the 18th-century
of the Hecate scenes in an appendix with the note "Set by Mr. Leveridge."'9
These factshave thus far not been sufficient
to establishLeveridge's
claim irrefutably.Champions of Purcell have raised objections20
that I
believe I can now resolve.Since Leveridgepublishedmany songs under
his name, they ask, why did he never publish any of the Macbeth
music, if it is his? At least two answersoccur to me. Leveridge'spublished songs are nearly all separate ballads sung during the entr'actes,
while the Macbeth score is a continuous dramatic scene, or rather
three scenes. Besides, the score was undoubtedlyowned by the theater
and not by Leveridge. It is then asked why Leveridge should have
remainedsilentin 1750 when Boyce publishedthe score under Locke's
name. These questionersare mistakenin the date, which is 1770, twelve
years after Leveridge's death.21As for the unreliabilityof theatrical
advertisements
in newspapers,they are oftenambiguous,but not often
is one man's propertyboldly given to another.22Finally, if Leveridge's
Macbeth score is somethingother than the Famous Music, why have
no traces of it ever been found? Even though proof is impossible,all
the circumstancesseem to me to point to Leveridge as our composer,
but what is equally convincingis the music itself,and to this we now
turn.
III
Let us begin by seeing what the witch scenes actually contained.
What did the various composersset to music? There are threescenes,
18Fuller-Maitland's
catalogue of the Fitzwilliam music states that the volume
containing this manuscript,plus four other scores all in the same hand, dates from
about 1708. The hand is of course not Leveridge's.
19See note 3, above.
20 Who Wrote the Macbeth Music? in
Concordia, Nov. 27, 1875.
21See note 13.
22At Lincoln's Inn Fields on Dec. 1, 1731, Leveridge is announced to sing in
"Diocletian, A Dramatick Opera." Purcell is not mentioned; Leveridge is of course
not given credit as the composer of the score.
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30
The Musical Quarterly
occurringin the second, third,and fourthacts. The last two, as we
know, are in the Folio, thoughthe textsare not printedthere.The first
witchscene, thatin Act II, is whollyDavenant's, added in 1663 or soon
It occurs at a somewhat incongruousmoment,just after
thereafter.23
the discoveryof the murderand the flightof Malcolm and Donalbaine.
Macduff and his wife, also hasteningto leave Scotland, cross a heath
where they encounterthe witches (four are listed in Davenant's text).
The "First Song" consists of snatches of dialogue concerning their
various crimes which the witches sing to each other, followed by a
chorus, "We should rejoice when good kings bleed," to which they
dance. Aftera few agitated commentsby the Macduffs,the "Second
Song" follows,
Let'shavea danceupontheheath;
We gainmorelifeby Duncan'sdeath...
At the end of thisfairlylong song of twentylines,afterfurtherremarks
by Macduff,comes "A Dance of Witches." To judge fromthe various
manuscriptsof the Famous Music, this scene took nearlyas long as the
two other witch scenes put together,so that Davenant may be said to
have doubled the operatic parts of the play.
The second scene, at the end of Act III, is indicated in the Folio,
"Music and a song within: Come away, come away, etc." This, the
firstof Middleton's Hecate scenes, is the most useful in helping us to
distinguishamong the various musical versions.Malkin, an attendant
spiritin a cloud, calls to Hecate, then descends in a machine to fetch
her. Hecate summonsthe various witches- Stadling, Puckle, Hopper,
and Helway are named - who exchangegreetingswithher, afterwhich
she gets into the machine with Malkin and rides throughthe air. Ap2sHazleton Spencer, Shakespeare Improved, Cambridge, Mass., 1927, p. 156,
ventured an unlikely guess that this scene "had probably got attached to the play
long before Davenant began tampering with it." He offers no evidence. On the
other hand, an autograph in Davenant's own hand of a part of the scene ("Let's
have a dance upon the heath") is in the Folger Library.
It should be added that Christopher Spencer in an unpublished Yale dissertation, The Problems of Davenant's Text of Shakespeare's Macbeth (1955), thinks
that Davenant made his version from Shakespeare's "foul papers," which he conjectures would contain not only a Shakespearian song hitherto assumed to be by
Davenant but also the foul papers of "Middletonian" additions to Macbeth, which
he suggestswere largely writtenby Shakespeare. The elaborate reasoning (Chap. 8)
seems to me not convincing. The principal refutationof Spencer's claim is Shakespeare's play itself, the spirit of which is utterly unconsonant with the elaborate
cavortings of the witches.
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The Music to Macbeth
31
parentlythis was a fairlyelaborate business,for it is accompanied by
a longishsong beginning,
this,
O whata daintypleasure's
To sail in theair,whilethemoonshinesfair.
The whole chorus of witchesjoins in, "We flyby nightmongsttroops
of spirits,"and as the machine disappearsinto the clouds the thirdact
closes."4
Act IV opens with the longer of the Folio's Hecate scenes, just
before Macbeth enters to receive the prophecy. Musically it is the
shortest,consistingof only the song Black spiritsand white for Hecate
and the witches,and, afterMacbeth has heard the propheticutterances,
"Music: the WitchesDance and Vanish." This last is undoubtedlythe
noticesmentionprominently.
Dance of Furies,which many 18th-century
These, then, are the three witch scenes. Portions of four settings
remain: the earlyJohnsonsettingto the whole of the scene in Act III,
Come away; the two dance tunesby Locke (1666 or earlier); a manuscriptscore coveringmost of all three scenes by John Eccles (1696);
and finallythe Famous Music, which also covers the three scenes.
None of these sets exactly the same lines- there are even variations
of occasional words among various manuscriptsof the same scorebut in general there is one major differencebetween the text of the
Famous Music and that of the earlier versions,a differencethat sets
it quite apart and also, I think,proves it to be of a later date. In the
music to Act III (Come away) Davenant printsseven lines,beginning
"Here comes one down to fetch his due," set by both Johnsonand
Eccles, and four lines at the end of the scene, "No ring of bells to our
ears sounds," set by Johnsonalone, which are not found in any version
of the Famous Music, nor in any of the 18th-centuryquartos of
Macbeth that I have seen, all of which follow the Famous Music
exactly.Furthermore,in some manuscriptsof the Famous Music there
are two extra versesto the second act chorus,"We should rejoice when
good kingsbleed," which are printedin all these 18th-century
quartos,
but are not to be found in any Davenant text or any Restorationscore.
measures of the Act III scene in the
Finally, for the firsttwenty-three
24 18th-centuryadvertisements,which sometimes list over a dozen vocalists,
prove that the battery of witches grew larger than the four named for speaking
parts. The actor playing Hecate is sometimes listed under both "Hecate" and
"Vocal Parts," sometimesmerely under "Hecate."
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The Musical Quarterly
32
Famous Music, thereis no equivalent in Johnsonor Eccles. There are
other slightdifferencesof single words all aligning the Famous Music
with the 18th-centuryquartos rather than with the earlier ones.25I
should thus thinkit obvious, if the styleof the music were not alone
a sufficientguide, that the Famous Music is the version for all performancesthroughoutthe 18th century,but did not serve the Restoration, which adhered strictlyto Davenant's text as late as Eccles in
1696. Had these facts been noticed before,the case for Purcell, who
died in 1695, would have been much less persuasive.
IV
Most of the Johnsonmusic (printed in Shakespeare Quarterlyof
Spring 1956) might be called declamatory,for although there is a
vocal line of sortsin common time, and simple harmonies,obvious in
spiteof the lack of figuresin the bass, thereis no verymarkedrhythmical
patternor much feelingof progressionor of melody. Hecate is called,
and in turnanswersin what is almostbut not quite a seriesof fragments,
a musical declamation rather than one continuous and organized
composition.Although it is music of the utmostsimplicity,it is fairly
vigorous.26The last part of Johnson'ssetting,the four lines beginning
"No ring of bells to our ears sounds," changes to triple time and
achievesthe unifiedeffectof a littlesong. It is conceivablythe model for
Locke's "Dance in the Play of Mackbeth" (printedin Apollo's Banquet,
1669), which is writtenin the same style (see Ex. 1). The style of
this dance is a great deal simplerthan is usual for Locke - consider
his Tempest music of 1674 or the dance tunes fromCupid and Death
in the 1650s - and suggeststo me that Davenant had asked him to
consupply music for the new witch scene in Act II which would be
sonant with the familiarJohnsonmusic that Davenant was continuing
to use in the old scenes. The supposition is strengthenedwhen we
observe that Locke's dance tune (which is not accompanied by words
25 See note 3, above. These quartos are all based not on Davenant but on
Shakespeare's Folio text, yet they include all the songs, either printed in the text
or in an appendix at the end with the note "Set by Mr. Leveridge."
26 Of this music Cutts says: "On stylistic grounds I feel quite certain that
'Come away Hecket' is Robert Johnson's setting. It has distinct affinitieswith an
ascribed Robert Johnson setting of 'Come away yu Lady gay' from Beaumont and
Fletcher's The Chances, c. 1615, the music being extant in Bod.Lib.MS Don.c.57.119
(129). The same technique and emphasis on verbal rhythmis in evidence. Both
are witch songs and are essentially dramatic in character" (Shakespeare Quarterly,
VII, 206).
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The Music to Macbeth
33
Ex. I
Let'shavea dance.,up- on
Jalh.
more
lifeby Dun-can's
e hea
th, We 9ainm
no mu-sic but our mew.
Hva-ing
- led cats weshow,
brind
Somefimeslike
To whichwedance.in someold mill,Up- on
fhe hop- per,stone,or
wheel,
To
Wherestill the mill- clack does keepfime.
someold saw, or bard-ish
rhyme,
in any of the threeplaces where it has been found) is clearlyhis setting
of the Davenant witches'song in the second act. The text,besides suggestinga dance, fitsthe music perfectly:
Let's have a danceupontheheath,
We gainmorelifebyDuncan'sdeath.
like brindledcats we shew,
Sometimes
music
butourmew,etc.
no
Having
The other tune that has been preservedfrom Locke's score is in
the same style,though its wide melodic range indicatesthat it was not
sung, and it is equally unlike Locke's usual manner.
Ex. 2
II
M
3i!g
J, i
o
- -ai...d
!u
i-
w goi.
-
1.#-!IP
A
4V
I
;2Ako
I
I
i
-
, iP
'
r
!
is
i
irr z-
I.
m
?
i
i
I
!
,
p
9 1
Locke after all was born at about the time Johnsondied, and came
under very differentmusical influences.Two excerpts are admittedly
not much evidence,but we shall now observe a similar patternin the
later scores.
It was assumed as early as the time of StaffordSmith and Linley in
thatboth Eccles and the composerof the
the 1820s, and I thinkcorrectly,
Famous Music were intimatelyacquainted with the Johnsonscore. The
spirit of all these settingsis similar, and there is no great difference
in idiom even though there is nearly a hundred years between them.
There is markedsimilarityin the rhythmsof many phrases,thoughhow
much of this is dictated solelyby the text,with no question of musical
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34
The Musical Quarterly
influence,is impossibleto say. CertainlyEccles's scores, like those of
Locke and to a far lesser degree of Leveridge, are usually more complex than the Macbeth. One feels that these composers,having been
of the old music and
deeply impressedby the theatricaleffectiveness
by what the audience had come to expect in Macbeth, were content
to followthe establishedpattern.To say that thisis how witchesalways
sounded in the Restorationwill not suffice,forthe Sorceressin Purcell's
Dido and Aeneas, to go no further,will confuteus. In otherwords,the
Macbeth scores exhibita continuousmusical tradition,suggestingagain
that the old Johnson score had remained in the theater company's
possessionstraightthroughthe century.
In both the Eccles score and the Famous Music thereis one major
differencefromJohnson,and that is in the elaborate four-partchoruses
for the witches.Hecate is writtenfor the bass, while the three singing
witchesare treble,alto, and tenor.Such an arrangementof courseallows
in which Eccles is always considerablymore
forcontrapuntaltreatment,
Music. The second-act chorus, We
is
the
than
Famous
complicated
should rejoice, for example, he repeats three times, and each time
while the repetitionsin the Famous Music are identical. In
differently,
the third-actchorus,Oh come away, Eccles gives varyingnote values to
the different
voices,the treblealwaysbeing more rapid and consequently
of
consisting more verbal repetitionthan the others. In fact Eccles
throughouthis scoreshowsa moreskillfuland sophisticatedmusical technique than the Famous Music, and his harmonizationis consistently
more complex. Eccles, who was about Purcell's age and grew up in the
same musical tradition,collaborated with him on music for a number
of plays, and oftenexhibitssome of the complexitiesof Purcell's style,
particularlyin surprising (to Dr. Burney "crude") harmonies and
variety,of whichthe Famous Music is totallyinnocent.Much
rhythmical
of the stage music of Eccles, and more especially that of the earlier
Locke, is full of erratic but vigorous rhythms,bold harmonic proof the English middle
gressions,odd melodic turns- all characteristics
is
master
Purcell.27But Eccles's
Baroque style of which the supreme
Macbeth score, as I have said, is in his simplestvein. Never printed,it
27See M. F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era, New York, 1947, Ch. VI.
Dr. Anthony Lewis has described Locke's Tempesi music as "wonderfullyexpressive, but . . . too tightly packed with elusive meaning to succeed entirely in its
dramatic function" (Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, XLVII [1948],
68). Nothing could be less like the Famous Music.
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The Music to Macbeth
35
presumablyhad no stage historymuch beyond 1696, when it was
written,for the Famous Music soon supplantedit.28
Compared with the worksof Eccles or Purcell, the Famous Music,
made up of I, IV, and V chords and concise uncomplicatedrhythms,
displays a jaunty trippingquality that may at times seem innocuous.
Yet these are the verythingsthat contributeto its effectiveness
on the
the
the
meditative
of
stage. Lacking
graver depths,
surprises Purcell, it
would be uninteresting
music to hear in concert.On the other hand,
since it is made up of a series of fullyconcertednumbers,it exhibits
far more continuitythan the ratherchoppy and declamatoryJohnson
setting.The music to all three acts is in the key of F major, and its
most adventurousexcursionsare into the relative minor or into brief
measures of such closely related keys as C or B-flat or E-flat major.
But the score, simple as it is, exhibitsthat strongsense of tonalityso
importantfor establishinga sense of unity in stage music. Its finest
effectsare in the Come away scene where Hecate suddenlyrises from
below and calls each of the witcheswho answerin turn,withmomentary
allusions to related keys before returningto F for the jubilant chorus
to "Come away." Here the quickened rhythms,the ever-increasing
volume, the relentlessrepetitionsof the word "come" by full chorus,
withinterruptions
of vigorousinstrumental
phrases,lead into an exciting
climax as Hecate in her magical machine vanishes suddenly into the
clouds, and the witchesrun fromthe stage.
Once the musicalidiom is takenforgranted,the whole episode makes
a trulydramaticvariationin the pace of the tragedy.It is not without
flamboyance,and it is exactlyright."We do not ask formusic of great
intrinsicvalue, but rather for music of theatrical aptness and point,
often a differentthing altogether. (So brilliant a score as Berlioz's
Damnation of Faust, for example, is monumentallystatic as a stage
piece.) What may seem unimpressivein a score-like the suggestion
of huntinghornsby the violinsin the hunt scene of Dido and Aeneasis excitingon the stage.
28 There are five copies of the Eccles score in the British Museum. Add. 12219
is the original 1696 stage manuscript with the names of the singers. A much
worn copy, it is scored for stringswith figuredbass and a part for the serpent in the
opening "symphony." Other copies are Add. 29378, Add. 31454, RCM 182, and
RCM 857.
2 Dent, Foundations of English Opera, London, 1928, p. 131 ff.,quotes several
pages of this scene. The only other available copy of the music in print is a 19thcentury piano-vocal arrangement still published by Samuel French, Ltd., and
ascribed to Locke.
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36
The Musical Quarterly
Having given some idea of the nature of the Famous Music as well
as its genesisand its relationto the old Johnsonscore, I may indicate
brieflymy reasonsfroma musical pointof view forsuggestingLeveridge
as the composer. Circumstancesof chronologyand performancehave
been already discussed.Stylistically
the music is far simpler,as I have
said, than the stage music of Locke or Purcell or Eccles. It would be
an easy matterto compare the Famous Music with the Eccles settings
(invariably more ornate) of the same lines, for most of the text is
I have alreadydescribed.But it
commonto both, despitethe differences
is more interestingto contrasta few passages of our score with the
masterpieceof the earlierstyle,Purcell'sDido and Aeneas (1689), a procedure that will have the advantage of furthereliminatingPurcell as a
candidate forthe composerof the Famous Music. The music to Dido is
in nearly every way similar to that of Purcell's "dramatic operas"spoken drama with incidentalmusic-and is particularlypertinenthere
forits witches'scenes.
Purcell'sopera beginswith a full-scaleFrench or Luilian overturein
C minor, the firstpart very slow with rich chromaticharmonies,the
second part a briskcontrapuntallyconceived dance movement.In the
two parts one can hear the predominantmoods of the opera-the quiet
griefof Dido and the spritelyactivityof the witches,sailors,and hunters;
but it mustof course be rememberedthat the French overtureis always
thus divided. Although in no sense an "atmospheric"overturein the
manner, it is essentiallyappropriate to the spirit of the
19th-century
opera. The "Symphony"beforethe firstwitchscene in Macbeth, merely
an orchestralintroductionto the scene, is by comparison childishly
F major, it once modulatesmomentarily
simple. In open, unmysterious
to C major and again to B-flat.It is a single movementwithoutvariation in eithertempo or rhythm,and can hardlybe called descriptiveof
the witches.
The entranceof the witches,which opens the second scene of Dido,
allows a more pertinentcomparison,since the action is largelyparalleled
in Macbeth. Purcell begins with a slow prelude in F minor,pregnant
with rich sonoritiesand "advanced" modulations,followedby a dramatic freerecitativein which the Sorceresscalls her sisterwitches.The
accompanimentillustratesone of Purcell's specialitieswhich are quite
foreignto any of the Macbeth settings,the maintainingof a vigorous
rhythmicalfigurein nearly every measure independentlyof the voice.
The witchesenterwith a gay chorus,Harm's our delight,beginningin
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The Music to Macbeth
37
B-flatmajor and ending in F; then the Sorceresscontinuesin F minor
to the same accompanimentas before.A chorusof laughterin F major
interruptsher. The verses beginning "But ere we this perform" are
split into a fairlytaxing duet in D minor for two witches,followedby
the haunting echo chorus, In our deep vaulted cell, a solemn and
even eerie ending to the singing.An "Echo Dance of Furies" terminates
the act.
The entrancein Macbeth, "Speak, sister,speak" is a strictlyrhythmical recitativein F major, witha momentaryexcursionintothe relative
minor,followedby a cheerfultune set to such lines as "Many more murders must thisone ensue" and "Dread horrorsstillabound." The scene
continueswith alternatesingingby Hecate and the chorusof witchesin
when intoned in a giant
broad, open music of undoubted effectiveness
basso like Leveridge's,but inordinatelysimple in contrastto the Dido
music:
Ex. 3
When winds and waves are warring,earfhquakes and mountainsearin9,
And
monarchs die despair-ing,
what should we
do?
The echo bit fromMacbeth is put ratherineffectually
into the last page
of the scene,beginning"And nimbly,nimblydance we still." An allegro
passage is no veryhappy terrainforan echo. The superb Sorceressaside,
Purcell's witches,despite the greatercomplexityof their music, are as
jaunty as thoseof Macbeth, briskand cheerychoruseslike Destruction's
our delight (from the second witch scene in Dido) presumablyconveyingto the Restorationhearer a kind of horrornot at once apparent
to a modern audience, whose ideas of the supernatural have been
influencedby Romantic music in the atmosphericvein. This sort of
movementin Purcell may be illustratedby the contrapuntally
developed
duet for two witches,But ere we this perform,a far more complex
compositioneven in its mere tune than the correspondingpassage, Let's
have a dance upon the heath,fromthe Famous Music and fromEccles
lament,When I am laid
(Ex. 4). The climax of Dido is the magnificent
in earth,with its celestialcoda, "With droopingwings,"too familiarfor
comment here. To compare this with anythingin the Famous Music
would be idle.
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38
The Musical Quarterly
Ex. 4
24=
Purcell
F'
=R
-
Eccles
A
Famous
Music
I"
i-- 1
"O
=
iIF
F
'
-
"
-
One final Purcellian hallmarkbeforewe turn to Leveridge.This is
his innate dramatic penchant of seizing upon particular words in a
text, and in an elaborate passage attemptingto describe the emotion
of the single word. In Dido's lines commencing "Whence could so
much virtue spring?" we have fine declamatorymusic expressingthe
nobilityof Aeneas and the admirationof Dido. Yet when she reaches
the last line, "How soft in peace, and yet how fiercein arms," she
descendsto the word "soft" by a semitone,and twice repeatsit with a
languishingappoggiatura; and a momentlater burstsout with a boisterousroulade upon the word "fierce."30This sort of affectivewriting,
characteristic
of all traineddramaticcomposersof the Baroque, is absent
in the Famous Music and rarelypresentin the songs of Leveridge.
Although I think,from both internaland external evidence, that
Leveridge is the most likelycomposerof the Famous Music, it would
be recklessto claim actual proof.What seems positiveis ratherthat the
music is froma later period than Purcell's. Leveridge's principal published work, a two-volumecollectionof songs printedin 1727 with a
frontispieceby Hogarth, is for several reasons not very helpful for
songs
purposes of comparisonwith the Famous Music. All forty-three
are ballads, largelymodeled upon folksongs,and are suggestiveof the
Beggar's Opera ballads of the followingyear. Most of them deal with
some aspect of love and are usually in minor keys; thus they are in a
differentspiritfrom the Macbeth music. Although it is impossibleto
conjecturethe dates of the individual compositions,it should be borne
in mind that the collectionwas published a full twenty-five
years after
the firstknown associationof Leveridgewith Macbeth, for the styleof
the Famous Music is more elementarythan that of mostof theseballads.
Nevertheless,all the songs are withinthe simple unsophisticatedframework, almost devoid of ornate flourishes,that usually sets Leveridge
30The exaggeration of this passage was noted by George Hogarth, op. cit.,
p. 94.
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The Music to Macbeth
39
apart fromsuch of his earlier contemporariesas the two Purcells and
Eccles. I have chosenone song in the 1727 collection,Time Anticipated,
a tune similarto those of many Leveridgebroadsides,because it reflects
the idiom and the spiritof both Let's have a dance upon the heath
(Act II) and Now I go, o now I fly (Act III) of the Famous Music.
Ex. 5
Since timeis hurryingon
and can'tbe bribed+o stay,
and can't be bribedo stay;
can't be bribed,
hourswith
mirth
I'llcrown and laugh
and
The hourswithmirthI'llcrown, the
andlaughandlivetoday
In similar style are several Leveridge songs of 1707 appearing in
the Monthly Masque of Vocal Music. The songs are all simple and
straightforward,
usually in tripletime, and reminiscentof the witches'
The songs in this collectionby Eccles, Weldon, indeed by all
choruses.31
the othercomposers,are infinitely
more elaborate and Italianate. Being
a professionalcomposerforthe theater,Leveridgecould of course write
in everypopular styleof the day, includingthe bravura Italian manner
devised to show off a virtuososinger.The bulk of his writings,nevertheless,belong to the 18th century,when the middle Baroque style
visible in Locke and culminatingin the dense richnessof Purcell had
given way to a style simpler and less subtle. From this later period
comes the Macbeth music.
It is interesting
that Dr. Burney,praisingthe Macbeth score in his
famoushistory,findsin it none of the antique cruditiesand irregularities
he often objects to in the music of Purcell and Locke.32This is the
more significantsince, followingBoyce, he thinksthe music is actually
by Locke and was writtenin 1672. In otherwords Burneyguessed the
truth about the Famous Music's composition- that it is early 18thcentury- withoutactually realizingit.
To have all the evidence concerningthe Macbeth music at last
assembled is, I hope, both useful and instructive,but it is not to be
31 A song from the August collection beginning "If to love or good wine your
heart should incline" contains a chorus with repetitions on "fill" and runs on the
word "about" in the idiom of the witches. See also in July, "Since the day of poor
man, that little, little span."
32 Op. cit., II, 384
f., 387, 390, 403, 644.
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40
The Musical Quarterly
denied that though many facts are here, some suppositionsremain. To
settlepositivelythe question of who wrote the long-popularscore may
be ultimatelyimpossible,but that may be less importantthan demonstratingthe nature of the score, the continuityof the musical tradition,
and the significanceof the musical versionof the play to two hundred
years of Shakespearean stage history.The musical Macbeth is a near
approach to that genre unique to the Restoration,the grandioseentertainmentknown as the dramatic opera. Maligned by musicians and
literaryscholars alike, its accomplishmentsyet include impressivework
fromDryden and Shadwell (a good librettist)as well as a great deal
of the finestmusic Purcell wrote.The Macbeth is not strictlyrepresentative of the species, for it has but three operatic scenes graftedonto a
grimtragedy,yetitswide popularityformorethan two centuriesreminds
us of the fundamentalappeal of this form of art. We must thinkof
theseworksnot as perversionsof Shakespearebut as unique and colorful
in theirown right.
offerings
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