Inspired Songs Of William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet Inspired Songs Introduction

For our “Romeo and Juliet” project, we chose to write and perform songs about the tragedy by William Shakespeare. We decided on the option of writing original songs because all of us have musical interests and play at least one instrument, and we originally formed the group around people who can sing and play instruments. We also wanted to learn more about other artists’ style of music and how to effectively collaborate and write music as a group. We held meetings at each other's homes and after school so that we could write three different songs, each about a different section of the play. We incorporated the ukulele and piano for musical accompaniment. Once the chords were set, we composed a

The main ideas of our songs closely relate to the story of Romeo and Juliet and how the characters must have felt, so our group incorporated some of the most famous lines and scenes from the play, such as “thus with a kiss I die”(5.3.120). We tried to put ourselves in the shoes of the characters so that we could accurately write each song as if we were them and were facing the difficult decisions they had to make. Our first song, “Two Houses”, is focused on the feud between the two battling families, the Montagues and the Capulets, and how they must have felt through all of the contentions, deaths, and pain, illustrated in “Romeo and Juliet.” The second song, “Lovers in Verona,” focuses mainly on Romeo and Juliet's desperation to be together, their dreams for the future, and their worries that foreshadow what may lie ahead. As in the story, Romeo and Juliet fall deeply in love very quickly and they make their decision to stay together or die very clear. We used lines from the famous balcony scene such as “deny thy father and refuse thy name” and to incorporate more of the story and tie together their feelings of love(2.2.34).“How can I go forward when my heart is here” is a line that we wrote and felt perfectly convokes how we shaped the lyrics around what we

During the Elizabethan times, music was very prominent in society. It contributed to the social hierarchy, as there were different songs and styles of music for each class. As in the tragedy, the Montagues and the Capulets were high class, so the music they listened to was largely at music festivals and parties, such as the ball where Romeo and Juliet first met. The music was meant for only nobles to dance to, such as the Montague and Capulet families. The nobles served as royal advisers, military officers or politicians. Nobles had more land and were well respected by others because they were the most elite in class besides the royal families and many people tried to marry into the nobles to have their social status increased and have a better life. The royal family would hire many personal musicians to their own benefit. The merchants were the class under the nobles and they were people who were skilled in their profession such as wool and boat making. Under the merchants were people of the middle class. Middle class people consisted of mainly shopkeepers and professionals of other work fields. Middle class people could move up to merchant class by their profession. Below the middle class were the workers who had no talent of any kind. The workers could work at any jobs that was offered to them.