Romeo And Juliet Comparison

Comparison of the reading of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by S. Prokofiev, P. Tchaikovsky and H. Berlioz.

Romeo and Juliet is a play by William Shakespeare which was written in 1595. Romeo and Juliet has been performed in music, dance, and literature. The story focused on two young lovers, Romeo and Juliet, who were born into different families and how they had disputes. They married secretly, although they were unable to live together. Unfortunately, they finally died as great lovers1. The three significant composers of Romeo and Juliet are Sergey Prokofiev, Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky, and Hector Berlioz. This paper is going to explore how these composers used orchestra, ballet music, and piano to tell the story.

[ Karen Bennett, Star-Cross’d

It was during the summer. Berlioz’s music inspired Tchaikovsky, which he developed in his Romeo and Juliet overture. In 1869, Tchaikovsky wrote the music of Romeo and Juliet because he was interested in the story of love. The musical themes were used to relate to the performers in a Shakespeare play, which expressed personalities, feelings, relationships, and situations. The first performance of Romeo and Juliet was in 1870.
The first part and the second part was the young people’s love. The orchestra played sadly. In the last part of the story listeners heard that the couple died. A short chord joined the full orchestra to express the death of Romeo9. The tones died out and there was a timpani playing to show Juliet’s death. Over a gloomy drum beat, tortured memories of the love music were heard. Finally, the music

Tchaikovsky’s music genre is the symphonic poem. The theme is full of diversity. Different music instruments play together to make the motive theme repeat again and again. On string instruments, there is a tone full of sadness. The main idea of Shakespeare’s tragedy can be reflected through the comparison of the different musical themes.
Tchaikovsky’s music theme:

(Example 4:Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet)
Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet’s music structure is extremely large and unprecedented. The harmonic language is full of complexity. Berlioz employs vocal soloists, orchestra, and chorus. Every musical language has its own performance space. Musical language plays a unique role in the whole piece. He put the battle of two families in his overture and the tragedy was reflected. In Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet, the most different part is the piece’s genre, which is “symphonie dramatique”. In example 5measure 1-4, there is a basic theme represented in the piece. The same rhythm pattern runs through the entire movement.
Berlioz music theme:

(Example 5: Berlioz Romeo and