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Costa Rican Pottery Whistle dated c. 800-1525. This pottery whistle is similar to the one shown in the video version of today’s podcast by our guest Chris Johnston. Thank you to Alexander Sovronsky for sharing the history of this artifact and how it would have been available to a playwright like Shakespeare in the 16th century. | Image details: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Aerophone-Whistle Flute-whistle, H: 44mm; W: 45cm; L: 46mm; Wt: 32g. Made of Clay. Public Domain. Source Sound Effects: Bird Whistles Bird sounds take place in Shakespeare’s plays, but none perhaps so well known as the nightengale and lark that occurs in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. “It was the nightingale, and not the lark,That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.” – Juliet, Romeo and Juliet (III.5) Alexander and Chris discuss the creation of these effects in Shakespeare’s theater and along with the very real possibility that the noises of bird sounds were made by the actors themselves whistling with their lips, it could also have been made by a unique pottery whistle which is a kind of wind instrument. This ceramic pottery whistle was available to Shakespeare and certainly could have been the source of the bird whistles we see on stage. Bird sound is probably made by a flute based instrument, or a pipe (horn also, depending on the bird sound). Actors whistling also used to make bird sounds. As the Capulets are exiting, they can’t be making the sound, [therefore] the Nurse is a good option for the actor who could have generated this sound [from off stage]. Related Episode You Might Enjoy …she had a song of ‘willow;’An old thing ’twas, but it express’d her fortune,And she died singing it: that song to-nightWill not go from my mind… Desdemona Othello (IV.3) This is an example of a virginal, a specific instrument that would have been used in theaters like Shakespeare’s Globe. Musicians would accompany the actions on stage, sitting off to the sides of the main action area, and play instruments like this one. | Virginal “ à la quinte” made by Hans Ruckers 1583 – Paris Musée de la Musique. (Object nr. E.986.1.2). The instrument sounds a fifth higher than standard pitch, and it is the only virginal with this pitch, that has been preserved.| Public Domain | Source | We discuss the virginal and other stage musical instruments in our episode with Mary Springels of the Newberry Consort. Sound Effects: Desdemona’s Willow Song [Over 30 times across his works Shakespeare writes simply “Music plays” or calls for just “music” in the stage directions without any specific indication as to what kind of music. Alexander explains some of the sources for this “music”: We have evidence that Shakespeare worked with composers, particularly at court, and the play the Tempest is a great example of that… a lot of Shakespeare’s career involves the use of actor/musicians, and they get more popular and the role grows over his career...
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