| Shakespeare's Sonnets |
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AUSTAT member Lawrence Bruce has recorded 33 of Shakespeare's sonnets and has generously agreed to make them available online.
A broadband connection is recommended for the best performance when playing these files. Dial-up connections should work fine, however allow please allow some time for each sound file to download into the player. To hear the sonnets you must have the Adobe Flash Player installed in your web browser. If you cannot see the player below then you can download the free Flash player here. (Just click the link - its easy!) Finding Shakespeare’s VoiceBy Lawrence Bruce What began as a simple voice warm-up exercise turned into a journey of discovery for me, and I’d like to share it with you. Here is a selection of 33 of Shakespeare’s Sonnets; and I make no claim to having arrived at a definitive interpretation. After many years of reading the Sonnets aloud, I sensed that the breathing was vitally important. In fact, if you look closely at the whole sequence, almost all of the Sonnets are divided in two, and this seam or hinge is usually after the octet. The poet leaves the sestet the task of completing his thought. I had found that I could read a quatrain in one breath quite comfortably. So, I was reading three quatrains and the couplet at the expense of three breaths. At all costs, I wanted to do justice to these little masterpieces. Still, I reckoned with all that Alexander training behind me, I should be able to do better than that 4:4:4:2 ratios. Then one day, I found myself slipping quite easily into the 8:6 ratio. It seems to me that this is the way Shakespeare intended it: octet, then sestet. Two breaths, that’s all – and no evidence of strain. It wasn’t that I lacked the capacity; I simply lacked the trust in my innate capabilities – the crux of Alexander work, as I see it. This has become a good way of checking how things are going in me. The voice is very revealing, and to accomplish this 8:6 reading ratio there can be no trace of slumping, holding, or forcing. It’s the most brilliant feedback. I recommend that you try it for yourself. In any case, reading aloud is a good discipline for us all, and Shakespeare’s Sonnets contain some of the most glorious language ever composed. There are other benefits, too; but I’ll leave those for you to find out for yourself. If you have any questions or want to share your own experiences, I’d be glad to hear from you. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Downloads: Sonnets in a Nutshell (7KB) | Sonnets Sample (2.9MB) Sonnet List
Note: These files are copyright 2006 Lawrence Bruce and may not be copied or redistributed without his express prior written consent. If you would like your own copy of these sonnets then please contact Lawrence Bruce directly. |
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