Music in Julius Caesar

There are 20 musical references in the script for Julius Caesar, 17 of which are diagetic stage directions:

• 1.2.1 stage direction: “Flourish” as Caesar enters (only in certain editions)
• 1.2.12 stage direction: “Flourish” as the soothsayer calls to Caesar.
• 1.2.25 stage direction: “Sennet” as Caesar dismisses the soothsayer and exits.
• 1.2.78-9 stage direction: “Flourish” as Brutus “fear[s] the people / Choose Caesar for their king.”
• 1.2.131 Stage direction: “Flourish” for “some new honors that are heap'd on Caesar.” (134)
• 1.2.214 stage direction: “Sennet” as Caesar exits.
• 3.1.1 stage direction: “Flourish” as Caesar enters.
• 5.1.20 stage directions: “March” as Octavius and Antony move their armies to Philippi, and “Drum” as Brutus appears with his army.
• 5.2.1-2 stage directions: “Alarum” and “Loud alarums” as Brutus instructs Messala to transport communications to the opposing army.
• 5.3.1 stage direction: “Alarums” as Cassius recognizes the battle is lost.
• 5.3.91 stage direction: “Alarum” as Brutus enters the battle.
• 5.3.96 stage direction: “Low alarums” as Brutus talks about Caesar's ghost.
• 5.4.1 stage direction: “Alarum” as Cato and Lucilius fight.
• 5.5.23 stage direction: “Low alarums” as Brutus recognizes the battle is lost.
• 5.5.29 stage direction: “Alarum still” as Volumnius tries to talk Brutus out of suicide.
• 5.5.43 stage direction: “Alarum” as Clitus encourages Brutus to retreat.
• 5.5.52 stage direction: “Alarum” as Antony and his army appear.

These 17 instructions are all fairly obvious in how they work (signaling events on stage), though this might be a good time to explore the nebulous definitions of some of these terms.

Most common in Shakespeare's histories, the term alarum signals danger (an alarm), especially in the context of combat, that is often but not always musical in nature. Plenty of musical alarums exist in Shakespeare's stage directions, but plenty of not-necessarily-musical examples exist as well. In their exhaustive Music in Shakespeare: A Dictionary, Christopher R. Wilson and Michela Calore write, “The sounding of alarums by various instruments, especially trumpets, drums or bells is connected with military atmospheres” (p. 12). In Caesar, the term only appears in act 5, as the two armies battle.

On the other hand, flourish indicates the entrance/departure of the most important characters. In the histories it typically designates royalty, but in Caesar it signals the title character, Brutus, and the soothsayer. Some confusion exists as to flourish instrumentation. Wilson and Calore write oxymoronically, “the flourish was invariably for trumpets or cornetts sometimes accompanied by drums. Some examples of flourishes for recorders and hautboys are also observed. In general, any instrument or instruments could play a flourish as a short (improvised) warm-up to a longer notated piece” (p. 179). Regardless, flourishes were “the most improvisatory and musically least structured” stage direction (p. 179).

Edward Naylor, in his book Shakespeare and Music cites 68 instances of the term “flourish” as a stage direction in 17 of Shakespeare's plays: 22 for the entrance/exit of royalty, 12 for the entrance/exit of important non-royalty, 10 for the public welcoming of royalty or otherwise important characters, 7 to conclude a scene, 6 to indicate victory in battle, 2 to announce royal decrees, 2 to indicate entrance/exit of a governmental body (senate, tribune), and 2 to signal the approach of a play-within-the-play (p. 161). (How come that only totals 63?)

“The most exclusive, least used signal in military and courtly contexts”, a sennet is similar to a flourish, but more standardized (less improvisatory) and longer in duration (Wilson and Calore, p. 376). According to Naylor, “sennet” occurs only 9 times in 8 plays – 3 to designate the entrace/exit of a Parliament, 3 for a royal procession, and 3 to signal the presence of royalty (p. 172).

So there appears to be no set definition for these terms, only general patterns in their usage. It should also be noted that there is much debate whether or not Shakespeare actually wrote his own stage directions, or if they were added subsequently by editors. We will probably never know for sure, one way or the other.

While most musical references in Caesar are stage directions and thus aren't necessarily Shakespeare's words, there are three other musical references scattered throughout the script that (presumably) did come from his pen:

• 1.2.15-7 Caesar: “Who is it in the press that calls on me? / I hear a tongue shriller than all the music / Cry 'Caesar!' Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.”

Caesar utters these lines as the soothsayer shouts to him, warning him of the Ides of March. But the skeptical Caesar refuses to heed the warning, dismissing his voice as shrill. The really interesting part is how this shrillness is more in Caesar's mind – his subjective and probably subconscious rejection of what the soothsayer says – rather than an objectively shrill sound. Thus, the musical metaphor in this case gives the reader a peak into the title character's psychological state that precipitates the assassination to come.

• 1.2.203-5 Caesar, criticizing Cassius: “He loves no plays, / … he hears no music; / Seldom he smiles”

Julius Caesar doesn't have any heroes, but it certainly has a villain in Cassius – he's the guy who manipulates Brutus into orchestrating the assassination. Caesar's observation that Cassius dislikes music reveals his (Caesar's) distrust, and parallels similar lines from The Merchant of Venice: “The man that hath no music in himself, / Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, / Is fit for treasons” (5.1.83-5). The irony in Caesar is that the title character correctly intuits the warning, but fails to identify the perpetrator.

• 4.3.257-92 Lucius plays music for Brutus, who falls asleep and dreams of Caesar's ghost.

Spanning over 30 lines, this is by far the most substantial musical passage in the play. Brutus asks Lucius to “touch thy instrument a strain or two” to help him sleep. The request is significant for two reasons: First, it contrasts Brutus with Cassius (who dislikes music, as discussed above). Second, it reprises Brutus' insomnia from 2.1, when he refused the offer of his wife, Portia (not to be confused with the character of the same name in The Merchant of Venice), to talk about what's troubling him. Moreover, it ties Caesar to other Shakespeare plays (Macbeth, Titus Andronicus, Henry IV, Henry V) that also feature a lack of physical rest as a manifestation of psychological unrest. Music, as a sleep inducer, thus wields the power to restore sanity (also found in Pericles). Unfortunately for Brutus, his guilt is so great that music is rendered powerless – it becomes the vehicle for “murd'rous slumber” rather than peaceful rest. As Lucius performs, Brutus falls asleep and dreams of Caesar's ghost, who warns, “thou shalt see me at Philippi.” When he wakes, Lucius informs him, “The strings, my lord, are false.”

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While much music based on Julius Caesar exists, little of it bears any resemblance to Shakespeare's play. Georg Frederic Handel's Giulio Cesare, for instance, is the best-known and most frequently-performed, yet has nothing to do with Shakespeare.

Robert Schumann's 1851 Julius Caesar Overture, Op. 128 bears little resemblance to Shakespeare's play, either, though it was apparently inspired by it. In his essay 'Shakespeare in the Concert Hall', Roger Fiske articulates and addresses a two-fold challenge of programmatic music: On one hand, the composer is limited by the narrative functions s/he is supplementing; on the other, the composer must write compelling music, independent of any narrative connotations. “Only when a composer fails at both levels,” he writes, “as Schumann did in his overture to Julius Caesar, is descriptive music best left on the shelf” (p. 181). Ouch!

Orson Welles famously spearheaded a 1937 production of Caesar with the Mercury Theater, featuring music by Mark Blitzstein. That production was adapted for a 11 September 1938 radio broadcast, retaining Blitzstein's score, which is available on Amazon for just $0.69. (The description falsely cites Bernard Herrmann, but the broadcast correctly credits Blitzstein.)

Miklós Rózsa composed the score for a 1953 film adaptation of Shakespeare, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Its entire soundtrack can be heard on YouTube.

Giselher Klebe wrote a brief dodecaphonic opera titled Die Ermordung Cäsars [The Murder of Caesar], Op. 32 in 1959, with a libretto by August Wilhelm von Schlegel based on Shakespeare. In his essay 'Shakespeare and Opera', Winton Dean describes this work as “a projection of the moral disintegration of the Roman people, suggested perhaps by the collapse of the Nazi regime in Germany. Everything is concentrated on creating an impression of growing chaos” (p. 155).

Winton Dean, Dorothy Moore, and Phyllis Hartnoll's 'Catalogue of Music Works Based on the Plays and Poetry of Shakespeare' also lists the following, which I have annotated, though I've been unable to find any further information:

• Incidental music by Johann Ernst Galliard (1740)
• Incidental music by Ignaz Fränzl (1785)
• Overture by Albert Rubenson (1859)
• Symphonic poem by Felix Draeseke (1860, revised 1865)
• Incidental music by Raymond Rôze, Op. 116 (1899)
• Incidental music by Norman O'Neill (1920)
• Incidental music by Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Op. 116 (1927)
• Incidental music by M. Jacobson (1931-2)
• Overture by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Op. 78 (1934-5)
• 'Giulio Cesare' opera by Gian Francesco Malipiero (1936)
• Incidental music by Darius Milhaud (1936-7)
• Incidental music by Necil Kazım Akses (1942)
• Radio broadcast by John Ireland (1942)
• Film score by Benjamin Frankel (1945)
• Incidental music by Fiorenzo Carpi (1949)
• 'Julio César' opera by Josep García Robles (no date)
• Symphonic poem by Martin Lunssens (no date)
• Overture by Henry Hugh Pierson (no date)
• Incidental music by Gustave Doret (no date)
• Incidental music by Ignaz von Seyfried (no date)
• Incidental music by John Herbert Foulds, Op. 39 (no date)
• Incidental music by Hans von Bülow, Op. 10 (no date)
• Overture by Stanislao Falchi (no date)
• Symphony by Manfred Gurlitt (no date)

No doubt there are countless more that are absent from this admittedly incomplete 1964 list, as well as countless further composed since it was compiled.

Curiously, several songs from the pop world relate to Shakespeare's play. Phish's 1994 'Julius' draws on Shakespeare's account, according to The Phish Companion: A Guide to the Band and Their Music. The American rock band The Ides of March (of 'Vehicle' fame) is a direct reference to Shakespeare, stemming from their bassist, Bob Bergland, who read Julius Caesar in high school. There are also several pop recordings based on the ancient Roman dictator that might or might not relate to Shakespeare's play:

• The O'Jays' 1972 'Back Stabbers'
• AC/DC's 1995 'Hail Caesar'
• Steel Prophet's 2000 'The Ides of March'