Words and Music: Cervantes, Shakespeare, Vaughan Williams and Rodrigo

This paper will discuss the relationship between literature and the music inspired by it, in the work of certain writers and composers.  The essential focus will however be on short texts by Cervantes, from Don Quijote de la Mancha, and Shakespeare, from The Merchant of Venice, as set to music, respectively, by Joaquín Rodrigo and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Illustrated with brief extracts from recordings of Ausencias de Dulcinea and Serenade to Music, the lecture will attempt to show that the qualities of the chosen texts are strikingly emphasized by the two composers’ music.