Shakespeare's Music

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) entered an extraordinary world. He was born in Stratford upon Avon, northwest of London, a four-day journey from the capital at that time. Elizabeth I had begun her forty-five year reign six years earlier, and her remarkably stable and enlightened rule inspired an outpouring of poetry and music. The Renaissance may have come a bit late to England, but the fruits of its final flowering remained fresh and accessible four hundred years later. - Howard Bass