Annette Kruisbrink : Three Shakespeare Sonnets for Voice and Guitar : DOz

Annette Kruisbrink

Les Productions D’Oz : Score only 12 pages

Here Annette Kruisbrink has written melodies for Sonnets 17, 40 and 66 of Shakespeare, from his total of 154 Sonnets! She has adapted the structure slightly from the original 14 line poem, making them all into a different form without adapting any of the words.

Sonnet 17, Who Will Believe My verse in Times to Come, is an Andante set in A minor 6/8with a gently rocking guitar opening before the voice enters at bar 12.The range of the vocal is from middle C to the B almost an octave higher. The guitar part is quite full of detail but the whole piece has a nice sound and works really well.

Sonnet 40, Take All My Loves, My Love, Yea, Take Them All, is a Moderato in 3 / 4 with a range of an octave from the low A on the second ledger line to the A an octave above. It begins with a solo guitar part before the vocalist enters; again at bar 12.here the main theme is repeated 3 times before the guitar takes over for the final coda, closing on an altered A minor chord. Again an effective piece.

Sonnet 66, Tired With All These, For restful Death I Cry, has a number of time signatures throughout its length, and is in E minor. It begins Lento with a gently rocking almost solo guitar line, with a four note theme from the singer. Then after a small pause, an Andante brings in the chords and a more complex melody. After a repeat, the Lento returns, before a D.S. takes us back one more time to the Andante, and then to the final coda marked Piu lento which is a variant of the opening Lento. This sad and mournful piece is beautifully written, and needs a vocalist with only a range of a D, the one immediately above Middle C to a B a sixth up.

So in summation, the singer doesn’t have to have a large range, and the guitarist has to be reasonably good, but nothing is too difficult, and this little set should go down really well with any audience who hears it.

Chris Dumigan