Neil Bowen on
A modern film maker could, of course, provide a suitably atmospheric soundtrack for a film of Macbeth. In contrast, it is unlikely that Shakespeare would have employed many musicians for productions of this plays - by all accounts, the bard was a canny businessman and kept a keen eye on the finances of productions. Sound effects would also have been limited, though, as we’ve said, Shakespeare creates spectacular special effects through his language. There are, however, a few points in the play when specific stage directions indicate sound effects and/ musical accompaniment.
• Thunder
Each time the Witches appear there is a stage direction for thunder. Clearly, if loud enough, the sound of thunder can itself be frightening, particularly to audience members with a delicate constitution, and obviously, symbolically, thunder is always ominous. Storms and thunder in Shakespeare’s plays also indicate disorder and disharmony, either presaging or echoing some sort of breach of the natural order. Probably the sound of thunder would have been created at the Globe through the use of fireworks.
Other sound effects used to ratchet up the tension include drums, a bell, an owl and insistent ‘knocking’. Before Macbeth chances upon the Witches in Act I Scene 3, we hear a ‘drum within’ and the same militaristic association is employed near the end of the play when Mentieth and other Lords are shown rallying near Dunsinane. As with various other elements of plays, live, on stage, drumming can be very powerful and dramatic in a way that it’s difficult to imagine when just reading the stage direction on the page. A ‘bell rings’ during the night as Macbeth is stealing towards Duncan’s chamber to commit regicide. Macbeth himself explains the symbolism – ‘it is a knell’, suggesting a deep, sombre and atmospheric tolling. Soon after this, waiting alone for her husband to return from the murder scene, Lady Macbeth is startled by ‘the owl that shrieked’. Once again, the significance is made explicit, connecting the ill omen of the owl’s shriek to the ‘fatal bellman’, i.e. the man who rang the bell before an execution.
• Multiple flourishes of trumpets and hautboys
As we’ve mentioned, the celebratory golden-sound of trumpets is associated with Duncan and later with Malcolm, while the ominously gloomy hautboys are entirely connected with Macbeth. In the play’s final scene the action is topped and tailed by a ‘flourish’ of trumpets that signals order has been restored. Or at least, it has from Malcolm’s perspective.
• Alarms and alarums
Probably a brief blast of as many musical instruments as possible, it’s hard to imagine precisely what these noises would be, but clearly they signify a call-to-arms and make the audience anticipate the onset of fighting. Macduff calls them ‘clamorous harbingers of blood and death’.
• Various witches’ chants and songs.
Shakespeare’s instructions for the Witches’ music and dance are rather sketchy. There’s reference to a song, ‘Come away, come away’ and to another labelled ‘Black Spirits’, but no other details. The last time the Witches are on stage the direction merely says ‘Music. The witches dance’. For the first two examples Shakespeare may have had particular songs in mind, but, clearly, there’s plenty of scope for a director to decide how to present these musical interludes. Unsurprisingly, the dancing is often cut.