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by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Translation © by Ferdinando Albeggiani
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music...
Language: English
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly? Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy. Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly, Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy? If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds, By unions married, do offend thine ear, They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear. Mark how one string, sweet husband to another, Strikes each in each by mutual ordering, Resembling sire and child and happy mother, Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing. Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one, Sings this to thee: "Thou single wilt prove none."
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• G. Bachlund • K. Goeyvaerts • O. Hemel • L. Kaminsky • I. Stravinsky • H. VuoriAbout the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 8 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Sonnet VIII - "Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?"", 2002 [ high voice or medium voice and piano ], from Five Sonnets, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Andrew Buchman , "Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?", 1982 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968), "Sonnet VIII - Music to hear", op. 125 (Shakespeare Sonnets), Heft 1 no. 1 (1944-5) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Stephen Chatman (b. 1950), no title, 1986 [ narrator, satb chorus, English horn, harp, and piano ], from Love and Shapes High Fantastical, suite [sung text not yet checked]
- by Paul Dessau (1894 - 1979), "Sonett 8" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Miriam Gideon (1906 - 1996), "Sonnet VIII: Music to Hear", 1950, published 1959, first performed 1951 [ high voice, trumpet, string quartet or string orchestra ], from Sonnets from Shakespeare, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Karel Goeyvaerts , no title, 1948 [ alto, violin, piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (b. 1932), "Song (Sonnet)", 1971 [ soprano and guitar ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Edward James Harper (b. 1941), no title, 1964 [ SSAATB chorus ], from Three Shakespeare Sonnets, no. 3, partson [sung text not yet checked]
- by Oscar van Hemel (1892 - 1981), "Music to hear", 1961 [ satb chorus a cappella ], from Four Shakespeare Sonnets [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Gary Michael Higginson (b. 1952), "Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly", op. 75 (1984) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Knud Högenhaven , no title, op. 15 no. 1 (1954), published 1971 [ soprano and piano ], from Fire Engelske Sonetter til Tekster af Keats og Shakespeare, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Bo Holten (b. 1948), "Pavane-Fantasia", 1974, published 1976 [ SSATB solo voices and SSATBB chorus a cappella ], madrigal [sung text not yet checked]
- by Brian C. Jarrett (b. 1925), "Music to hear", 1953 [ chorus and piano ], partsong [sung text not yet checked]
- by Björn Johansson , no title, 1970-3 [ tenor and chamber orchestra ], from ...notes of Music [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jouni Kaipainen (b. 1956), "Sonnet VIII", 1979 [ SSATBarB chorus a cappella ], partsong [sung text not yet checked]
- by Laura Kaminsky (b. 1956), no title, 1982 [ mezzo-soprano, flute, percussion ], from Sonnet Lines [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Piet Ketting (1904 - 1984), "Music to hear", 1938 [ medium-low voice and piano ], from Three Sonnets of Shakespeare, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Torben Kjaer , "Sonnet no. 8", 1984 [ mezzo-soprano, baritone soli, satb chorus, and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Norman Eugene Lowrey , "Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly", 1964 [ soprano and orchestra ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jason McAuliffe , "Music to hear" [ high voice and piano or guitar ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Paul Nahay , "Sonnet", 1979, published 1981 [ satb chorus and 4 flutes ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Erik Norby (1936 - 2007), "Music to hear", 1976 [ mezzo-soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968), "Music to Hear", 2014, first performed 2014 [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Malcolm Cameron Peyton (b. 1932), "Music to hear", 1959, published 1982 [ mezzo-soprano, 2 clarinets, violin, viola, violoncello ], from Four Songs from Shakespeare [sung text not yet checked]
- by Solomon Pimsleur (1900 - 1962), "Music to hear", op. 100 no. ? (1958-9) [ alto and orchestra ], from Shakespearean sonnet cycle [sung text not yet checked]
- by Paul Amadeus Pisk (1893 - 1990), "VIII", op. 103 no. ? (1964) [ satb chorus and piano ], from Two Sonnets -- Shakespeare [sung text not yet checked]
- by Wilhelm Rettich (1892 - 1988), "Music to hear", op. 133 no. ? (1978) [ satb chorus a cappella ], from Three Sonnets by Shakespeare [sung text not yet checked]
- by Johannes Röntgen (1898 - 1969), "Music to hear", 1960 [ soprano and flute ], also set in Dutch (Nederlands) [sung text not yet checked]
- by George Shearing , "Music to hear", c1986 [ chorus ], from Music to Hear [sung text not yet checked]
- by Michael Short (b. 1937), "Music to hear", 1963-6, first performed 1970 [ satb chorus a cappella ], madrigal [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet VIII", 1861-5 [ SAB chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ragnvald Strand , "Music to hear", c1970 [ soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971), no title, 1953, from Three Songs from William Shakespeare, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Leif Thybo (b. 1922), "Sonnet VIII", 1975 [ soprano, flute, violoncello, and piano ], from Two Shakespeare Sonnets [sung text not yet checked]
- by Harri Vuori (b. 1957), "Sonnet 8", 1999, published 1999 [ tenor and viola da gamba ], from From Day to Dream / Päivästä uneen päin, neljä W. Shakespearen tummaa sonettia, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Paul William Whear (b. 1925), "Sonnet #8", 1973, first performed 1973 [ baritone and chamber orchestra ], from From Shakespeare [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jeffery J. Wilson , "Music to hear", 1978, first performed 1978 [ high voice and piano ], from Three English Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by David Winkler , "Sonnet VIII", 198 [ SATB quartet and piano ], from Cycle for Several Voices and Piano, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Dutch (Nederlands), a translation by Albert Verwey (1865 - 1937) ; composed by Johannes Röntgen.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by Claude Duboscq (1897 - 1938) ; composed by Claude Duboscq.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Also set in Hungarian (Magyar), a translation by Lőrinc Szabó (1900 - 1957) , "Shakespeare szonettjeiből VIII", first published 1921? ; composed by Viktor Vaszy.
- Also set in Japanese (日本語), a translation by Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859 - 1935) ; composed by Elliot Weisgarber.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Also set in Romanian (Română), a translation by Ion Frunzetti ; composed by Nicolae Coman.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Samuil Yakovlevich Marschak (1887 - 1964) , no title, appears in Шекспир Уильям - сонеты (Shekspir Uil'jam - sonety) = Sonnets of William Shakespeare, no. 8 ; composed by Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Erkki Pullinen) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 8, first published 1863
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 8, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , "Tu, musica all'orecchio, perché triste la musica ascolti?", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Jeroen Scholten
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 110
Tu, musica all'orecchio, perché triste la musica ascolti?
Language: Italian (Italiano) after the English
Tu, musica all'orecchio, perché triste la musica ascolti? Dolcezza con dolcezza non lotta, e gioia della gioia ha piacere. Perché mostri di amare ciò che non lietamente accogli o forse lietamente accogli ciò che ti fa annoiare? Se la pura armonia di ben accordati suoni, tutti insieme congiunti, offende il tuo udito, è solo un dolce rimprovero a te, che confondi in un a solo ciò che dovresti tenere separato. Considera come ogni corda, all'altra dolce sposa, vibra con le altre in un mutuo concento, simili a un padre, a un figlio e a una madre gioiosa, che tutti uniti cantano lo stesso piacevole canto. Il cui suono molteplice, che pure sembra uno, senza parole ti dice: "Solo non sei nessuno"
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to Italian (Italiano) copyright © 2008 by Ferdinando Albeggiani, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 8
This text was added to the website: 2009-01-01
Line count: 14
Word count: 121