This site is devoted to the production or performance of works from earlier periods of English spoken in original pronunciation (OP) – that is, in an accent that would have been in use at the time.
David Crystal
The present-day movement to perform works in OP began in 2004, when David Crystal collaborated with Shakespeare’s Globe in an OP production of Romeo and Juliet. This was so successful that the following year the Globe mounted a production of Troilus and Cressida in OP. Subsequent interest from American enthusiasts led to OP Shakespeare events in New York, Virginia, and Kansas, ranging from evenings of extracts to full productions. As only a handful of works have so far been performed in OP, interest is growing worldwide to explore the insights that the approach can provide.
I’m sure there must be other OP initiatives around the world, and until now there has been no place where they can be brought together. The time thus seems right to provide a website where people can find out about OP, archive their events, announce plans, and share their experiences of working with it and listening to it.
Breadth
Although Shakespeare was the stimulus for current interest in OP, the notion is much broader. Any period of English history can be approached in this way, and indeed there have been several projects where people have tried to reconstruct the pronunciation of earlier works in Old and Middle English, notably for Chaucer. The British Library exhibition, Evolving English, which ran from November 2010 to April 2011, had an audio dimension which included OP extracts from Beowulf, Caxton, Chaucer, and the Paston letters, as well as Shakespeare. The 2011 anniversary of the King James Bible also prompted readings in OP, some of which can be found on this site.
More than literature is involved. There are opportunities for people interested in the vocal dimension of early English music, as well as for those involved in heritage projects which present original practices, such as Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts. Examples from these perspectives include an OP rendering of vocal music by William Byrd and of the songs that appear in Shakespeare’s plays.
Variety
It’s important to appreciate that there is no ‘single’ OP. All periods of English contain many accents, and this allows for variant OP performances. The evidence that allows us to reconstruct what was the case is often mixed, and choices have to be made about which sound qualities to go for. Variations in spelling can point us in different directions. Observations by contemporaries can indicate that some words had different pronunciations (as they have today). Deductions by historical linguists can reach different conclusions about the quality of a sound. Any attempt to reconstruct an earlier period of pronunciation is based on as much scientific evidence as is available, but inevitably involves a certain amount of guesswork. The more OP illustration and discussion we have, therefore, the sooner we will be able to arrive at a consensus about best practice.
This site therefore aims to act as a first point of call for those interested in promoting an OP dimension to their activities. It will include only work that is grounded in a serious investigation of the sound system of a period. There are plenty of comic pastiches of the ‘ye oldee speech’ kind and wild imaginings of how people once spoke, such as the ‘oo-arr’ voices traditionally given to pirates. These will not be found here.
This is fascinating. You are doing for Shakespeare what the period performance practice movement has been doing in music – stripping away the accretions of the centuries and hearing as the original audiences heard. In the musical realm, instruments in general have been getting louder, and ensembles have been getting bigger. What happens when we use the instruments that Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven would have been familiar with? What techniques are different as a function of using those instruments? What tempos need to be changed? This is what has been going on in the musical realm. Now it’s happening for Shakespeare, and I say bravo.
Another project of mine that also included original pronunciation was the research into the York Mystery Plays, a cycle of mystery plays from the late 14th century until at least 1569. All biblical in content and serving what we would call ‘infotainment’, the whole York cycle of plays encompasses the medieval Christian view on the history of the world, from the Fall of the Angels to the Last Judgment. On 7/7/2011, MA-students presented the results of their close reading and linguistic analysis of the following guilds and plays: “The Playsterers” (The Creation), “The Parchemyners and Bokebynders” (Abraham and Isaac), “The Cordewaners” (The Agony in the Garden and the Betrayal), and “The Pynneres” (The Crucifixion), exploring the plays’ word fields, pronouns, paradigms, different spellings, and sound patterns. This last aspect included transcribing and then reading out of parts of the Middle English versions.
In summer term 2010 I devoted a seminar to the linguistic analysis of lyrics used in songs, from Middle English/1250 onwards through Modern English, researching and analyzing, among other aspects, their pronunciation. During the concert 25 June, 2010 (Leipzig, Germany) the following pieces were performed (a cappella both solo and choir, lute, counter tenor, Baroque instruments): Sumer Is Icumen In, Miri it is while sumer ilast, Brid on a breere, Lullay Lullow, 2 pieces by Henry VIII, Th. Tallis/If ye love me, W. Byrd/ Crowned with flowers, Dowland’s “Wilt thou unkind thus reave me” and “Come again sweet love”, pieces by Blow, Purcell, plus a Magnificat based on St. Luke. The linguistic analyses included much more than the original pronunciation, of course, but it was this aspect which turned out to be the most fascinating and challenging one when, finally, the transcription (IPA) was the basis to teach professional singers a pronunciation of pieces that they had already sung before. To listen to “Come again, sweet love” in this “new” version gave the piece a completely new flavour.
Took part in an OP Workshop in London with David Barrett a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic, in four hours we learnt the basics of OP and how it can help an actor and had a go at some extracts from ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ Myself and 7 other actors were extremely extremely excitedand only wish we’d discovered this sooner!
My undergraduate honors research project is entitled “Lost Lines and Forgotten Rhymes: The Use of OP in Modern Performance.” I’ll be working with a set of actors to produce a long scene and a series of monologues in OP. I plan on focusing my attentions on how OP affects the actors, and how it changes the performance from the actors’ perspectives. Being in Mississippi, I will be working with native Southern actors, so I’m very excited to see how their accents translate into OP. As a student of creative writing and theatre rather than lingusitics, I’m a bit out of my element in some areas of the project, so any help and advice is very welcome!
Just for the record:
The students at the Circle in the Square Theatre School in NYC gave the first OP performance of Twelfth Night in the summer of 2010, directed by Ed Berkeley.
OP Workshop, London, October 2011
This highly successful workshop, given by David Barrett, introduced eight actors and actresses to the possibilities of performing Shakespeare in OP. Following a crash course in the pronunciation, we went on to read extracts from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Henry Vth’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Apart from the obvious benefits of restoring rhyme and metre, we explored the ways in which OP could be used as an aid to characterisation and for comedic effect. The particpants found this a real eye-opener and went away determined to put their new knowledge into practice. The next workshop will be for drama students at the University of Glamorgan.
David, the sections of my film documentary on “Speak the Speech, I Pray Thee” where Tangier Island natives read Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet with their distinct accent is on-line at hamiltonmeadowsfilms.com. Hope it is helpful and possibly provide a clue to the pronunciation of Early Modern English and with Shakespeare OP.
The event in May 2011 listed in your archive was part of a longer research project to find how we might use the information gleaned from the OP work in contemporary American Shakespearean performance. One of the things we did was put the various performance dialects next to each other — we did a portion of a scene from As You Like It in OP, RP, then Standard American. So fascinating, so informative.
Along with Shakespeare in Clark Park, we’re hoping to do another OP workshop and showing sometime in the next year. I’ll keep you posted on those dates and the nature of that event.
‘As You Like It’ in OP:
I am currently transcribing ‘As You Like It’ into OP for actors with a British base accent.
I am researching performing Shakespeare in OP at the University of Glamorgan and am running a series of OP workshops for drama undergraduates and post-graduates.
Shakespeare in OP at the KIng’s Theatre, Southsea, England:
This is a youth project, generously supported by the King’s Theatre. A group of young people from Portsmouth, England will be rehearsing scenes from Shakespeare for a public performance in May 2012.
Bravo, David! You have started quite a movement. It seems to me quite possible that discerning theatre-goers will now regularly ponder what they are missing when an older work is presented in anything other than its OP! You have shown us that it’s not only possible, and how it’s possible, but that it’s hugely rewarding for actors and audience alike, to mount OP productions. We will undoubtedly be seeing many more such productions..
Thanks for turning me on to OP. Working with you has been the highlight of my career in Shakespeare and dialects.
David, my documentary on OP is within a weeks of being up-loaded to the net. Part one is “The watermen of Tangier”.
Then filming will begin for part two which is the futher search for OP, where experts in the field, like yourself and others clarify their efforts. This documentary will end hopefully with a trip to Reno to film some of the rehearsals for Hamlet in OP, this fall staring your son Ben.
Part three will be the filming of the complete process for the first OP production of Twelth Night, here in NYC. Best to you as always, Respectfully Hamilton Meadows
Dear David – I remember you well in Melbourne some years ago – and I did try to implement your ideas – lukewarm reception – I need more encouragement – Paul Melbourne Shakespeare Society – you and your book are great – continuous encouragement from your many articles – Thank you David Love to keep in touch