How Children of the Blackfriars Theatre Pioneered a Performance Standard
Chapel Royal
In the 12th century, a collective of clergy and singers known as Chapels Royal was created within the English Royal Court to serve the spiritual needs of the country. This group, known as the oldest musical organization in the world, traveled with the monarch and performed wherever he or she was residing at the time.
Children of the Chapel
A distinct portion of this collective that wears a special state dress are known as The Children of The Chapel. These boys ages 8–13 are both choristers and actors who were most active and prominent under the rule of Queen Elizabeth in 16th and early 17th century England. Under her reign these groups of boys went from singing at pageants to form professional companies. In 1576, Richard Farrant, then Master of the Children of the Chapel, purchased a lease on rooms at Blackfriars,the theatre known to be more musical.
Style of Children Troupes
Children acting group performances demanded music. Music associated with the children troupes were ballads and popular songs of the time. Because children were unable to perform more sophisticated and intellectually intriguing acts, they were most successful in performing operatic tragic comedies and comical satires.Children actors primary function was to provide music first and act secondly.
Success of Children Troupes
The Children of the Chapel Company became extremely successful and popular in the first years of the 17th Century. These plays that focused on music completely shook the theatre world and received major attention due to the Queens involvement with the development of Children Companies. Major dramatists of the children troupe included Thomas Dekker and William Shakespeare. The success of these musical plays directly influenced adult performances.
History of Adult Theatre
Traditionally adult performances usually didn’t require much music because they were histories and and tragedies opposed to light hearted comedies. Even though music was not associated with the actual performance before the emergence of children troupe’s, the private theatres did have a reputation for music. Hour-long concerts preceded productions, and music was commonly played between the acts.
Music integrated within the actual performance as an artistic skill increased dramatically as the seventeenth century began, coinciding with the popularity of musical children plays. Playwrights such as Dekker, Shakespeare, Middleton, Beaumont, and Fletcher all began to create scripts that did things interesting musically.
The frequency of plays using a song is completely up to the dramatist in private theatres but after the musically based children companies gained popularity, 72% of Blackfriars performances from 1600–1614 used a song with an average of 2.4 songs a play.
Shakespeare The Innovator
Shakespeare outdoes all other private theatre companies with how he uses music. Shakespeare is known for being someone who was very consistent and creative with his usage of music. His plays often featured more music than half of the private theatre productions of the time. Later plays such as As You Like It and Twelfth Night really showcase the elaborate usage of music that combined song, dance, and instrumental music. Shakespeare had complete freedom to use music as he pleased and didn’t have to confine to music and trends, but when he used music it was for a dramatic need to support the mood and tone of his plays. Shakespeare brought his musical interests to the Blackfriar theatres. One historian noted that out of the twenty-nine Blackfriar plays, seventy-two used a song. Because of Shakespeare the Blackfriar theatre was generally known as a more music theatre.
Shakespeare had skill in both lyric composition and dramatic application of music and song. At least half of Shakespeare’s canon can be termed as musical or more musical than the private-theatre productions of the majority of the children’s dramatists (and Shakespeare wrote many histories and tragedies which ordinarily do not call for as much music as comedies). Shakespeare’s last plays, performed after the heyday of the children’s theatres, reveal sophisticated musical effects that are more elaborate than any of the private plays.
Impact of The Children
The Children of the Blackfriars Theatre made popular the integration of song and theatrical performance. The dramatists of these children showed that music and theatre do not have to be separate forms of entertainment but can coexist to enhance and set the tone for performance. Shakespeare proved that this technique doesn’t have to be something designated to children comedies, but that it can be used effectively in adult plays as well.
Today every movie released and most theatrical performances include songs as a tool to set the tone or deliver a message. Inspired by The Children of The Chapel, Shakespeare paved the way for serious performances to feature song to as an artistic weapon.
