Feste's Songs

I have started to work on and do some research on the songs I am going to sing as Feste in the play. The four songs that I will be singing are 'Come Away Death' in 2.4., part of 'Hey Robin, Jolly Robin' in 4.2., 'I am Gone' in 4.2., and 'The Rain it Raineth Every Day' in 5.1..

I'll talk about the last song first, since I have been working on it with other people as well, and I have a clearer image of it. Last Wednesday(14.1.), me and and some other musical people from the group got together with Helen to work on this song and create a base for us all to work towards. Since pretty much everyone had their own instruments, it was a lot of independent thought on how to follow the rhythm and what kind of tune to follow. We decided to follow the example of the movies version of the song(video above), that is very up beat and quite happy, just like the ending of the play. We are playing and singing in the key of C, that gave us all a starting point to figure out how to play the tune, since even though at the end of the play it has the notes for the song, every instrument is individual and to create a coherent song, each instrument needs to find their own voice, but also work together as one.
   After listening to the song a couple of times, we tried out just creating a beat and me and Helen singing to that beat together. People also started to try out simply basking, or creating tunes with their instruments to hear, what sounds good.
  I also got to try out my ukulele. I figured on my own that C and F chords fit the song, but I wanted to make it a bit more complex than that. I found chords online for a version of this song that goes like this:

  C
When that I was a little tiny boy
        C
With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
   C
A foolish thing was but a toy
         F              C
For the rain it raineth every day

Now, this version only uses C and F. Spike figured out that the main keys for this song could be C, A, G and C, and after trying this out a couple of times on my ukulele, I created my own version for the chords:

  C
When that I was a little tiny boy
        F                      C
With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
   C
A foolish thing was but a toy
         A              F
For the rain it raineth every day
   It is a bit different, but I felt that this captured the whimsical melody of the song. This also follows my singing better, which makes it easier for me to play and sing along at the same time. I cannot really talk about the process for the other instruments, but I felt by the end of the lesson everyone had a clear idea what they need to work on and how to do it. I definitely need to memorize the song so that I can focus on my singing and the higher notes better, rather than focusing on the words. Words such as knaves and to wive were unfamiliar on pronunciation for me than before and I notice that I messed up on those bits. I ended up either missing those words or thinking about pronouncing them right and would then completely forget to sing the next part. With repetition I will hammer down these words and the next from this would be to nail singing and playing the ukulele at the same time. As a group, I think after everyone knows their own parts our goal is to get the rhythm down and start working on possible solo bits for each instrument and perhaps get some choir to sing in it as well, to make the song a whole a more interesting end piece to the play.


  'Come away death' is a bit more complicated song for me. The song is sang by Feste to Orsino and Viola and it reflects on the melancholy feelings of Orsino, who has been turned down by Olivia. The song is about death and wanting to die, which makes it to be a very sad and emotional song. The subject isn't that much the difficult part, but finding the melody. I first turned to the version that the movie has, but soon realized that this sin't exactly the same song that in the play, They have changed the words quite a bit and cut some of the parts. The back of the play also doesn't have notes for this song. I tried looking for a good version to this song on YouTube, only to come to one conclusion; every version is different. 



Here is a couple of examples that I found and all of them sound very different. Of course they are all in different styles, but I couldn't find versions that were very similar to each other in style or melody. I also tried to do some research on the song and the history of it, but unfortunately I couldn't find anything that would have solved this mystery song. It seems, that the song has as many versions as many versions there are of the play. 
F                       C
Come away, come away, death 
Dm                      Bb
And in sad cypress let me be laid. 
F                       C
Fly away, fly away, breath; 
Dm                          Bb
I am slain by a fair cruel maid 

F                                   C
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew 
Bb             
O, prepare it 
F                             C
My part of death, no one so true 
Bb         
Did share it 
   I did find these chords for the song, but after trying them on my ukulele on couple of these version, I didn't find them very fitting. Honestly, I am still very much in the dark with this song. I think I should ask for some help from Andy, Siou or Helen, considering the melody and style of it. Right now, I see my options to be either find a version I like and adapt it to my liking, and fitting for the style of music we are after in our adaptation of the play, or creating a whole new version of the song myself. 
   The two other song I will be singing are both in the same scene where Feste fools Malvolio to think Malvolio is insane. The first one, 'Hey Robin, Jolly Robin' Feste sings to annoy Malvolio, but to also show it is the fool that has arrived. Only a little bit of this song is sang, since Feste soon starts a conversation with Malvolio.The other one, 'I am gone', ends the scene and isn't such a long song either. 



I found these two version to just help me with the melody. It is quite a simple song, especially since I will be only singing the first part of it. It is a three part catch by William Cornysh. The second version, that I found has some fun choir added to it, almost gospel like, which I thought could be a fun way to spice up the song a little, if we feel like it needs to be more complicated. For me, I do not think it'll take me too long to learn it, but next I should try and find some chords for this and perhaps try it on my ukulele.


  These two are very much contrasting versions of "I am Gone" song, the first a very cordial and the second more of a rock and roll version of it. I think both work, I like the first one better, but I think I could incorporate some of the attitude to Feste from the rock version to spice it up a little.

  For now, I will be focusing on more on the two first songs, since both of them I have already started to work on and with my first group we are working on act 2 scene 4, which contains 'Come away Death'. I really want to make it a special version of it, something that will touch the audiences hearts and create the perfect mood for the scene.