Shakespeare and Music

Born in the English countryside in 1874, Christopher Wilson displayed prodigious musical talent from childhood, mastering piano before his teens and earning top honors at the Royal Academy of Music. His studies took him across Europe, where he absorbed the teachings of Wüllner, Herzogenberg, and Widor, and his early compositions earned praise alongside the greats of his day. By the turn of the century he was already celebrated for songs like “Come away, Death,” a piece that captured both fantasy and deep pathos.

This volume follows Wilson’s lifelong fascination with the stage, charting how he brought Shakespeare’s dramas to life through original scores. From “Antony and Cleopatra” to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” he crafted music that heightened the emotional landscape of each play, collaborating with leading actors and directors of his era. The author weaves together scholarly commentary, personal anecdotes, and detailed analyses of the scores, revealing how the composer’s sense of atmosphere reshaped theatrical experience.

Interlaced with a memoir of Wilson’s own journey, the book offers listeners a vivid portrait of a musician whose work bridged the worlds of Elizabethan verse and early‑20th‑century composition, inviting you to hear Shakespeare in a fresh, resonant light.