What's in a name? (Anselm Kersten)

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• (Posted 2021-04-04)  CPDL #63901:         

Editor: Anselm Kersten (submitted 2021-04-04).   Score information: A4, 12 pages, 204 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: What's in a name?
Composer: Anselm Kersten
Lyricist: William Shakespeare
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB

Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 2021
Description: How would you perform this if your choir was an opera chorus in concert? That's what I envisaged for this heavily redacted setting of Juliet's (largely internal, in this case) monologue. I make no apologies for the pastiche nature of the piece, any more than I claim to be a proper composer. It's unashamedly Wagnerian, to the extent that it opens with the opening of Act 2 of Tristan und Isolde, which leads into the Tristan chord.

Original text and translations

English text

What's in a name?
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
'Tis but thy name that is mine enemy.
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face
Nor any other part belonging to a man.
O Romeo, Romeo.
What's in a name?
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
O Romeo, Romeo!
Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
And for that name that is no part of thee,
Take all myself.