This music of the isle Caliban is talking about to Stephano and Trinculo is, of course linked to Ariel’s music and songs, as the spectators have already heard it, and as is immediately seen when the group of grotesque characters follow Ariel’s music, being thus diverted from their murderous plot:

    Ariel’s Orphic quality is emphasized several times in the play, as, for instance, when he drags the supposedly drowned crew to the shore with his song “Come unto these yellow sands” (1.2.374-387), or when he sends a musical message to Ferdinand, “Full Fathom Five” (1.2.397-405). Opposite Ariel stands Caliban, half-human, half-beast, at least in Trinculo’s words:

    Moreover, Caliban’s carnal proclivities, which are contrasted with Ariel’s ethereal quality, and his confederacy with drunkards clearly sets him on the side of Dionysus, the god of the vine (Bacchus in Roman mythology) with his train of satyrs and maenads, among which Pan whose musical contest with Apollo was a well-known topos in the Renaissance.
 
    Perhaps at this stage, it would be a good idea to review the myths of Dionysus and Orpheus, since they form the background of the play.
Dionysus is a god whose origin is in Thrace (Greece). He is the son of Zeus and Semele who was tricked by Hera (Zeus’ wife) into asking Zeus to appear to her in full majesty. Semele was thus consumed by his flames. At the time she was pregnant with Zeus’ son, Dionysus, which the god saved by enclosing him in his own thigh until the time of birth. Thus Dionysos is also known as “the twice born” or “Dithyrambos”. Dionysus enforced his own cult on many people during his travels, and punished those who resisted him with destroying madness. Several stories of madness are known, the most famous one immortalized by Euripides in his play The Bacchae, in which the king of Thebes, Pentheus, is dismembered by his own mad mother, Agave, and the female followers of Dionysus, the Maenads. It is interesting to note that the Maenads are also the females who dismembered Orpheus.
    Orpheus is not a god but what is usually called a “hero”. The son of King Œagre (himself son of Ares, and thus grandson of Zeus and Hera) and the muse Calliope (the muse of epic poetry), he is also said to be the son of Apollo. In any case, he received a 7-string lyre from Apollo, which he turned into a 9-string instrument in honour of the 9 muses. It is also said that he was initiated into the mysteries of the god Dionysus, by his father Œagre. As we can see, the link between Orpheus and Dionysus is strong, and through Orpheus, it is with Apollo that Dionysus is contrasted. Orpheus’ power was to tame the beast with his harmony. Orpheus’ wife Eurydice having died of a serpent’s bite, Orpheus went to the underworld to fetch her back and convinced Hades to let him bring her back to earth. Hades agreed on condition that Orpheus should not look back at her, which, of course, he did. After losing Eurydice a second time, Orpheus forsook the love of women and was consequently put to death and dismembered by the Maenads.

    So, these are the myths that underly the text of The Tempest. This, of course, is not to say that the play is a mere representation of the myths, and that the characters represent those of the myth. what it means is that the play uses elements of the myths as a background, to generate and convey a number of ideas linked with the themes of the play and the relationship between the characters. The myths also provide spectacular images and scenes. What is particularly striking, of course, is that both myths are related to art forms : music (Orpheus and Apollo), theatre (Dionysus - Greek tragedy started in Athens, in 5th century B.C., during the annual festival in honour of Dionysus). The Tempest itself, is a reflection on the art of the theatre and its magic, and on the power of illusion. Prospero appears both as a demiurge and a stage director, manipulating characters-actors, props, costumes, staging a play-within-a play, even a masque.

    In a sense, Prospero’s rejection from his own dukedom of Milan recalls Dionysus rejection from Thebes, and Prospero’s vengeance, when he conjures up the tempest to wreck the ship, and drown her crew, and her passengers, provides an analogue to the dismemberment of Pentheus. However, this “dismemberment” is a beginning, not and end, and it is mere illusion. It functions as a tabula rasa which erases the false order established by usurpation, and then allows Prospero to reconstruct a new order. Because of Prospero’s position as master of ceremony and stage director, the whole play functions as a metaphor of comedy, moving from disorder to order, sterility to fertility and regeneration. Thus the potential tragic elements contained in the opening scene are at once annhilated when Prospero reassures Miranda (and the audience), stating that the tempst is an illusion created by him with the help of Ariel - his stage manager, as it were. The tragic undertones linger throughout the play, in particular with the resurgence of the Dionysac element  , in the drunken plot of Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano, who serve as analogue to Dionysus’ train of drunken satyrs. However, Prospero is constantly aware of what is going on and makes their plot his own, never allowing it to develop beyond a certain point. With the help of Ariel’s music and the Apollonian element, he “tames” the “beasts” whose evil doings are rendered inefficient. Indeed, Caliban’s description of the way to kill Prospero sounds like Dionysiac frenzy:

    Ariel’s interference here and his “taming the beast” works by proxy, and it is Gonzalo who unwittingly, stops the murderous plot. Ariel’s Orphic action has been established from the start. After managing the storm, he uses music to draw the noble men and the crew to the shore:

    What is particularly interesting here is the way the song develops the idea of familiarity and order, replacing the danger of the storm and the sea by the steadier ground, first of the shore, then of the farm-yard with its familiar animals. the song,
The song actualizes Gonzalo’s prayer at the end of Act I, scene 1:

    Gonzalo’s prayer conjures up the picture of a receeding sea and the appearance of the shore (“barren ground”), then of vegetation which becomes clearer and clearer (“long heath”, “brown furze”). This prayer is then answered in Ariel’s song: the dance takes place on the beach (“yellow sands”), and reorganizes space whereas the tempest had annhilated all possible distinction between sky, sea, and earth. But the shore is only the first stage towards the reconstruction of the world in which the domestic element prevail (“watch dogs’, “Chanticleer”), and where order and civilization rule (the farm). Art, in the form song, dance, and literature (“Chanticleer” is a character from Le Roman de Renard and from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales) transforms the chaos created by the tempest into a familiar, reassuring and well-ordered world. The tempest has calmed down and what is left is the familiar sounds of the waves echoed in the alliterations and paranomasia of the song (/w/, /f/, /s/). These sounds are then drowned by the domestic animals’ cries in the distance.

    This reconstruction of order is confirmed by Ferdinand who, still very much confused, makes the distinction between air, earth and water, as he recognizes the Orphic quality of Ariel’s music, transposing its taming effects to the fury of the waves:

    Thus, the destructive power of Diosysus is pitted against Apollo’s harmony which, through the lyre given to Orpheus, tames the wild elements and restores order after Dionysian chaos. One of the most spectacular expression of this opposition between Dionysiac and Apollonian forces can be seen in the use of the masque and masque-like elements dispersed throughout  the play.

    What is described here is just the kind of masque Romeo, Mercutio and their friends use in order to be accepted at the Capulet’s feast, or the masquers Shylock is complaining about in The Merchant of Venice. In both plays, Shakespeare is referring to the earliest form of this genre known in England. However, the form developped throughout the 16th century, as we can see in Shakespeare’s use of the masque in other plays, such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or Much Ado About Nothing, or Love Labour’s Lost. By the time Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, the masque had reached its highest and most developped forms under James 1st. It was a purely aristocratic entertainment, devised for one night only, presented at court in the Royal Presence. It combined music, song and dance, as well as dialogue and poetry, in an architectural setting using scenery and perspective. Since the general public was not admitted at the performance of these masques, the text, with all the indications as to what happened, was usually published afterwards and sold. As a consequence, many playwrights included masque-like elements in their plays for the public stage.

    The Stuart masque was generally composed of contrasting parts, with what is usually called an “anti-masque” (probably deriving from “antic masque” since we sometimes find the expression “a masque of antics”), referring to the dance of satyrs, wild men, grotesque figures, often with animal masques or heads, which functions in opposition to the more formal dance, songs and dialogue of the masque proper.

    All the elements of the masque are present in The Tempest at various degrees of inclusion. The firrt to consider, since it gives us the major clue as to the importance of the masque in the play, is the “Masque of Hymen” presented by Prospero and his spirits to Miranda and Ferdinand. It is, indeed, one of the major functions of the masque at court to celebrate a happy event such as a royal wedding, as it is the case here. The figures represented in the masque are traditionnal for such an occasion: Iris, the messenger of the gods (here of Juno) appeals for Ceres, goddess of agriculture and fertility to come and bless the wedding. Juno (Jupiter’s wife) is the goddess of matrimony. Hymen is mentionned, as well as Venus and Cupid in order to signify the appropriate relationship between Miranda and Ferdinand: Venus here is opposed to Juno, as lust vs chastity (usually the opposition is between Juno and Diana) in what can be considered as an allusion to the contest of the three goddesses on Mount Ida, in the judgement of Paris. Here Juno and matrimony triumph, since sexual intercourse is postponed until after the wedding:

    The speeches of the three goddesses are followed by the “graceful dance” of the Reapers and the Nymphs. The masque is brutally interrupted by Prospero who suddenly senses danger in the conspiracy of “the beast Caliban and his confederates” (4.1.139-140).

    This reference incites us to see in the conspiracy and the plotters the elements of the anti-masque. But the anti-masque is also present in some of Prospero’s conjurations: thus, Ariel transforms himself into a harpy to interrupt the banquet presented to the noblemen:

Ariel’s speech turns the banquet and the noblemen into elements of the anti-masque, the spirit’s dance with their mocking and mowing (grimacing), is also an imitation or a representation of the “antic dance” of the grotesque figures of the anti-masque. Moreover, Ariel’s speech reminds the spectators of two plots: the plot devised by Antonio twelves years before to seize his brother’s throne and banish Prospero; and the plot devised by the same Antonio with Sebastian, to get rid of the duke of Naples. As the instigator of both plots, Antonio is reduced to the level of Caliban, who is plotting against Prospero. The elements of the anti-masque then link the three plots and all the characters participating in these plots may be equated to the grotesque, deformed figures of the anti-masque. In the case of Antonio, the distortion is mental rather than physical. Caliban’s, however is both mental and physical. Half-man, half-fish, he is constantly addressed by Stephano as “monter” or “moon-calf”, but his physical aspect seems to be in keeping with his warped mind. Thus, even if he is capable of poetic language, as in the speech about the music of the island, he willfully appropriates language and misuses it as curse:

    Other motifs are connected to the anti-masque, such as the transformation of spirits into dogs sent by Ariel in pursuit of the plotters (4.1.S.D. 254). All these elements dispersed throughout the play constitute the anti-masque to the masque of Hymen.

    The opposition between masque and anti-masque is also at work in the oppsition between Apollonian and Dionysiac music. As we have seen, the Orpheus motif is heard in Ariel’s music when he draws the noblemen and Ferdinand to the safety fo the shore. It is also present in the scene where Ariel attracts Gonzalo’s attention to a lurking danger (2.1.292-302), or when distracts the conspirators them from their savage plot and makes them follow his music (3.2). In contrast to this Apollonian music, the drunken songs of Trinculo, Stephano and Caliban are the true signs of the Dionysas spirit.

    Most plays by Shakespeare include song, dance and/or intrumental music. The Tempest is no exception, and as usual, music and songs are closely related to the context. They never merely serve an ornemental purpose, but are part and parcel of the dramatic fabric. Even if we do not count the goddesses’ speeches, which may have been sung during the masque, the play contains no less than 8 songs of different forms:

    If we consider the music of the masque (Act 4), and the possibilities for the speeches to be sung, then each act includes various songs . The opposition between the group of characters and therefore the Apollonian and Dionysac is made obvious by the distribution of these songs. The first three, which belong to Ariel, are part of the Orpheus motif and serve to restore harmony when it has been threatened, either by the storm, or by Antonio and Sebastian’s plot to kill Alonso. The masque and Ariel’s last song belong to this restoration of harmony: on the one hand, the masque celebrates the marriage between Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, with Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, thus marking a reconciliation between the two kingdoms of Milan and Naples, and the union of the two dukedoms; on the other hand, Ariel’s song of freedom restores the island to its original inhabitants, and celebrates harmony with nature. The Dionysac songs are all concentrated in Act 2 and 3 and involve the conspirators against Prospero’s life, Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban.

    The form of the songs is also significant. Three of Ariel’s songs are Ayres, a form of solo song accompanied by an instrument. They are by a famous composer of the time, Robert Johnson and appear in a songbook in the form of a melody accompanied by a bass line which can be developped and realised by a solo instrument such as a lute or a keyboard. The song by the bacchic trio, however, are of a totally different nature. They are popular songs akin to different folk genres, such as the sea shanty (Stephano’s songs), the drink song (Caliban’s), or the catch (“Flout ‘em”), which has the musical form of the canon. None of these songs needs an instrumental accompaniment. However their deficiency is underlined in various ways: First, Stephano calls his two song “scurvy tunes” (2.2. 43-56). The word “scurvy” point to a well-known and feared sailor’s disease caused by malnutrition and a deficiency in vitamin A. The word here implies a deficiency in the music itself. Then, in Caliban’s song, noise is associated with music, and is another representation of Caliban’s hybrid nature which shows in his physical appearance, in the hybridation of his language, and in his music. Finally, the catch, a perfectly circular form, is also based on a shift, or displacement in the voices.; moreover, Caliban remarks that they are not singing in tune:

    Ariel puts the tune right and restores harmony. It is interesting to see, though, that Ariel is here using an instrument (the pipe) usually associated with Dionysus. It would then suggest that Ariel plays the part of the god and simulates his presence to entice the conspirators and make them follow him.

    Ariel’s Orphic function, as we saw with his first song, is inscribed in the very words of the songs which are perfectly integrated to the context in which they appear. It is, then, worth our while to analyse the text of these songs and see how they contribute to most aspects of the play: they produce images through their text and music which related to the themes and the dramatic action which they reinforce.
I have already analysed the text of “Come unto these yellow sands”, and, unfortunately, we do not have the original music for this song. However, its musical form can be guessed at from the text. It is, in fact a dance of the spirits, and probably a “round” (“take hands”). The musical form is that of solo and chorus (“burden”).

    The Orphic quality of Ariel’s music is emphasized here, first in the mention of animals, then in the way Ferdinand feels “drawn” to it. Reversing the Sirens’s song, Ariel’s music releases Ferdinand from the sea, and his “drowning” now appears as a regeneration and a second baptism, the first stage of his initiation. Music has also released him of his “passion” (hear “excess of grief”) over his father’s death. Ariel’s next song, then, is the locus of a passage, a transmutation.

    When Ariel intones this song, he has already attracted Ferdinand’s attention with his music. Now the song is directly addressed to him. The name of the father not only appears as such in the first line, but it is also inscribed in the paronomastic effect of all the words of the line. The /f/ alliteration reminds us of the receeding waves, but the tumult of the tempest is now replaced by the quietness of the grave. Two major ideas are present here: first the deceitful announcement of Alonso’s death, then his metamorphosis. In the pure Ovidian tradition, his bones are now transformed into coral, his eyes into pearls. Words related to death (“lies”, “bones”, “Nothing”, “knell”, are pitted against the notion of change. The dark assonances of the first lines (/u:/, /a:/, /ai/) give way to the clear sounds of the last line (/i:/, /i/, /e/).

    We are fortunate to have the music of this song, composed by Robert Johnson. Its form is that of a solo song, accompanied by a polyphonic instrument (a lute-song, or a song with keyboard accompaniment, possibly also a bass viol). What we notice in the melodic progression is a gradual rising of the line which contradicts the words sung by Ariel. If we take the first line, for instance, we see that, although it starts with the repetition of one of the lowest notes of the song (G, in fact the modal note here), the line goes up to the word “lies”, when we may have expected a reverse movement, from high to low to express both drowning and death. The rhythm also contributes to this rise since it appears to accelerate on “thy father” as if the body were quickly rising. Figurative music, or “word-painting” as it is sometimes called, is one of the major features of English Renaissance music. The devices used here seem to belie the information given by the text, i.e. Alonso’s death. All the important words (“bones”, “pearls”, “eyes”, “fade”) conclude a rising musical phrase. Each time, though, we fall on a lower degree (D, C, B, A), but never as low as the modal note which opens the song. The general impression is that of a rising movement by stages, dragging the corpse up to the surface, without quite ever reaching it. The culmination is linked to the idea of change: whereas the whole song gives a strong flavour of the G tonality, a change is announced in the base line bar 11, on “sea change” with the alteration of F# into F natural, which culminates on “something” with the F natural as the highest note of the song. However, we cannot here really talk of a modulation (from G Major to C Major), and the alteration is only momentary, the “strangeness” emphasized by the text is then reproduced in the music when the musical phrase falls on the note D (“strange”), when we expected it to fall on C, which would have expressed a modulation and a real change. The whole point, of course, is that there has been no change since Alonso is only dead to Ferdinand. The knell attributed in the song to the sea-nymphs represents a descent by stages in contradiction to the rising movement of “Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell”, with yet a tension between rise and fall. What is interesting is that the idea of change is emphasized again in the “Ding dong bell” burden since the top vice has it in the original tonaity (D) where as the bass has it in C. Eventually, it is as if the “corpse” were relocated at the bottom of the sea, the song ending, as it started, on a low G. However, we must bear in mind that Ariel’s purpose is both to make Ferdinand believe that his father is indeed dead, and to comfort him.

    Ariel’s freedom song is also the promise of a victory ower death. It partakes of the regeneration theme and the acceptance of death as part of the cycle of life. The references to Nature and the pastoral world leads to a metaphorical interpretation of the song. Ariel is here a spirit of the air who takes his flight towards an eternal summer. He is associated to three flying animals, whose connotation is death: in the ancient pastoral, bees are the messengers to whom news of a death is brought so that they may convey it to the gods; the owl and the bat are traditionnally known as the harbinger of Death. The first part of the song seems then to appear as a taming of death as part of nature. Ariel’s flight on the bat’s back points to this mastery of Death in the cycle of Nature, since spring and summer follow and replace winter in an eternal regeneration. In the music we may notice two elements: on the one hand, word-painting is again at work in the way Ariel’s flight is conveyed by the highest note of the score (E) on “I” (bar 7), over the repeated lower “D” which was the note on the first “I” in the text, as if Ariel was freed from the original contraint imposed on him by Prospero. On the other hand, there is a clear break at bar 12 with a change of rhythm in the music, and a change of tense in the text. Thus we move from a binary to a ternary rhythm (from 2/2 to 6/4), and from the present to the future (“shall”). We should understand the change in the rhythm also as a change in tempo since the beat represented by a minim in the first part, is now equal to the dotted minim ( = .). Thus the accelaration of the rhythm may represent Ariel’s flight, and the movement from binary (imperfect) to ternary (perfect) rhythm is associated to the promise of freedom and eternal bliss.
Unfortunately, we do not have the original music for the other songs, and we can only rely on textual evidence to interpret their importance and meaning in the context in which they appear, but also their relevance to the play as a whole.

    Ariel song of warning to Gonzalo (2.1.) obviouly has a dramatic function. It is a direct address and Gonzalo wakes up startled and confused as if from a bad dream. Indeed what he and Alonso see upon waking up is Antonio and Sebastian about to kill them. The two murderers get away with it with a lie, but their plot has obviously been spoiled. “Good” Gonzalo is chosen as the protector, probably because, even though somewhat naive, he is, after all a just and loyal man. The theme of sleep is interesting here since it is presented as linked to death (sleep is a metaphor of death, Hypnos and Thanatos being the twin sons of Night in Greek mythology), but also as circumventing death. Gonzalo is the fisrt to submit to sleep, which is a sign of his good faith, whereas the two murderers cannot find sleep (“open-ey’d conspiracy). We may quote here Macbeth who, after having killed Duncan, his king and guest, is said to have “murdered” sleep.

    In a totally different context, Stephano’s, Trinculo’s and Caliban’s songs belong to the Doinysian aspect, opposed to Ariel’s Apollonian music. These characters provide a parallel plot with yet another conspiracy. They are the inheritors of pre-Shakespearean drama secondary characters who provide a sub-plot in court comedies, as well as the more distant vices of the moral interludes, always ready to sing a song. As usual with Shakespeare, it is difficult to speak about “subplots” as such, since all the elements are carefully interwoven. In the case of Stephano’s song “I shall no more to sea, to sea / Here shall I die ahore”, it echoes Gonzalo’s “dry death”, but also what he says about the boatswain in Act 1, scene 1 : “Methinks he hath no drowning mark upoin him – his complexion is perfect gallows” (28-29), or “He’ll be hanged yet / Though every drop of water swear against it” (57/58). It belongs to the theme of the safe return to firm land and the reorganization of space. It also marks Stephano as a “false” sailor, more at ease with alcohol than with water. The second song then is a sort of usurpation since it is a shanty (i.e. a sailor’s song) in the form of a drink and bawdy song:

    Indeed, Stephano concludes both songs with what sounds like a refrain, though it is not part of the songs: “This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man’s funeral. / Well, here’s my comfort. drinks” And “This a scurvy tune, too, but here’s my comfort. He drinks. The distortion of the sea-shanty (part of a genre called “work song”) into a drink song displaces Stephano as an erring character. Displacement is also present in the song, with the mention of the women/whores. All their names start with “M”, apart from one, Kate, also singularized by her shrewish attitude towards sailors, prefering tailors. She, of course, reminds us of another shrewish Kate (The Taming of a Shrew). Displacement and erring show Stephano claiming a place which is not truly his. It is not surprising, then to see him plotting to take Prospero’s place. Failing as a true sailor, he will fail in his other enterprise, and will be reduced to what he really is: a stupid drunkard.

    Caliban’s place in the universe of the play, is also problematic. Lost between two realms (animal and human), he is the exact opposite of Prospero who stands between the human and the divine realms. His song of freedom is miles apart from Ariel’s and shows primitive forms of music inscribed in the text. The song is probably unaccompanied, with may be some form of dancing and banging on the part as a kind of percussion. It is divided into two part whch, in a sense contrary the freedom theme established by the “No more ... nor... nor” sequence. First Caliban is claiming his wish to be rid of the constraints imposed by his master Prospero, but then, in the second part, after what sounds like a simulation of killing (banging on Prospero’s head ?) : “Ban, ban, Caliban”, he claims another master. The reiteration of the word “freedom” becomes ironic.

    This is a canon sung by Stephano and Trinculo. A canon is a simple imitative form. There are several musical possibilities, the simplest is that the first singer starts, then the second singer enters after the first line, each repeating the song ad lib. Such songs were also called “catches” since the second voice can never catch the first in an endless repetition. Caliban, who apparently has been taught the song and asks them to sing it, does not actually join in. The situation is very much an inversion of the moment when, in the moral interludes, the vices manage to “catch” the protagonist and make him do what they please. Here, it is Caliban who, as an evil creature, convinces the two drunkards to plot Prospero’s death with him. The inversion is doubled by the fact that they cannot sing in tune, and, when they hear the proper tune played by Ariel, they think it is a manifestation of the devil. Paradoxically, Caliban recognizes the harmony of the island and launches in his famous speech about the music of the isle. As they all follow Ariel’s music, we realize that the Dionysian tone gives way to the Apollonian mood. However, just like concord cannot exist without discord, the Dionysian and the Apollonian principles are always linked, and this is clearly expressed by Prospero at the end of the play, when he acknowledges the presence of evil in any community, even in any man. Thus, even though pardonned, Antonio and Sebastian remain wicked men; the difference lies in Prospero who now knows how to deal with them: