I have two ver­sions of this well known medieval piece, which is impor­tant both from a lit­er­ary and a musi­cal point of view. Euro­pean dra­ma evolved, in the Mid­dle Ages, from the litur­gy of the Church. What began as the mod­est elab­o­ra­tions on the cer­e­mony of the mass even­tu­ally led, by slow incre­ments of change, to Ham­let. Sim­i­larly, the sim­ple mono­phonic chant of the mass was the acorn from which opera, sym­phony and con­certo grew. In both aspects, it was the neces­sity to enter­tain the audi­ence, rather than God, that pushed the process. Read more »