ABSTRACT
As is well known, Twelfth Night, King Lear, and The Winter's Tale contain Armin's best-known roles that have strong singing components such as Feste, Lear's Fool, and Autolycus. This musical play may be seen as an act-by-act struggle between a philosophy of obsessive melancholy and its opposite, sanguinity. Rhythm, melody, and harmony are all important. In spite of its triple meter, 'O Mistress Mine' has a sense of being in 2/4 time, thus providing the regular heart beat rhythm associated with sanguine music. In keeping with the Twelfth Night festivities, 'Hold Thy Peace' allows the three singers to vent pent-up frustrations by legitimately addressing each other with the derogatory term 'knave', giving Feste permission to exhibit his characteristic behavior as an 'all licens'd' fool. The early modern music reinforces the melancholia of Feste's version: the harmonies are primarily in minor tonality, befitting the theme of lost love.
