by William Shakespeare
Artwork attributed to Dagoberto Jorge.

This music was completed and recorded in Spring of 1977 for the premiere performances on Tuesday May 3rd through Saturday the 7th at Western Illinois University Theatre. The singers were William (Bill) Black, Christine Klemperer and Donna Miller.

The first 10 selections in the Sound Sample are the pieces sung by the madrigal singers at the play's premiere. The lyrics for those Three-Part Elizabethan Songs can be found in the Song Cycle section of this website.

The orchestration for the Incidental Music to Romeo and Juliet includes Flutes 1 and 2, Soprano Recorder, Alto Recorders 1 and 2, Oboe, Horn, Harp, First Violins A and B, Second Violins A and B, Violas A and B and Cellos A and B.
Percussion requires 3 players for hand drum, finder cymbals, tambourine and glockenspiel.
Vocalists include Sopranos 1 and 2 and Baritone.

We quote music and arts critic Jerry Klein in his column in the May 1st issue of the Peoria Journal Star:
“‘Romeo And Juliet’ wil be presented Tuesday through Saturday in Browne Hall Theater on the Western Illinois University campus in Macomb as the final University Theater production of the year. It will feature an original musical score by Frank DiGiacomo and a group of madrigal singers will perform on the theater lawn before the 8 p.m. performances. Jeff Severson plays the part of Romeo and Teddie Taylor plays Juliet. It is being directed by Dr. Joseph Epolito.”

Lyrics for the Italian Madrigal are:
Se d’amor queste son reti e legami
If these are the nets and bonds of love

Oh com’è dolce l’amoroso impaccio!
oh, how sweet is the loving entanglement!

Se questo è il cibo, ov’io son preso al laccio,
If this is the food by which I am ensnared,

come son dolci l’esche e dolci gli ami!
how sweet is the bait and sweet the hooks!

Quanta dolcezza agl’inveschiati rami
How much sweetness to the sticky-baited limbs

il vischio aggiunge, ed all’ardore il ghiaccio!
the stickiness brings, and ice to passionate desire!

Quanto è dolce il soffrir, s’io penso e taccio,
How sweet is the suffering, if I reflect in silence,

e dolce il lamentar ch’altri non ami;
and sweet to lament that you love no other;

Ah quanto soavi ancor le piaghe interne
Ah how gentle still the inner wounds

e lagrime stillar per gl’occhi rei,
and the tears that well from wretched eyes,

e d’un colpo mortal querele eterne!
and never-ending complaint for a deadly stroke!

Ah! Ah se questa è vita io mille al cor torrei
Ah! Ah if this is living I would bring to my heart a thousand

ferite e mille, e tante gioie averne;
wounds and a thousand more, and derive from them such joys;

se morte, sacro a Morte i giorni miei.
if dying, I consecrate my days to Death.

                                   Translation by Julian R. Pace

Lyrics for the Prologue are:
Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
from ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hand unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
whose misadventured piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

The fearful passage of their death-marked love, and the continuance of their
parents’ rage, which, but their children’s end, naught could not remove, is now
the two hours’ traffic of our stage; the which if you with patient ears attend,
what here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.