Abstract

　　British composer, Roger Quilter (1877-1953), was one of the most important British art song composers in the first half of the twentieth century. Quilter's creating career began in the late nineteenth century. The Britain during this time, because of the rise of the middle class and the popularity of the piano, many composers composed a lot of “Ballad” which had the lyrical melody with easy simple structure songs attempted to please the audience and gain the profit.

　　Under such a social background, Quilter who came from a wealthy family, instead of pursuing fame and fortune, he devoted to breaking through the monotonous and stale dilemmas of British songs at the time and trying to find new creative techniques on the basis of tradition and develop his own style. Quilter used the delicate composing skills with the music which matched the poem to compose the deep artistic value of the vocal works, it greatly enriched the connotation and depth of the British song.

　　“Five Shakespeare Songs” was published in 1921, Quilter composed these five songs from 1919 to 1921. The lyrics were selected from the four plays of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the representative drama writer of Queen Elizabeth I era (1533-1603).

A Study and Interpretation of Roger Quilter’s Five Shakespeare Songs, Op. 23 is divided into five chapters. The axis of this study contains Quilter and Shakespeare’s life and artistic style, “Five Shakespeare songs” creation background, detailed analysis of the music structure, the exploration of connotation, and the interpretation of practical singing.