Sanders Julie - Shakespeare and music: afterlives and borrowings

Acknowledgements

This is the kind of research project that not only expands a persons CD or download collection beyond recognition but also adds hugely to the list of intellectual and personal debts owed. I am grateful for the generosity of friends, family, and colleagues with ideas and references for this project, sometimes for chasing tracks, and invariably for offering advice and support. Special thanks in this regard must go to John Drakakis, Dave Evans, Sarah Grandage, John Jowett, Lucy Munro, Heather Violanti, and my family: my mum, Kay, for the love of opera and musicals; my dad, Mike, for endless lists (and copies) of Shakespeare-inspired or allusive classical music as well as childhood trips to the ballet; and my brother, Neil, for much of the folk and the jazz (and the mail-order service!). The plenary paper session at the Shakespeare Association of America conference in New Orleans, 2004, entitled The Dukes Man: Ellington, Shakespeare, and Jazz Adaptation was a huge inspiration, and my thanks to the speakers on that occasion Stephen M. Buhler, Douglas Lanier, and Frances Teague as well as to the chair, Terence Hawkes.

My colleagues at the University of Nottingham have, as always, been a source of encouragement and support, both practical and intellectual; special thanks to Ron Carter, Janette Dillon, Brean Hammond, Jo Robinson, Mark Robson, and Peter Stockwell. The staff in the Hallward and Denis Arnold Music Libraries at the university have helped with many enquiries and chased items for me, often at very short notice; their work is much appreciated. My undergraduate and postgraduate students at Nottingham continue to be the finest inspiration of all. Particular thanks must go, though, to Daniel Grimley, friend, musical scholar, and colleague of the highest order, who read this book in manuscript form with wit and insight and undoubtedly sharpened its arguments. Remaining errors and infelicities are wholly mine.

Venues including the British Shakespeare Association Conference in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the International Shakespeare Conference at Stratford-upon-Avon have enabled me to share some of the research and ideas for this book in stimulating environments. My thanks to all the participants in the Shakespeare and Music seminar at the BSA in September 2005, and to Kate Chedgzoy, John Jowett, and Kate McLuskie for these opportunities.

Gratitude must also go to Polity Press for the initial commission, especially Sally-Ann Spencer for her early enthusiasm for the idea and Andrea Drugan, who saw it patiently and graciously through to its completion. The anonymous readers both for the original proposal and the finished manuscript were, quite simply, some of the most helpful and encouraging I have ever encountered in my career. Their enthusiasm for this project was a huge boost, and their ideas and suggestions have undoubtedly made it a far better book. Since I will never know who they were, I can only hope the work as published does their contribution justice.

And, as ever, last, but certainly not least, thank you to my constant gardener: John Higham. Only you, John, will understand and appreciate the endless sacrificed weekends and evenings that have contributed to this project and which you have, as ever, borne with patience and love. To quote Sir Philip Sidney, albeit from a rather different context: Now it is done only for you, only to you; if you keep it to yourself, or to such friends who will weigh errors in the balance of goodwill, I hope it will be pardoned, perchance made much of, though in itself it have deformities. Thank you for seeing me through this one; I love you more than words can say.