Shakespeare's Tribe

After my posting yesterday, an astute reader brought my attention to this story from the New York Times about the release of another Sonnet app.

It is free, so I downloaded it last night and gave it a listen. There is not that much in place yet, as the series is just beginning. Only two of the 154 sonnets were up and running last night. This app is nowhere near as sophisticated as the Touch Press app – containing no notes or even texts. It appears to be just a series of short films.

The great strength of this project is that it is performed by Americans in undisguised American dialects. While I love the Touch Press app, it is relentlessly Anglocentric. One of the startling things about Ben Crystal’s original pronunciation performances on it, which I mentioned were my favorites, is how unBritish they sound. American students rarely get to hear good Shakespeare in their own dialects, although many of them (especially Southern ones) are actually closer to an authentic sound. This new app looks like it might champion the verse without resorting to “The King’s English.”