Hamlet
music for the film
General Information – Instrumentation – Manuscript – Publication – Recordings
Composed:
1947
Film First Shown:
Wednesday, 22 November 1944. The Carlton, London.
Film Personnel:
Producer/Director: Sir Laurence Olivier
Screenplay: Adapted from the play by William Shakespeare
Cast: Sir Laurence Olivier, Basil Sydney, Felix Aylmer, Eileen Herlie,
Norman Woodland, Jean Simmons
Musicians: Philharmonia Orchestra, Muir Mathieson conductor.
Studio: Denham Studios
Craggs Catalogue Number:
C54
2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon – 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba – timpani, percussion (side drum, bass drum, cymbal, gong, glockenspiel) – harp – strings
Frederick R. Koch Collection. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Manuscript FRKF 583. Autograph full score, of the complete film music. 129 pages.
Funeral March from Hamlet, arranged by Muir Mathieson, 1963.
Fanfare for a Great Occasion, arranged by Sir Malcolm Sargent, 1964.
Hamlet and Ophelia, tone-poem for orchestra, arranged by Muir Mathieson, 1967.
Hamlet: A Shakespeare Scenario, for speaker and orchestra, arranged by Christopher Palmer, 1989.
Apart from the film, this music has only been recorded in the arrangements listed above.