Tracking the Sounds of Franco ZeffireUi's The Taming ofthe Shrew

Though Shakespearean drama on the stage is largely an oral, and thus an aural, medium, and although certain film directors of Shakespeare, such as Welles and Kurosawa, are considered master manipulators of cinematic sound, until recendy little attention was paid to sound in analyses of Shakespearean films.' Given the oculocentric culture of America in the last century and the fact that film has traditionally been seen as a largely \nsual medium, this lack of attention is understandable. For most viewers or spectators (these synonjTns for filmgoers suggest the bias), the soundtrack is a mere accompaniment to the images despite the fact that film sound is better than it ever has been by virtue of new digital stereo surround-sound systems in theaters and homes. Moreover, if one opens any college introduction to film, one finds that the obligatory chapter on sound almost witliout exception follows visuaJ elements like mise-en-scene, cinematography, movement, mo\ing camera, and editing, thereby suggesting its relative (lack of) importance." Analyses of sound as a technique are difficult to carry out as well; unlike visual dips, analysts cannot freeze individual sounds on video apparatus nor easily map their mixing and editing.