Shakespeare’s plays are filled with music—lyrics he wrote and other material he cribbed—but little of the original music remains (the First Folio contains zero sheet music). Over the centuries, composers have tried their hand at setting his words to music. From Mendelssohn to Michael Nyman and Stephen Sondheim, we have hours of underscoring and song settings (and that doesn’t even include operas inspired by him). Two recent CD releases, from the band Hem and singer-songwriter Stew, carry on the tradition of making Shakespeare sing in a contemporary idiom.

Twelfth Night
At nearly 33 minutes, this CD by the Celtic-fusion folk band Hem collects the incidental music heard this summer in the Public Theater’s jolly, enchanting Twelfth Night in Central Park. Twenty-eight short tracks cover a modest range of styles, from Irish reels and jigs to lilting string arrangements and touching ballads. Frisky, soulful, uplifting and richly textured, Dan Messé’s arrangements with Gary Maurer and Steve Curtis have an unforced affinity for Shakespeare’s folksy, English roots. If you loved the scoring of Twelfth Night and want to hear Audra McDonald, David Pittu and Anne Hathaway’s pretty renditions again, this is a fine addition to your music library. And if you didn’t see the show but you’re planning your own outdoor Twelfth Night? Why not get permission from Hem and use a few tracks for scene transitions? Buy it at Amazon.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
For a much looser take on scoring the Bard, we have the soul-rock-funk-blues-and-what-else-you-got stylings of Stew, whose Passing Strange ran too briefly on Broadway the season before last. Stew’s 36-minute Midsummer score (written for Shakespeare on the Sound’s production this past summer) includes horn-and-guitar vamps and psychedelic stomps that have a groovy hypnotic flavor all their own. He sets various fairy songs to sweet, wistful airs and creates a beautiful “Wedding Processional” that builds from a drum march, organ and harp. As with any compilation of incidental music (such as soundtracks, although technically these are not soundtracks—nor are they exactly original cast albums), it’s hard to critique them for being too short or that they cut off just as they get interesting. But Stew’s exceptional musicianship (come back, already!) makes for an album that is beguiling, mysterious, humorous and totally playable. Buy it here.