Main piece:
https://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/cc76d03a9713a617e5fe6e990d6ded2c30591fee
(note bene: I suggest you adjust the speed at the bottom to around 60, but it's up to you)
Character's patterns:
https://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/52a8f6496de7ba6ff510aa10e73ce104d7ee80d5
One of the reasons Twelfth Night is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays (and why Midsummer Night's Dream is my favourite) is because of its incredible vivid and diverse characters-- Shakespeare's archetypes create a dynamic and memorable cast. Their plots weave in and out and interact but never exist all at once, a type of writing that, to me, lends itself to music (at least the way I write it). I tend to be a very mathematical and pattern-based composer (if I can even call myself that), and I like to repeat sections of music in order to convey a certain part of a story, or to create a pattern. In the case of Twelfth Night, I assigned each character a particular pattern (see link #2), and give the three main love-struck characters two lines each-- one for their own presence (their own pattern) and one for whatever's on their mind (aka the pattern of whoever is the current object of their affections). If you follow the patterns, you see mostly combinations of Orsino, Olivia, and of course Viola as they all try to sort out their incredibly messy feelings and sexualities. However, because all three vary in instruments and/or clefs, the sounds end up being different-- a difference which is enhanced by the melody and harmony lines, played on piano, which serve to add elements of emotion the two character lines couldn't or play a particular role (i.e. the looming storm in the beginning). Additionally, several short patterns appear and reappear throughout the piece, including one that pops up whenever someone's falling in love. For the subplot, I had to simplify down to just Malvolio and Feste for the purposes of not driving myself insane with 15+ lines of music (to be honest I'm not entirely sure how I managed with twelve). Although their appearances are limited to one section and the ending, Malvolio's crazed confession of love was probably the most complicated to write. In it, you have Olivia's pattern in the piano's melody, Malvolio's pattern increasing in speed and volume, Feste's upbeat flute, and finally Olivia appearing and becoming more and more distressed until she finally puts an end to it all. The interactions between different characters are typically illustrated in this way-- their influence, their appearance, and their emotions are only differentiable by what line of music they happen to be in.
The patterns themselves are also illustrative of the characters they represent: Feste's, played on a flute, is the fastest of them all, as well as the shortest. His entire pattern can fall within two quarter notes, and are played staccato. Malvolio's is the opposite-- painfully slow and boring, played on the toneless drums. Olivia's is pretty and a bit off beat, although purposefully low, to represent her mourning and more serious character (I always imagine her as the one actually sane person in Illyria), and it's played tenuto on the violin to suggest her importance. Orsino's is low and slow, and played marcato to suggest his importance, and on the bass (and in bass clef), as he is the only love interest who is completely masculine.Viola's pattern, as well, is particularly plain, and intentionally so. I wanted to create a pattern that could blend easily, and didn't stand out particularly, as her character does throughout the play. Sebastian and Viola's clefs were tricky for me to figure out, just because I had to decide how I wanted to represent their shared androgyny. Originally, I had Viola played in the bass clef, like Orsino, and Sebastian on the treble-- a low female, and a high male. Eventually, however, I switched Viola back to treble, even though I loved the symbolism. It made her sections much too heavy, and I ended up liking the similarities between Viola and Sebastian-- who only differ by an instrument. In general, the four love interests share similar instruments in order to portray their connections; Viola and Sebastian are both high strings, Sebastian and Olivia match, and even Orsino is a bass. Still a string, but a masculine one :)
Even though this isn't super polished, I hope it gets the message across!
Emma