As I have found the theoretical paths between Sound/Noise and Performance and Musicality to cross frequently, here are two quick links to recent events:
First, I just attended „Sound and Performance” – the 11th Congress of the
Gesellschaft für Theaterwissenschaft (German Society for Theatre
Studies) which was held from 4 to 7 October 2012 by the Institute
for Music-Theatre Studies (Prof. Ernst, Prof. Mungen) at the University
of Bayreuth and gave a keynote entitled: "
Mind the Gap! ‘Noise’ in the performative production of sound ".
Second, Lynne Kendrick's and my book "Theatre Noise" (CSP) has just been reviewed very positively by Sarah Mauksch at http://www.theaterforschung.de/rezension.php4?ID=1571. Theaterforschung.de is the main German online hub for theatre scholarship, equivalent perhaps to SCUDD in the UK.
Here is a short excerpt with my translation:
"18 Beiträge liegen hier gesammelt vor, die sich kaleidoskopisch mit den unterschiedlichsten Blickpunkten um die Schlagworte „sound“/„noise“, „theatre“/„performance“ anordnen. Dass diesen so vielfach entgegnet werden kann, zeigt wie zwingend eine profunde Auseinandersetzung mit dem Verhältnis der Begriffe gefordert war (und ist?). Dieser Band liefert dazu einen detaillierten Einblick in den Status quo der Forschung und den Anwendungsbereich des Theaters, das gleichzeitig Untersuchungsgegenstand ist. Meiner Meinung nach ist die Verknüpfung von Beiträgen aus der Wissenschaft sowie praxisorientierter Handhabe für Fragestellungen dieser Art äußerst sinnvoll. […]
Alles in allem spiegelt dieses Buch die Dringlichkeit zur Auseinandersetzung mit dem Themengebiet wider und den Herausgebern gelingt es, erste intelligente Schlüsse aus der Fülle an Informationen zu ziehen. Aus diesem Grund ist die Lektüre uneingeschränkt empfehlenswert."
"18 chapters are assembled here which are structured around the keywords „sound“/„noise“, „theatre“/„performance“ caleidoscopically from a wide range of viewpoints. That these keywords can be approached in such a variety of ways, demonstrates how timely a profound exploration with the relationship between these terms was (and is?). This volume provides a detailled insight into the status quo of the research and practice of a theatre that is at the same time its topic. In my opinion, the combination of academic contributions with reflections from a practice-oriented background is very sensible for this interrogation. […] All in all this book reflects the urgency of an exploration of this topic and the editors succeed in drawing first intelligent conclusions from the wealth of informations. Therefore reading this book is recommended without reservations."
I won't argue with that!
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Speaking at TaPRA
I will be speaking about musicality in theatre today at the TaPRA conference at the University of Kent, where I have just moved two days ago. I am excited to discuss my work in the context of the working group for Performer Training in the 20th and 21st Century, which is not necessarily my 'natural' habitat, but since a lot of the discourse on musicality is intimately connected with questions of actor and performer training, it will be interesting to get feedback from this background.
I am also looking forward to hear Mario Frendo's paper, who also talks about musicality as dramaturgy: there are a lot of shared interest between our papers (e.g. musicality as emergence of rhythmical structures or melodic associations, as he describes it) but also areas where we approach the notion quite differently, which will make for a productive discussion, I am sure.
In the meantime, the book has progressed significantly and I am in the final stages of finishing the first complete draft and get it ready for proof-reading and further editing.
I am also looking forward to hear Mario Frendo's paper, who also talks about musicality as dramaturgy: there are a lot of shared interest between our papers (e.g. musicality as emergence of rhythmical structures or melodic associations, as he describes it) but also areas where we approach the notion quite differently, which will make for a productive discussion, I am sure.
In the meantime, the book has progressed significantly and I am in the final stages of finishing the first complete draft and get it ready for proof-reading and further editing.
Friday, 27 July 2012
Pastures new
From the beginning of Sept I will start a new job as Senior Lecturer at the Department of Drama and Theatre of the University of Kent. While I will miss my excellent and wonderful colleagues at Exeter Drama, I am also very excited to re-contextualize my work in a new environment and be inspired by the new surroundings and people.
More interviews
In my attempt to tackle 'musicality' in contemporary theatre, which appears to be a particularly eclectic field, I have tried to identify a range of practitioners and practices that might make for some interesting case studies for this final chapter. I have had along conversation with Jörg Gollasch about his work with German director and incoming Intendantin of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Karin Beier (see previous blog entry). After that Gareth Fry, sound deisgner for Katie Mitchell, Complicite and others very kindly spoke to me about Mitchell's multimedia works and the role of sound and music in these. I was also intrigued by Filter's work with music and sound in their anarchic and highly entertaining adaptations, such as Midsummer Night's Dream or Twelfth Night. Director Sean Holmes kindly spoke with me about this work. And finally I was able to talk to German director Michael Thalheimer, who has developed a unique style of adapting classical text into condensed scores of gestures, words and music with the signature stage design by Olaf Altman and compositions by Bert Wrede. Thalheimer famously said that theatre should be like a good pop song and we had an interesting conversation about what that might mean.
So now all I have do is to write that final chapter.... if only the sun hadn't decided to finally grace the South West with its long-awaited presence...
So now all I have do is to write that final chapter.... if only the sun hadn't decided to finally grace the South West with its long-awaited presence...
Sunday, 27 May 2012
Interviews
As my book project, which I have written chronologically so far, starting somewhere around 1870, is now approaching contemporary theatre, I am beginning to talk about artists who are actually alive. So I have started to make contact with some of them and have been able to conduct three interviews so far, worth two theatre directors and one theatre musician.
This is quite an interesting process: it always strikes me how different artists conceptualise and reflect on their work to the way I would describe it. It is quite a useful challenge to step out of one's own discourse and jargon and to try to truly understand and embrace the differences in emphasis and vocabulary provided by the artists themselves.
First of the three artists and productions I encountered was Matthieu Leloup, who directed the company Bred in the Bone in 2006 based on a text by T.S. Eliot - an intricate interweaving of live music with a clearly improvised flair of jazz and klezmer and actors who performed their texts, gestures and movement not to music but as music.
Then I talked to director Thorsten Lensing, who continues to baffle audiences in Germany with highly original productions ranging from adaptations of novels or poetry (again T.S. Eliot, actually!) and classics like King Lear or The Cherry Orchard. I wanted to talk to him specifically about a production from 2009, Der Lauf zum Meer, based on a text by William Carlos Williams.
Again, it was the particularly intricate and tight interweaving of three improvising live musicians with three actors, interspersing their lines like jazz soloists into the musical texture that struck me at the time and that I was curious to find out more about with regard to the process of development. More about in my chapter in the book.
Finally, I just had the chance to see one of the final performances of the impressive production Das Werk. Der Bus. Der Sturz by Elfriede Jelinek, directed by Karin Beier. I spoke to the composer of the production, Jörg Gollasch – his music features three live musicians (cello, percussion) almost throughout the piece, as well as long breathtaking section of through-composed speech rhythms for large male choir. Again, I was intrigued to find out quite how interrelated the musical and theatrical development of the production were, how indispensable composing and directing proved to be for each other in this process.
I am looking forward to going throw theses conversations again now and to try to make sense of them the context of my particular discourse hopefully without falling into the trap of "simply making them fit", but allowing the occasional difference I mentioned above to shine though.
This is quite an interesting process: it always strikes me how different artists conceptualise and reflect on their work to the way I would describe it. It is quite a useful challenge to step out of one's own discourse and jargon and to try to truly understand and embrace the differences in emphasis and vocabulary provided by the artists themselves.
First of the three artists and productions I encountered was Matthieu Leloup, who directed the company Bred in the Bone in 2006 based on a text by T.S. Eliot - an intricate interweaving of live music with a clearly improvised flair of jazz and klezmer and actors who performed their texts, gestures and movement not to music but as music.
Then I talked to director Thorsten Lensing, who continues to baffle audiences in Germany with highly original productions ranging from adaptations of novels or poetry (again T.S. Eliot, actually!) and classics like King Lear or The Cherry Orchard. I wanted to talk to him specifically about a production from 2009, Der Lauf zum Meer, based on a text by William Carlos Williams.
Again, it was the particularly intricate and tight interweaving of three improvising live musicians with three actors, interspersing their lines like jazz soloists into the musical texture that struck me at the time and that I was curious to find out more about with regard to the process of development. More about in my chapter in the book.
Finally, I just had the chance to see one of the final performances of the impressive production Das Werk. Der Bus. Der Sturz by Elfriede Jelinek, directed by Karin Beier. I spoke to the composer of the production, Jörg Gollasch – his music features three live musicians (cello, percussion) almost throughout the piece, as well as long breathtaking section of through-composed speech rhythms for large male choir. Again, I was intrigued to find out quite how interrelated the musical and theatrical development of the production were, how indispensable composing and directing proved to be for each other in this process.
I am looking forward to going throw theses conversations again now and to try to make sense of them the context of my particular discourse hopefully without falling into the trap of "simply making them fit", but allowing the occasional difference I mentioned above to shine though.
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
"Theater als Musik" now available as iBook
For a while now my first monograph from 2003, Theater als Musik (Theatre as music), has been out of print, but I still got the odd request from students and colleagues who are interested in having a look at it. I have uploaded the PDF files to the research repository of the University of Exeter (and they are still there), but since the book makes frequent use of video clips and sound samples, and provides musical transcripts etc., I always thought that a kind of ebook / hypertext would be a better solution.
So after quite a bit of tweaking (and updating the text here and there), you can now download it in this new iBook format! And it's free! So do have a look, and perhaps leave a review or comment.
You can search for it through your iBook app or through iTunes. Here is a link.
I'm afraid, however, it is still all in German...
In many ways, it is the predecessor to the book I'm currently writing: it focuses on contemporary directors Christoph Marthaler, Einar Schleef and – probably best known of the three – Robert Wilson, and looks at their productions from a musical point of view, whereas in my current project, I go back in history and consider working and creation processes more strongly than the resulting performances. Anyway, I hope the digital version will be useful.
Monday, 2 April 2012
Workshop in Hamburg
For the past four days I have been watching two shows a night from the next generation of directors from most German speaking conservatories which teach directing, as well as some international additions from Denmark and the Netherlands. As different as the productions are, in their subjects, working methods, acting styles and directorial signatures, a strong use of music is almost ubiquitous.
In my workshop during the Körber Studio Junge Regie, however, I tried to emphasise a notion of musicality which has little to do with how much music was used in a production.
I sought at first to map the field briefly, trying to tease out some of the core aspects of musicality (how it may provide a different perspective on the materiality of theatre, a disposition to 'attunement' of the sense to rhythm, timbre, sound qualities, formal relationships etc. of theatrical events, a different working process and, perhaps, as a result, a different aesthetics.
One interesting interjection by a participant gave me food for thought in particular: he would sometimes warn actors "now you are just singing!" when they started loosing the actual sense of what they were saying. It hadn't really occurred to me that the strategy used by the likes of Artaud, Gertrude Stein, Robert Wilson etc etc. to de-sematise language order to increase our appreciation for its sonic and rhythmic qualities could of course, in different contexts, backfire and become an escape, a formal ornamentation of language stripping it of its actual meaning.
It does emphasise the point that there isn't one single recipe of musicality that always 'works', but that different contexts, aesthetics, individuals and materials require different kinds of musicality.
Another interesting conversation (amongst many!) was about, whether my book would also include the perspective of the audience. Surely it wouldn't be enough to talk about intentions, strategies, process and manifestos; I would also need to investigate how musicality was received, how it might depend on personal factors and preferences, even the position of audience members in the auditorium etc. All this is true and would desirable, but it is for many reasons more than I can possibly cover at the moment, even if I had a time machine and could fly back to 1920s Russia, for example, to interview Meyerhold's audiences.
What I found really rewarding about the workshop and some of the brief talks and reactions I had with and from participants was the impression, that some of this was actually genuinely useful for them. I am the last person to say the research always has to immediately demonstrate it use and impact - a lot of the greatest inventions came out of pure and uncalculating curiosity - but I do believe that ideally theory, experiment, and creative practice engage in a cyclical interplay in which one challenges and enriches the other.
In my workshop during the Körber Studio Junge Regie, however, I tried to emphasise a notion of musicality which has little to do with how much music was used in a production.
I sought at first to map the field briefly, trying to tease out some of the core aspects of musicality (how it may provide a different perspective on the materiality of theatre, a disposition to 'attunement' of the sense to rhythm, timbre, sound qualities, formal relationships etc. of theatrical events, a different working process and, perhaps, as a result, a different aesthetics.
One interesting interjection by a participant gave me food for thought in particular: he would sometimes warn actors "now you are just singing!" when they started loosing the actual sense of what they were saying. It hadn't really occurred to me that the strategy used by the likes of Artaud, Gertrude Stein, Robert Wilson etc etc. to de-sematise language order to increase our appreciation for its sonic and rhythmic qualities could of course, in different contexts, backfire and become an escape, a formal ornamentation of language stripping it of its actual meaning.
It does emphasise the point that there isn't one single recipe of musicality that always 'works', but that different contexts, aesthetics, individuals and materials require different kinds of musicality.
Another interesting conversation (amongst many!) was about, whether my book would also include the perspective of the audience. Surely it wouldn't be enough to talk about intentions, strategies, process and manifestos; I would also need to investigate how musicality was received, how it might depend on personal factors and preferences, even the position of audience members in the auditorium etc. All this is true and would desirable, but it is for many reasons more than I can possibly cover at the moment, even if I had a time machine and could fly back to 1920s Russia, for example, to interview Meyerhold's audiences.
What I found really rewarding about the workshop and some of the brief talks and reactions I had with and from participants was the impression, that some of this was actually genuinely useful for them. I am the last person to say the research always has to immediately demonstrate it use and impact - a lot of the greatest inventions came out of pure and uncalculating curiosity - but I do believe that ideally theory, experiment, and creative practice engage in a cyclical interplay in which one challenges and enriches the other.
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