The Silent Stage
In 1876, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote an epic and fantastical play called Peer Gynt.
Paging though a copy, you quickly get a feel for the works massive scope: mine's a hefty 144 pages -- and I've heard that some performances have run over 5 hours! Also, the whole thing is in Verse, and an entire act is done in complete darkness. But what really made this play was its music.
Ibsen asked fellow Norwegian Edvard Grieg to go off and compose the incidental score. What Grieg brought back was a solid hour-and-a-half of some of the most touching and triumphant High-Romantic Classical music ever written. Much of it continues to be performed today (usually without the attached play - - and often in the background of TV commercials). Most will immediately recognize "In the Hall of the Mountain King," but my personal favorite is "Ase`s Death." Go ahead and press the button below to listen (it may take some time to load):
Since Ibsen and Grieg's days there has been substantially less emphases on music in non-musical theater (if you ask me, most musicals also suffer from a lack of music [real music vs. obnoxious noise] --but that's another post). Ever since John Williams, Thomas Newman, and, most recently, Jonny Greenwood's beautifully alarming works for There Will Be Blood
, film music has been more and more present in the public's artistic consciousness. But... ask yourself, when is the last time you remembered or cared to discover the composer for a play?
There are those working to reverse this disquieting (quieting?) theatrical trend. The NY Time's Art Section featured an article about a year ago on Mark Bennett's score for the Vivian Beaumont Theater production of “The Coast of Utopia,” a series of plays by Tom Stoppard. Here's an excerpt:
From the Times Article: "At first you hear the whooshing sounds of winds and ocean waves, and a distant clanking bell. A thin-toned piano begins a tentative melody as a complement of string instruments segues into a softly undulant accompaniment. That tentative melody evolves into the signature theme that will recur in altered states in later scenes."
The scope and scale of Bennett's work is admirable; I think Grieg would approve. In keeping with the "large scale" ethic of Monsterism, It is my hope that similar original dramatic music will play an important part in all our productions, contributing to a fully immersive theatrical experience.
For this, we need composers and musicians! I plan on doing some of the writing myself but I very much need the help of others in the musical community. If you are interested in helping/creating/composing/performing please comment on this blog and give me a way to reach you. Likewise, if you know someone, please direct them to this site!
Update: (Clicking the little envelope below will allow you to email this post to your trumpet-player/whatever friend!)
Paging though a copy, you quickly get a feel for the works massive scope: mine's a hefty 144 pages -- and I've heard that some performances have run over 5 hours! Also, the whole thing is in Verse, and an entire act is done in complete darkness. But what really made this play was its music.
Ibsen asked fellow Norwegian Edvard Grieg to go off and compose the incidental score. What Grieg brought back was a solid hour-and-a-half of some of the most touching and triumphant High-Romantic Classical music ever written. Much of it continues to be performed today (usually without the attached play - - and often in the background of TV commercials). Most will immediately recognize "In the Hall of the Mountain King," but my personal favorite is "Ase`s Death." Go ahead and press the button below to listen (it may take some time to load):
Since Ibsen and Grieg's days there has been substantially less emphases on music in non-musical theater (if you ask me, most musicals also suffer from a lack of music [real music vs. obnoxious noise] --but that's another post). Ever since John Williams, Thomas Newman, and, most recently, Jonny Greenwood's beautifully alarming works for There Will Be Blood
, film music has been more and more present in the public's artistic consciousness. But... ask yourself, when is the last time you remembered or cared to discover the composer for a play? There are those working to reverse this disquieting (quieting?) theatrical trend. The NY Time's Art Section featured an article about a year ago on Mark Bennett's score for the Vivian Beaumont Theater production of “The Coast of Utopia,” a series of plays by Tom Stoppard. Here's an excerpt:
From the Times Article: "At first you hear the whooshing sounds of winds and ocean waves, and a distant clanking bell. A thin-toned piano begins a tentative melody as a complement of string instruments segues into a softly undulant accompaniment. That tentative melody evolves into the signature theme that will recur in altered states in later scenes."
The scope and scale of Bennett's work is admirable; I think Grieg would approve. In keeping with the "large scale" ethic of Monsterism, It is my hope that similar original dramatic music will play an important part in all our productions, contributing to a fully immersive theatrical experience.
For this, we need composers and musicians! I plan on doing some of the writing myself but I very much need the help of others in the musical community. If you are interested in helping/creating/composing/performing please comment on this blog and give me a way to reach you. Likewise, if you know someone, please direct them to this site!
Update: (Clicking the little envelope below will allow you to email this post to your trumpet-player/whatever friend!)
3 Comments:
There Will Be Blood reminded me what music should be to a dramatic experience.
I wonder if the lack of music in non-musical drama has anything to do with the fear of returning to melodramatic scores from the golden age of cinema. In any case, I believe that really thinking about every piano chord or cello note can prevent needless noise and can heighten rather than wash out a dramatic moment.
If you ever need someone to bounce ideas off of, I'd love to help in any way I can. I don't consider myself a trained musician, but I have had some experience playing music on stage (Marshall's Danton's Death), and I can make some sort of noise come out of more than a couple instruments.
Thanks Aeneas.
Yeah, I've had a recurring nightmare for sometime. It's always about vague impending doom (self-inflicted) portrayed in abstract scribble-like images. Needless to say... odd. But a few nights after I saw There Will be Blood, I swear, Swear! that my abstract dream was scored by that ominous chord Greenwood used in those long panning shots of the vacant desert.
Creepy.
I'll keep you in mind.
And thanks again for commenting.
Just like a successful play can bring an audience to tears without a note of music, a well crafted score can do the same without an actor setting foot on the stage. Music can live, breathe, dance, cry, and do many of the other things that actors do. It makes sense then that music can illustrate the deepest emotions of an actor and vice versa.
That being said, I'm definitely interested in collaborating/helping/playing obscure instruments/doing anything that has to do with music. I'd love to bounce around ideas and flesh them out. I think you have my contact info, but if not just facebook me.
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