Musicality in (the) Theatre. Concepts and practices of interart processes in theatre making

本书的主要前提是探讨“音乐性”的概念，作为过去和现在的戏剧从业者的一个关键的节目概念。音乐既是一种声学现象，也是一种塑造和组织空间和时间的符号语言，在其历史的关键时刻经常被用作其他艺术，特别是戏剧的典范。戏剧导演、演员和理论家，如歌德、克莱斯特、布莱希特、迈尔霍尔德或克雷格，都表达了他们希望戏剧像音乐一样，希望演员培养敏锐的节奏感，希望导演像作曲家或指挥家那样控制戏剧表现手段的复调。因此，他们主张在戏剧和戏剧制作中必须有“音乐性”。为了研究这一现象，我将首先提出一个更广泛的概念，即音乐性是一种具体的心灵框架，而不是个人的能力或天赋，并将引入集体音乐性的概念。我的意思是，音乐性的概念可以更广泛地应用于戏剧的物质和非物质元素，例如身体、文本、物体，以及光、时间或声音。然后我将从五个主要方面探讨音乐性的概念：1.它的历史维度，因为它存在于跨越几个世纪和国家的戏剧节目写作中(重点是欧洲戏剧)。我将特别探讨戏剧中节奏的概念、即兴表演、形式和结构、乐谱和记号，以及隐喻，如戏剧表现手段的复调或作为乐器的身体和舞台的复调。我会将这些音乐性的历史概念与当代的实践和过程进行比较。我将把当代Interart理论和方法论中的发现与背景联系起来，这些发现涉及到越来越多的人对艺术形式之间的界限、艺术与生活本身之间的传统分离的质疑。我将根据我在1和2.4中的发现，确定并准确地确定Interart实践的关键特征和策略。我将寻求调查我的发现对我们更广泛的戏剧性和音乐性概念的影响。“戏剧性”已被证明是一个卓有成效的概念，不仅是为了研究戏剧作为一种艺术形式的过程和实践的特殊性，也是为了研究这些特征如何在其他地方应用和发生。同样，我将寻求在音乐本身的领域之外，例如在戏剧过程中，但在生活的其他领域(通信、医学、信息技术等)中也能产生成效的‘音乐性’的概念。最后，我将通过为戏剧专业人员和教育者举办一次演讲和讲习班来解决影响的问题，他们将受益于在他们的创作和教学实践中更好地了解戏剧的音乐性，因为这大大拓宽了戏剧制作的普遍方法的范围。这一研究项目的成果对于对跨艺术实践和理论的过去和最近的发展感兴趣的戏剧历史学家和理论家，以及对跨艺术学科的创作和过程感兴趣的戏剧从业者和教育者来说，都是有价值的。这项研究项目建立在我之前研究成果的基础上，这一研究成果在国际公认的AHRC资助的系列研讨会上得到了阐述，该系列研讨会的主题是《创作戏剧的设计过程》，获奖论文是关于当代德国戏剧的音乐化(2008年)，还有一篇关于表演者和导演培训中的音乐性的特邀主旨/文章(2009年)

SummaryThe key premise of this book is to explore the notion of 'musicality' as a key programmatic concept for theatre practitioners past and present. Music, both as an acoustic phenomenon and a symbolic language which shapes and organises space and time, has frequently been employed as a model for other arts and in particular the theatre at key moments of its history. Theatre directors, actors and theoreticians such as Goethe, Kleist, Brecht, Meyerhold or Craig have expressed their desire for theatre to be like music, for actors to develop an acute sense of rhythm, for directors to control the polyphony of theatrical means of expression like a composer or conductor would. They have thus argued for the necessity of 'musicality' in (the) theatre and in theatre making.In order to investigate this phenomenon I will initially suggest a widened notion of musicality as a frame of embodied mind rather than an individual ability or talent, and will introduce ideas of a collective musicality. By this I mean that the notion of musicality can be more widely applied to both the material and immaterial elements of the theatre, such as bodies, texts, objects on the one hand and light, time, or sound on the other. I will then explore this notion of musicality in five main directions: 1. Its historical dimension as it is present in programmatic writings of the theatre across the centuries and countries (focussing on European theatre). I will explore in particular notions of Rhythm in Theatre, Improvisation, Form and Structure, Scores and Notations, and metaphors such as the Polyphony of Theatrical Means of Expression or of Bodies and Stages as Instruments.2. I will compare these historical notions of musicality to contemporary practices and processes.3. I will contextualise the findings in contemporary interart theory and methodology, which are concerned with the increasing questioning of both the boundaries between art forms in their traditional separation into disciplines and between art and life itself. I will identify and pinpoint key characteristics and strategies of interart practices based on my findings in 1 and 2. 4. I will seek to investigate the implications of my findings for our wider notions of theatricality and musicality. 'Theatricality' has proven to be a fruitful concept not only for investigating what is specific about the processes and practices of theatre as an art form, but also how these characteristics apply and occur elsewhere. Similarly, I will seek to arrive at a notion of 'musicality' that is productive outside the realm of music itself, for example in theatre processes, but also in other areas of life (communication, medicine, IT etc.).5. Finally, I will address the question of impact by developing a presentation and workshop for theatre professionals and pedagogues, who will benefit from a better understanding of musicality in (the) theatre in their creative and pedagogical practice as it significantly widens the range of approaches to theatre making commonly available. The presentation / workshop will based on my own current and previous research as well as practical and pedagogical experiences.The outcomes of this research project will be valuable to theatre historians and theoreticians who are interested in past and recent developments towards interart practices and theories, and to theatre practitioners as well as pedagogues across the creative sector, who are interested in creation and process across artistic disciplines. The research project builds on the success of my previous research, which was articulated in the international recognised AHRC funded workshop series on 'Process of Devising Composed Theatre', the award-winning essay on Musicalisation in Contemporary German Theatre (2008) and an invited keynote/article on Musicality in Performer and Director Training (2009)