HIDDEN in PLAIN SIGHT Musical Subtext in Drama BRIGITTE BOGAR a DISSERTATION SUBMITTED to the FACULTY of GRADUATE STUDIES IN
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HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT Musical subtext in drama BRIGITTE BOGAR A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSIC YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO September 2018 © Brigitte Bogar, 2018 Abstract This dissertation explores the manner in which music (songs, instrumental underscoring, and sound cues) support, reflect, and advance dramatic action. The dramaturgical analysis, employing Freytag’s model, is applied to selected dramatic repertoire to reveal the impact and influence of music on the dramatic structure of these works. The analysis considers how the musical nature of works by William Shakespeare, August Strindberg, George Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard and Simon Stephens also contributes to them becoming major sources for adaptations and for musicals on the modern stage. The importance of looking at authors, function, intended effects, production, context, message, and transmission modes must be stressed, as well as how to code/decode music and how musical meanings are generated through effective stimulation or through semiotics. The argument maintains that text and music cannot be separated without causing serious damage to the author’s creative vision and that the total structure of a play exists as an expression of artistic unity similar to Wagner’s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk. The text and music exist in a symbiotic relationship, sometimes as leitmotifs, with the non-diegetic music supporting emotions to reflect the inner world of their characters. The use of musical leitmotifs or music as thematic material clearly contributes in driving forward the dramatic action. Among the main findings are how the musical references made by any of the five playwrights determines the dramaturgical interpretation of their plays. Each author is extremely precise with respect to their musical references. Four out of five playwrights discussed had a strong musical background, which enabled them to make well-informed musical choices to underpin their plays. Some even chose to replace traditional dramatic structure with a musical one. ii Finally, it can be said that music functions as an important and often overlooked subtext that enhances the entire dramatic experience by supporting the situation and narrative. Music influences the audience’s ultimate perception of character and emotion. iii Table of Contents Abstract ii-iii Table of Contents iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1 12 Theory Chapter 2 55 Shakespeare’s Musical Language in The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet Chapter 3 88 Musical Strindberg: The soundscape of Miss Julie, Ett Drömspel, and Spöksonaten Chapter 4 115 George Bernard Shaw: Musical Language in Arms and the Man, Pygmalion, and Man and Superman. Chapter 5 150 Rock ‘n’ Roll Chapter 6 177 A Survey of Simon Stephens’ Plays and Music Chapter 7 207 Conclusion Bibliography 212 Appendices 220 Appendix A [Music references in Rock ‘n’ Roll] 220 Appendix B [Simon Stephens: the tracks of my plays] 226 Appendix C [Interview with Simon Stephens by William (Bill) Boles, 228 Comparative Drama Conference, April 6, 2018. Winter Park, Florida, US] Appendix D [CD: Bogar, B., Shaw Music, October 2014] 232 iv Introduction This dissertation explores the manner in which music (songs, instrumental underscoring, and sound cues) support, reflect, and advance dramatic action. Music serves as an essential device to enhance character definition. The importance of looking at authors, function, intended effects, production, context, message, and transmission modes must be stressed, as well as how to code/decode music and how musical meanings are generated through effective stimulation or through semiotics. In dramatic musical productions, opera and theatre, the importance of the author’s message1 is even more critical. Dramaturgical analysis, employing Freytag’s model, is applied to selected dramatic repertoire to reveal the impact and influence of music on the dramatic structure of these works, since it can easily generate a coherent overview of the dramatic structure and main points of interest – a chronological unfolding of events in the drama. The argument maintains that text and music cannot be separated without causing serious damage to the author’s creative vision and that the total structure of a play exists as an expression of artistic unity similar to Wagner’s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk. Works are chosen from the last four hundred years by authors William Shakespeare, August Strindberg, George Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard and Simon Stephens. Several plays were chosen due to their perennial popularity as attractive vehicles for operatic, musical, and popular adaptations. The analysis considers how the musical nature of these works also contributes to them becoming major sources for adaptations and for musicals on the modern stage. The reason for focusing on adaptations, is to highlight how they manage to help the 1 Composer or the playwright. 1 original work reach a broader audience, and how this affects the popular perception of the original work. Two other major factors in selecting these specific playwrights were their musical background and their current popularity. A reflection on the influence that Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni had on several of the chosen playwrights is also included. I have chosen to deal with the authors in a historical sequence to highlight the historical development of use of music as a subtext. A few other scholars have pointed to how the musical structure of, for example, a sonata influenced Strindberg’s Spöksonaten (The Ghost Sonata), and the structure of a symphony, his Ett Drömspel (A Dream Play).2 However, no one has looked systematically at how the musical references made by Strindberg or any of the other four playwrights determines the dramaturgical interpretation of their plays. Each author is extremely precise with respect to their musical references. I employ Cook’s idea that not only does music give meaning to images but images give meaning to music, negotiating it always within the given context; and that the music contributes to a dialectical process, where the “principal function of the music is to heighten the narrative structure by creating a sense of denouement”.3 Musical styles and genres are used to communicate complex social or attitudinal messages, and music can be used to emphasize structure or process, so while images and words deal mainly with the objective, music deals with 2 On Spöksonaten: Hinz, H., “Between Beethoven and Schönberg: Strindberg’s Idea of Chamber Music and its Significance For and In his Chamber Plays” in Strindberg on International Stages/Strindberg in Translation, (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), 79, 82, 89. Ollen, G., Strindbergs dramatik, (Kristianstad: Kristianstads Boktryckeri, 1982), 500-501, 522 and on Drömspel:. Brandell, G. (Ed.), Synspunkter på Strindberg, (Stockholm: Aldus, 1964), 228 and Ollen, G., Strindbergs dramatic, 446. 3 Cook, N. “Music and Meaning in the Commercials” in Popular Music, (Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan., 1994), Cambridge University Press), 32. 2 responses – values, emotions and attitudes. The alignment of music and process is an important element in the construction of meaning. My argument is supported by applying Brown’s idea that musical underscoring enhances the narrative properties of film. However, this concept is related to the theater and focuses on Brown’s two streams of meaning: the emotive and the semiotic; and his idea that when music serves as an assistant to language it emotively reinforces group values. I also examine what occurs when the two systems of communication, language and music, as introduced by Tagg, enhance each other. I must here make a distinction between musical theatre and text-based theatre and that is the focus of this dissertation, music as support for plays rather than as a form in and of itself. Therefore I have decided not to include a large segment on the Greek drama, although many scholars claim that is the origin of musical theatre. Instead I have included a brief overview here of the development of the musical theatre genre from the Greek theatre to the Broadway musical. One theory about music and drama as a combination (music-drama) is, that it can be dated back to ancient Greece and that Renaissance music theatre was developed on the basis of Greek tragedy. In Greek drama the chorus is playing an integral part of the action. In A Short History of Opera the author states: “There can be no doubt that the choruses were really sung, not merely musically declaimed.”4 Owen Lee backs this by stating that most of the Greek tragedies were sung, and that while the Greek text follows a musical structure with strophe, antistrophe and epode the singing was likely a unison or octave chanting of a single musical line. Aeschylus’ plays were largely sung, and he composed his own music, which made him the perfect example of an artist creating a Gesamtkunstwerk (writing his own texts, music, directing, 4 Grout, D. J. and Williams, H. W., A Short History of Opera (4th Ed.). New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, 10 3 setting the stage and creating the choreography). Following Euripides, the playwrights started using songs that were not really connected to the plot, but were included for musical effect. In the end, according to H. C. Montgomery, this led to the disappearance of the chorus from the Greek stage. Few pieces of the music supporting the ancient Greek tragedies have survived, so while we know very little about what it sounded like we do know that music played an important role. Owen Lee claims that all Wagner’s ideas about what drama signifies were based on the reading of Aeschylus’ trilogy, and that Wagner used his orchestra for the same purpose as Aeschylus used his chorus: to comment on the action. In Wagner’s operas this is done through his use of leitmotifs. He also uses the orchestra like the Greek chorus to conclude the drama.