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Musical Logic and the Theatre of Robert Wilson

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Musical Logic and the Theatre of Robert Wilson Volume 5, Issue 1 February 2012 A Brief History of Timing: Musical Logic and the Theatre of Robert Wilson MARKEE RAMBO-HOOD, University of Glasgow ABSTRACT This article explores ideas of musical minimalism and musical composition in relation to the theatre practice of Robert Wilson, as a means to offer a close analysis of theatre structure. It charts Wilson’s rehearsal process from the early stages of his table workshops to live performances, with an emphasis on Einstein on the Beach, Madama Butterfly, Alcestes, and The Black Rider. It draws from archival footage, original documents, and correspondences in order to offer historical instances of collaboration whilst exploring ideas of fixed and composed time in Wilson’s stage space. The aim of this analysis is to shift the focus away from the narration or transaction of meaning within Wilson’s work and to find dramaturgical links in the composition and structure of his theatre instead. KEYWORDS Robert Wilson, Music, Composition, Einstein on the Beach, The Black Rider Although the majority of academic research on American theatre director Robert Wilson discusses his theatre in relation to the effect of his stage images, Wilson’s theatre is equally entangled with music and soundscapes. Maria Shevtsova (2007: 36) claims that ‘...his work is always musical, relying on rhythm, pitch, tone timbre, intonation, volume, cadence and pause...’ since the premiere of his piece, A Letter for Queen Victoria (1974). Arthur Holmberg (1996: 9-40) also discusses Wilson in relation to sound through Wilson’s use of language. He classifies his first period of theatre-making during the 1960s and 70s as pieces that ignore language. In Wilson’s second period, which began with A Letter for Queen Victoria, Wilson deconstructed language. The third period, beginning in 1984 with the piece the CIVILwarS, Wilson was greatly influenced by Heiner Müller’s work and began to use language a literary device. And in the fourth, during the late 1980s, Holmberg argues that Wilson began to restage the classics and operas and reinvented already existing texts. Holmberg discussed Wilson’s use of language as a means to produce pure sound, thus an antithesis to that of semantic meaning, claiming that Wilson would string together words not as a means to transact content, but for the aural qualities of the phrases, thus exhibiting ‘an almost Mozartian’ sense of classical composition (Holmberg, 1996: 72). Therefore Holmberg’s structuring of Wilson’s theatre by language also focuses on the musicality of the 219 Volume 5, Issue 1 February 2012 audio and aural components of the pieces. Therefore, this article frames Wilson’s work under the pretence of its musical qualities through Wilson’s use of organised and precise timing within his theatrical space. Thus, by identifying musical attributes such as scored rhythm and metre, thematic composition, variation, and principles of musical minimalism, both in the rehearsal process and in performance, this article offers a method with which to approach and analyse theatrical compositions by focusing on its structural attributes instead of looking at its narration devices. This is not to suggest that Wilson’s stage image is not equally rich with connotations and meanings; these however are typically fractured, fluid and layered. By addressing the structural foundations of Wilson’s pieces, this article hopes to offer an additional reading that can aid and enhance the multi-layered dramaturgy of Wilson’s theatre. Wilson’s use of organised time can be traced back to the initial phases of his theatre making process. The production meetings, or as Wilson terms them the table workshops, include discussions between Wilson and the creative team during which time they talk through ideas for the piece they are working on (Shevtsova, 2007: 42). During these workshops Wilson begins sketching what he calls a visual book, which operates as a sort of storyboard for the production. The visual book is also used as a catalyst for the creative team to design and compose their artistic contributions. An example of a table workshop can be seen with Einstein on the Beach (1976), during which the minimalist composer Philip Glass and Wilson began exploring ideas for the opera in 1974 over lunch meetings once a week (Glass, 1988: 28). Firstly, Wilson and Glass decided on a subject matter for their opera; in this case they wanted it to be about Einstein (Wilson, 1997, Tape 2, 0:10:30). Once the subject was decided, they began to discuss the structure of the opera, before they developed a through- line or narrative content. They divided the opera into four acts, with five interludes layered between them. These five interludes were called Knee Plays. Glass attributed the name to “...the ‘knee’ referring to the joining function that human’s anatomical knees perform” (1988: 30). This can be observed with placement of the Knee Plays as a cushion between each act as well as their function as a transition from one act to the next. Although they do not directly comment on the actions surrounding them, the “Knee Plays” contain the two out of the three major musical themes of the opera (Glass, 1988: 61). They also repeat a visual theme by using the same two performers throughout. Wilson and Glass determined the major visual themes of the opera once they had divided it into acts. They decided on three visual themes and titled them A, B and C. They then established that the thematic ordering of the opera should be based on a simple mathematical formula; according to which all of the combinations of A, B and C must be used without repetition and with a minimum of two themes per act. Structure of Einstein on the Beach Prologue 220 Volume 5, Issue 1 February 2012 Knee Play 1 – 4 minutes Act 1 - Theme A – 24 minutes Theme B – 23 minutes Knee Play 2 – 4 minutes Act 2 - Theme C – 22 minutes Theme A – 23 minutes Knee Play 3 – 5 minutes Act 3 - Theme B – 24 minutes Theme C – 22 minutes Knee Play 4 – 4 minutes Act 4 - Theme A – 17 minutes Theme B – 16 minutes Theme C – 17 minutes Knee Play 5 – 4 minutes A= Train Theme, B = Trial Theme, C= Field Theme Each act was assigned a combination of themes: act one was given themes A and B, act two C and A, act three B and C, and act four contained all three themes. After these themes were placed within the structure of the opera, they were assigned a corresponding visual theme. For theme A the corresponding visual theme was a “train”, for B a “trial” and for C a “field”. Wilson later developed these visual themes through a series of sketches (Glass, 1988: 38), which were eventually colligated into his visual book. As mentioned previously, the visual book was used as a means inspire the creative team, and thus was given to Glass for the composition of the music after the table workshop. But before the visual book was completed, Glass and Wilson decided on the length of their opera. Wilson asked Glass if he conceived this opera to be in proportion to Wagner’s epic pieces, to which Glass agreed. Therefore they decided that their opera should last exactly four hours and forty-eight minutes (Wilson, 1997, Tape 2, 0:11:00). In keeping with the chosen structure, each interlude and act of Einstein on the Beach was divided into corresponding lengths of time in order to maintain an entire running length of four hours and forty-eight minutes. Thus, Glass and Wilson decided that the first two and last two knee plays would last four minutes and the third knee play would last for five minutes (Wilson, 1997, Tape 2, 0:11:30). They then agreed that the initial appearance of the train theme would last twenty-four minutes, the trial theme twenty-three minutes and the field theme twenty-two minutes. From there they determined that the second appearance of the train theme would last twenty-three minutes, the trial theme twenty-four and the field twenty- two and the third appearance of the train theme seventeen, the trial theme sixteen and the field theme seventeen minutes. However, as this did not exactly add up to their desired run time, the third act was shortened during rehearsals in order to adhere to their initial target. This strict marking of time is also found in scored music. In a musical score, each note is fixed with a certain length of time. The type of note, the time signature and the metre and tempo determines this fixity. That being said, musical compositions are not necessarily 221 Volume 5, Issue 1 February 2012 predetermined in the same manner as Einstein on the Beach was, however when written as a score, each passage of music is given a fixed space in time in which it exists. They both use form and time as a means of aesthetic structuring. Therefore the logic used in musical composition can be found during the table workshops for Einstein on the Beach. In addition to the musical qualities found in the restrictions of timing in Einstein on the Beach, and the mathematical placement of its themes, musical logic is also found in the manner in which these themes unfold throughout the opera. In this case, I am defining musical logic as techniques of musical composition that can be located in the conception processes of theatre making. In this particular case I am referring to instances of fixed and organised time, thematic structuring and repetition. In music theory, a musical variation is a short phrase of musical material; when introduced at the beginning of a piece of music it is known as a theme.
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