The politics of the polyphony of performance: Musicalization in contemporary German theatre¹

Abstract

The article describes and analyses the 'musical turn' German theatre has undergone in the past fifteen to twenty years, consisting in a re-discovery of the musicality of the theatrical process and event, not a mere inclusion of more music into the theatrical performance. The author focuses on three aspects of this phenomenon: firstly, musicalization in the devising or rehearsal process; secondly, musicalization as an organizational principle of performance; and thirdly, musicalization and the perception process. By looking at productions of Ruedi Häusermann, Sebastian Nübling, Heiner Goebbels, Christoph Marthaler and Einar Schleef, the author finds that musicality helps to introduce new dramaturgies and structures to theatrical performance and to challenge the expectations and meaning-making processes of the audience. For the director and performer musicality provides an alternative (not necessarily mutually exclusive) performative task to work with that shifts the attention from working on character, situation and narrative towards aspects of timing, sound and the polyphony of the theatrical media. For the audience, the inclination of a theatrical event towards the self-referentiality of music is a liberation of the obligation to 'get' the meaning of everything that happens on stage. And potentially, by worrying less about 'what it means', the audience can focus their attention on 'what it is' and thus challenge, widen and reflect on their own modes of perception and observation. At the same time, musicalization in the theatre will always deal with concrete spaces, bodies, texts and para-texts; meaning and coherence can thus be reintroduced through the back door by making use of the connotative referential potential of music.

The late- and post-Soviet trials of Hamlet in song, ballet, and opera

“…Music has always had the potential to take Shakespeare's tragedy beyond the text 'as a primary guarantor of structure, narrative and sense and beyond the spoken word as the dominant materiality'. 7 In the particular context of the Stagnation era, with its retightening of control and censorship following the relative freedom of the Thaw, the abstract and non-referential language of music became an even more crucial means of conveying meanings, or allowing meanings to be 'read' that were not explicit in the words. Hence the focus on musical adaptations in this article.…”

Territorios sonoros en el teatro posdramático. El sonido como lenguaje conductor de la dramaturgia escénica.

“…La musicalización aparece como un método de puesta en escena ideado principalmente para la organización del ritmo, el sonido y la tonalidad, y por el uso de características auditivas del habla y de la interpretación en creadores tan diversos como Christoph Marthaler, Einar Schleef, Robert Wilson, Heiner Goebbels y otros directores de teatro contemporáneo. A menudo ha sido uno de los medios para lograr una cierta liberación del logocentrismo en el contexto del teatro posdramático, y, al mismo tiempo, ha reintroducido toda la gama del potencial textual: como fenómeno rítmico, gesticulatorio, melódico, espacial y auditivo (Roesner, 2008).…”

“…Por otro lado, destacamos como fuentes más actuales: José Manuel Teira Alcaraz (2020) un artículo muy útil para caracterizar la plástica teatral; Juan P. Arregui (2018) utilizado para definir aspectos sobre semiótica; y Luz Hojsgaard (2019) que nos ha sido de gran ayuda para desarrollar las distintas característias que en los procesos creativos contemporáneos se dan a partir de las nuevas tecnologías. También señalaríamos el trabajo de Óscar Andrés Hernández Salgar (2012) que nos ha sido imprescindible para acercarnos a una metodología analítica que englobe la significación musical en el teatro; el artículo de David Roesner (2008) sobre el intenso proceso de musicalización en el teatro; y, por último, los trabajos de César Lignelli (2011), Itziar Zorita-Aguirre (2020) y Marta García Quiñones (2010b), para cuestiones referidas en cuanto al apartado sobre corporalidad y fisicidad del sonido como efecto en los cuerpos de la audiencia.…”

“…(Salzman y Desi, 2008, p. 3) Pero evidentemente, como exponen también estos mismos autores, la ópera contemporánea, el teatro musical en sus variadas formas, y el musical moderno 123 Traducción del original por la autora: As an important area in the vast field of multimedial performing arts, the diversified genre of music theatre with all its varied forms has specifically developed a great variet y of strategies for working with musicians in ways beyond their core activity of playing music. An apparent problema of music theatre is that the genre lacks a precise categorisation and definition, and the terminology is confusing: in Germany the term "Musiktheater" is often understood as opera (Bernal Molina, 2017, p. 54;Hübner, 2013, p. 6) 124 Roesner (Rebstock y Roesner, 2013a;Roesner, 2008;Roesner, 2011), Heile (2020, Priscilla H.F. Chu (2020) o Salzman y Desi (2008).…”

A matéria cênica e o tempo de sua percepção: uma proposta de agenciamento teórico

“…David Roesner (2008) descreve o que denomina uma virada musical no teatro alemão nos últimos quinze ou vinte anos. Esta consiste na redescoberta da musicalidade no evento e no processo de construção teatral (o que não se confunde com a inclusão de mais músicas no espetáculo).…”