Klarinet Archive - Posting 000424.txt from 2010/11

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Sabine Meyer
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 08:19:09 -0500

On 11/25/2010 04:09 PM, Tony Pay wrote:
> But I have been reading Peter Hall's book, "Exposed by the Mask -- Form and Language in Drama", and there is a sense in which I want to say that Danyel's complaint has its counterpart in Hall's assertion that "..there is little attention paid to the form of Shakespeare's verse in academic circles...there is very little acceptance of a method of approaching Shakespeare's verse in the professional theatre either. Most Shakespearean productions are a symphony of mis-scansions and misemphases and seem unaware of the fact."

Interesting book -- if I remember right Hall himself draws a comparison
between drama and the period instrument movement, notably the focus on
both getting the composer's text right and getting the interpretation
right. There's a paragraph where he contrasts this with the common and
casual practice of cutting and even rewriting Shakespeare -- something
which is unthinkable with e.g. Pinter or Beckett -- and urges that we
should place value on every word and phrase, just as musicians do with
notes.

There's another remark I recall from Peter Brook in his book "The Empty
Space" where he refers to practices in the Elizabethan theatre, and
notes that one of the great strengths of performance practice from the
time is in the relative lack of props and scenery -- which greatly
enhances the ability of the performer to move between the outer and
inner worlds, between realism and fantasy, and even to move effortlessly
in time and space.
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