‽istis ponders performance (weekending February 4th 2023)
This week, family staying, there has been
much talk of art and theatre.
·
A gallery visited (just what is ‘art’? - ideas,
concepts and meaning revealed transcendently; skill and crafting beyond
anything one could do oneself - these seemed to be part of our shared defining requirement
·
Reminiscence of plays and musicals seen and played in,
plans to see shows this year including a modern one with ‘heavy’ themes[i] and a cast member known
to us
·
Religion as theatre - particularly the ‘costume’ of a
be-mitred bishop and ‘scripts’ of liturgy)
And ‽istis has also wondered this week
about making and playing music, especially the level of the role of the player…
Perhaps there is a scale (pun not actually intended) or taxonomy to
be teased out with varying levels of involvement in the sound production:
·
Direct and unassisted/unmediated delivery – you are
the source and controller of the sound: singing, humming, whistling, body
percussion
·
Through an instrument: with varying degrees of players’
control, instruments’ mechanisation and location of the sound source - from a
kazoo to an unfretted string instrument, from a trombone to a flute, from a piano
to a keyboard to an organ console to a micro-chip
·
Automated, pre-set music production: a street organ –
handcranked or midi-controlled
·
Recorded music that can start or stop at the press of
a button, the application of needle to vinyl, the press of a button, the
request to a ‘smart’ device (what an extraordinary repertoire ‘Alexa’[ii] has)
And then there’s the sound engineering and delivery: from mics to
mixing to amplification to speakers to over-ear/in-ear/bone-conducting headphones…
Not for the first time ‽istis wondered
about process (a piece of music unfolding in real time – however it is
produced; the time spent painting or sculpting) and outcome (a finished
work exhibited in a gallery or in a location, a recording just waiting for
someone to press ‘play’)…
But ‽istis also wondered at the
power of performance to enhance:
‽ perhaps the inflection and delivery of liturgy spoken, of lines delivered;
‽ possibly
the tone and phrasing of a song or melody;
‽
maybe the expressive movement of a flautist or violinist;
‽
even perhaps, possibly, maybe the sheer joyous grin and cranking flair of a waistcoat-wearing,
hat-bedecked organ grinder‽[iii]
©
‽istis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and
past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t
necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
[i] https://www.heathersthemusical.com/tour
for example
[ii]
Various ‘smart’ devices are available – this blog is not sponsored by ‘Amazon’!
[iii] For full disclosure – the author has this week acquired a street organ; the grin is firmly in place, the performance is a work in progress!
