Emily Dickinson often modeled her poems off of the structure of Protestant hymns. I still need to figure out which ones she liked the best, but this could be great for our piece. I know my dad knows a lot of protestant hymns because for a while he sang with a church to earn money. Also Edward's mom is a minister.
God-war-poets play? It seems like we could be moving in this direction as far as the center of our play's focus. Also, if we DO do move in this direction, some things we should consider (maybe not now, but soon)
--I think 1 musician would make a great bard/m.c., with maybe a banjo, a fiddle, something that we associate as American. This doesn't mean there can't be other music (harmonium, piano, guitar, etc) but to have one musician m.c. could be neat.
--if we decide to do this in Russell House, how big of a cast do we feel could fit there? At this point I could envision a piece on this theme with just the three of us plus an m.c., but that depends on what direction we want to take it.
--One that note, if it's just about Rainer and Dickinson, who would other cast members be in relation to them? I'm not saying they have to be huge historical personalities, but we should consider what their relationship to the material and the space is.
--If we do pursue the poet/god/war triumpherate, I think Joyce (irish identity, easter uprising of 1916, catholicism, sexual repression) and Virginia Woolfe (gender and domesticity before and after world war I, depression and domesticity in post-Victorian England) would be great candidates of sources/characters to add to the pile.
--Joe Hill would be a neat musician to consider because of his relationship to the labor movement in america and his response to immigration industrialization in the wake of world war I
--Stephen Foster is the quintessential white American composer (cause really, slave songs and spirituals were the first post-settlement reindigenized American form of music. we could also look to what these offer.)
--Civil War v. WWI? Also, I couldn't help but notice that Emily Dickinson is from the U.S., Virginia Woolfe from England, Joyce from Ireland, and Rilke from Germany. I don't know what that means, but it's interesting. Both Dickinson and Woolfe had very queer relationships with the non-human world, gardens, trees, etc.
Sorry if these questions are pushing us ahead of ourselves; it's the way my directorish brain works. And even if we don't answer any of these questions/proposals now, I think it's good to get them in the air. I'll stop before I overdo it more than I already have.
The Rilke text is wonderful. So wonderful.
I am getting SO EXCITED!!!! Like even more excited than I was before.
Love,
Gedney.
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6 comments:
Gedney,
We will talk about all of this, but I will say this.
I think we definitely need at least one other actor. In terms of musicians, the more the better. Music really is something that needs many people working together, we need more than one musician. I don't mean a TON, but at least 5 voices singing is extremely good.
So maybe like
Asa Mark Annie Gedney +1 other? I don't know, but I love people and working with them.
In terms of music collection, I am pretty adverse to using composed music. I mean, there are songs that were composed by people like foster at one time, but were tweaked by folkies across the board. This is a richer heritage and something that can be learned from PEOPLE, not from books.
We should consider making some expeditions to New England folk conventions, etc., to find music... The music needs to be born from people and out of people, not like the text, which can just be found. I know that's vague but there's something to it.
(Of course we know this already, just reiterating to appease the music nazi in my brain.)
I love the idea of using Woolf, at least in textual form. (A room of one's own is fucking seminal.)
There are so many possibilities in terms of dramaturgy and script and bringing rilke and dickinson together... we really need to get together for this, or at least speak on the phone over break.
Also, I had a meeting with the ukranians today and that project is pretty low key(except for the performance weeks) , and also fucking amazing (!!) so I will have lots of time to gather music, etc.
In terms of music being brought here, there was a large bit of puritan hymnody that wasn't composed in the states that's worth looking at. But really we don't need "Okay, this historical period, fits, yes check." But rather, "Yes, this is the music that truly brings out what we are searching for!!" But we know this also. (Still appeasing that nazi.)
Finally, I would say that we have incredible physical possibilities in russle house which I am very excited about.
The music, I think, since it is a liturgy, a dramaturgy, will have to be predominantly mobile. So many cool things we could do, music coming unexpectedly from other rooms, etc.
And the text, good lord, we have the richest sources ever ever ever.
Okay
We need to read bios of Rilke etc.
Love love
Asa
Oh ALSO
I have many many ideas about music that I want to speak to you guys about.
In personn!!
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5814
http://www.villageharmony.org/mp3/NHP2PCD/04_Shaker_Medley.mp3
A couple of things that we should most certainly talk about tomorrow in person:
I like the idea of having 5 voices singing, but I do worry about having 5 voices and 5 musicians in that house. The space feels intimate and private to me, secretive, which makes me think the music should sound like something you walk in on someone singing to themselves. I think if we went up in the Chapel or the '92, however, a bigger sound would work really well. I am, of course, open to being convinced otherwise.
Also, music-wise, I totally agree with Asa that whatever fits with the piece works, and so we do not have to confine ourselves to certain periods, styles, etc. However, I still think composed music, particularly church hymns (like the Watts, for example. Side note Asa that link was awesome), could be a valuable place to start investigating. This does not mean we sit down with sheet music and a piano during a rehearsal and teach ourselves the songs that way, but maybe we go to church services, listen to recordings, or worst comes to worst one of us could learn the song and then teach it to the others. I'm not convinced (yet) that we need to confine our investigation to folk traditions. Again, I can be convinced otherwise, I'm sure, in tomorrow's fabulous breakfast conversation, but that's my initial inclination.
Ditto to how rich our sources are becoming.
OMG Asa I'm SO with you on mobile music and music coming from unexpected rooms/sources/cabinets (I'll bet I could fit in at least ONE Russell House cabinet).
You guys are the bestest and I will see you tonight/tomorrow and it will be an amazing reverie of art/love/joy.
Love,
Gedney.
PS On the website about Watts and Dickinson there's a link for a shirt with Dickinson's portrait on it. We should all have matching ones and wear them out together. That is all.
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