Look Who it Was Random video

Becket Underground 1 Kenmore.m4v

157 views · Published 5 December 2010 · 13:12 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: Norah Dooley · 2010 · Education

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Words and Music by Samuel Beckett 
filmed on DEC 5th 2010 as part of a school directing project 

d.adriane spunt, director

Words: Robert Faircild
Music: Norah Dooley
Croak: Bob Cornell
Camera by HR Britton

lots more here:
http://www.themodernword.com/beckett/beckett_feldman_wam.html

"Reviewing Words and Music poses several interesting concerns. First of all, it's an unusual piece by its very nature. Neither an opera nor a song cycle, but also more than a just a text with background scoring, Words and Music is a complex "radio play" that sets up a dynamic between "Words" and "Music" as two character voices, existing in an uneasy relationship and under the command of a mysterious figure named Croak. A somewhat distracted tyrant, Croak issues commands to both Words and Music -- whom he calls "Joe" and "Bob" respectively -- to formulate expressions on a series of topics including "Love," "Age," and finally "the Face." The going is not easy; from the very beginning we are aware that Words and Music do not enjoy each other's company. But as Croak forces them to cooperate, a fascinating dynamic tension emerges as they struggle to unify their expression in song. As "the Face" is gradually illuminated, Croak grows more distant and eventually anguished, finally dropping the symbols of his Prospero-like power and shuffling away in silence. Left to their own devices, Words and Music struggle with the absence of meaning in the vacuum of their master's departure.

Words and Music is not an easy piece to immediately assimilate, and like many of Beckett's short dramatic works, it provides a rich scaffold for the ivy of academic interpretation. Is Croak the consciousness of the artist, forever trying to blend two very different expressive forces? Who is "the Face," and why do the responses from Words and Music cause Croak so much anguish? Are the themes of Love/Age/the Face related, perhaps flowing into each other from some event in Croak's life? Can the whole work double as some strange roman à clef, with Croak representing the BBC commission, and Words and Music perhaps symbolic of Sam and John?

That the piece was ambitious was even acknowledged by Beckett, who later admitted that successfully scoring it posed a "formidable and perhaps insurmountable" challenge. Of course, part of this difficulty stems from the simple fact that Beckett was not a composer, indicating only the general "feel" and "mood" of the music, rather than providing any authoritative system of notation. (A sample of Beckett's directions include: Humble muted adsum; Soft music worthy of foregoing; Irrepressible burst of spreading and subsiding music.) Such directions are open to widely different interpretations, and any one composer's version of Words and Music is likely to be quite different from another's. (Just imagine such possible versions of the above directions as realized by Philip Glass, Pierre Boulez, John Williams, or Einstürzende Neubauten!) And of course, there's the cumulative weight of four decades of Words and Music being "heard" principally in the imagination of its readers, who are used to filling in the blanks with their own musical expectations and inclinations. The result is a radio play that will dramatically change its character from one score to the next, with each score further subjected to the taste of each individual listener. And as a final level of uncertainty, each production of Words and Music will naturally vary according the cast bringing it to life -- the director, conductor, actors and musicians will all have their own interpretations as well. (No wonder old Croak drops his staff and shuffles away groaning.)"

lots more here:
http://www.themodernword.com/beckett/beckett_feldman_wam.html

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