Tereza Havelková
Spring
Semester 2009
Syllabus in PDF
The
course deals with new trends in music
theatre in the 20th and 21st
century, especially with the
use of sound technology and media such as film, video and digital
technologies
in music-theatrical performances. It is primarily interested in the
relationships of sound and image, not only in such intermedial
performances but
also within the larger context of the so-called “musical multimedia.”
The
course is based on class discussion of selected theoretical texts
(Eisenstein,
Eisler/Adorno and others), which are applied to numerous audio-visual
examples
(e.g. Disney’s Fantasia,
Eisenstein’s
Alexander Nevsky, Philip
Glass’ Koyaanisqatsi and the music
theatre of
Heiner Goebbels).
March
5
Introduction:
Opera, Music Theatre, and Musical Multimedia
examples:
Steve Reich/ Beryl Korot: Three Tales;
Andrew Schultz/ Kevin
Lucas: Black
River;
Robert Ashley: Perfect Lives
March
12
Postdramatic
Theatre
reading:
Hans-Thies
Lehmann, Postdramatic Theatre.
Translated by
Karen Jürs-Munby. London
and New
York: Routledge 2006. “Prologue”
pp.
16-28.
example:
Christoph Marthaler: Die schöne Müllerin
March
19
Intermediality
in Theatre and Performance
reading:
Greg
Giesekam, Staging the Screen: The Use of
Film and
Video in Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan 2007. “Introduction:
Contamination or
Remediation?” pp. 1-26.
March
26
Models
of the Sound-Image Relationships I: Synaesthesia
reading:
Nicholas
Cook, “Synaesthesia and
Similarity.” In Analysing Musical
Multimedia. Oxford:
Clarendon Press 1998, pp. 24-56.
example:
the experimental films of Oskar Fischinger
April
2
Models
of the Sound-Image Relationship II: Eisenstein
reading:
Sergei
M. Eisenstein, The Film Sense.
Trans. and ed. Jay
Leyda. London and Boston:
Faber and Faber 1943. “Form and
Content: Practice” pp. 123-136.
viewing:
Eisenstein: Alexander Nevsky
April
9
Models
of the Sound-Image Relationship III: Eisler/Adorno
reading:
Theodor Adorno and Hanns Eisler, Composing
for the Films. London
and New
York: Continuum 2007 [1947].
“Prejudices and Bad
Habits,” “Function and Dramaturgy,” “The New Musical Resources,” pp.
1-29.
viewing:
Hanns Eisler: Fourteen Ways to Describe Rain
April
16
Analyzing
Sound-Image Relationships I: Disney’s Fantasia
reading:
Nicholas
Cook, “Disney’s Dream:
The Rite of Spring Sequence from
‘Fantasia.’” In Analysing Musical
Multimedia. Oxford:
Clarendon Press 1998, pp. 174-214.
viewing:
Disney’s Fantasia
April
23
Analyzing
Sound-Image Relationships II: Koyaanisqatsi
reading:
Mitchell
Morris, “Sight, Sound,
and the Temporality of Myth Making in Koyaanisqatsi”.
In Beyond the Soundtrack: Representing
Music in Cinema, Eds. Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence
Kramer, and Richard Leppert. Berkeley,
Los Angeles
and London: University
of California
Press 2007,
pp. 120-135.
viewing:
Philip Glass and Godfrey Reggio: Koyaanisqatsi
April
30
Intermedial
Music Theatre I: Opera and Film
reading:
Jeongwon Joe,
“The Cinematic Body
in the Operatic Theater: Philip Glass’s La
Belle et la Bête.” In Between Opera and
Cinema, Eds. Jeongwon
Joe and Rose Theresa. New York
and London:
Routledge 2002,
pp. 59-73.
examples:
Louis Andriessen and Peter Greenaway:
Rosa; Writing
to Vermeer
May
7
Intermedial
Music Theatre II: Heiner Goebbels
reading:
Heiner
Goebbels, “Text as
Landscape.” Performance Research 2 (1)/1997, pp. 61-65.
viewing:
Heiner Goebbels: Eraritjaritjaka
May
14
Final discussion
