THEATRE MUSIC

any music designed to form part of a dramatic performance, as, for example, a ballet, stage play, motion picture, or television program. Included are the European operetta and its American form, the musical. Music as an art of the theatre has its roots in primitive ritual and ceremony and its branches in every modern means of theatrical presentation. Its functions are as varied as the forms require and range from being the primary reason for performance, as in opera, to mere noise, filling a vacuum in imagination for some screen and stage presentations. Theatre music is all music composed to govern, enhance, or support a theatrical conception. Music composed for theatrical purposes obeys different laws than does the music for concert performance or conventional opera. Whereas in opera the music dictates the form in which the dramatic visual imagery is presented and governs its development, in other kinds of theatre the music is, at best, an equal partner among its principal elements. In concert, of course, the music is the sole factor that determines the experience. In the West, the concept of music as an intellectual experience for its own sake emerged only in the second half of the 18th century. Theatrical music is variously related to something other than itself, whether as an enrichment of words (as in operetta), a factor in structure and mood (ballet), or an intensification of situation and feeling (as in incidental music for plays and films). In some instances music is dominant, in some it is subservient, and in operetta or stage musical the emphasis alternates between speech, song, and dance. In opera and spoken drama, in which words are wholly sung or spoken, a convention once set is consistently sustained and thereby creates its own kind of reality. The constant change of focus in operetta and musical, from music to speech and back again, emphasizes the artificiality of the illusion they seek to create. The classical mainstream of theatre music in the West extends from the mid-17th century to the 1930s, and the instances of drama and music meeting on an equal level of imagination are relatively few. More frequently great music was lavished on weak or corrupt theatre, or great drama was embellished with indifferent music. From the early 20th century new dramatic developments were seldom directly matched in music. A German-Italian composer, Ferruccio Busoni, wrote in 1906: The greater part of modern theatre music suffers from the mistake of seeking to repeat the scenes passing on the stage, instead of fulfilling its own proper mission of interpreting the attitudes of the persons represented. The German composer Kurt Weill's score for Der Silbersee (1933; The Silver Sea) was the last major musical contribution to a serious play requiring a full orchestra and chorus. Thereafter, for economic reasons, the dramatic theatre had to equip itself with small-group music or prerecorded tapes. The orchestra and chorus became the prerogative of stage musicals and films. The more these were commercially debased the more they came to rely heavily on the clichs of 19th-century music, to the exclusion of newer musical developments. Producers of stage musicals, the choreographers of dance, and the directors of drama need to be wary of the properties of music. It is more demanding of attention than is often thought, and its use should ideally be confined to circumstances where it can provide something that none of the other theatrical elements can offer. The more its qualities are understood and respected, the better it can be guided to an effective theatrical purpose. Additional reading Mark Lubbock, The Complete Book of Light Opera, with an American section by David Ewen (1962), gives synopses and background dates of numerous European and American operettas and musicals. Gervase Hughes, Composers of Operetta (1962), is a reliable critical and historical account of classical operetta. Stanley Green, The World of Musical Comedy, rev. ed. (1969), gives a comprehensive account of the American musical in terms of its composers; and an informed discussion of its character and constituents is in Lehman Engel, The American Musical Theatre (1967). Ivor Guest, The Romantic Ballet in Paris (1966), contains much little known background on music of its period; and Natalia Roslavleva, Era of the Russian Ballet Music (1966), performs a similar but less well-documented service for its own subject. Roger Fiske, Ballet Music (1958), is the only musically informed analysis to date of certain major ballet classics. Hanns Eisler, Composing for the Films (1947), remains a useful account of applied research. The wider historical aspects of theatrical music as a whole are included in the various volumes of the New Oxford History of Music, projected 11 vol. (1957 ); and are comprehensively summarized in the excellent 1-vol. Man and His Music by Alec Harman and Wilfrid Mellers (1962).