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    Kurt Weill Gestus in Music

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    Alejandro Carrillo
    This article discusses the concept of "gestus" in music, particularly for the musical theater. It argues that music can represent human interactions and attitudes on stage through its ability to reproduce and establish a "basic gestus." The article outlines how music can rhythmically fix the text and use melody, harmony, and other techniques to communicate the gestus of the action being presented, while still allowing actors flexibility. It provides an example of how Kurt Weill set one of Bertolt Brecht's songs to rhythmically define the basic gestus through a simple tune. The article contends that gestic music is well-suited for the modern theater's goal of showing what people do rather than appealing primarily to the senses.

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    Kurt Weill Gestus in Music

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    Alejandro Carrillo
    46 views6 pages
    This article discusses the concept of "gestus" in music, particularly for the musical theater. It argues that music can represent human interactions and attitudes on stage through its ability to reproduce and establish a "basic gestus." The article outlines how music can rhythmically fix the text and use melody, harmony, and other techniques to communicate the gestus of the action being presented, while still allowing actors flexibility. It provides an example of how Kurt Weill set one of Bertolt Brecht's songs to rhythmically define the basic gestus through a simple tune. The article contends that gestic music is well-suited for the modern theater's goal of showing what people do rather than appealing primarily to the senses.

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    This article discusses the concept of "gestus" in music, particularly for the musical theater. It argues that music can represent human interactions and attitudes on stage through its ability to reproduce and establish a "basic gestus." The article outlines how music can rhythmically fix the text and use melody, harmony, and other techniques to communicate the gestus of the action being presented, while still allowing actors flexibility. It provides an example of how Kurt Weill set one of Bertolt Brecht's songs to rhythmically define the basic gestus through a simple tune. The article contends that gestic music is well-suited for the modern theater's goal of showing what people do rather than appealing primarily to the senses.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    46 views6 pages

    Kurt Weill Gestus in Music

    Uploaded by

    Alejandro Carrillo
    This article discusses the concept of "gestus" in music, particularly for the musical theater. It argues that music can represent human interactions and attitudes on stage through its ability to reproduce and establish a "basic gestus." The article outlines how music can rhythmically fix the text and use melody, harmony, and other techniques to communicate the gestus of the action being presented, while still allowing actors flexibility. It provides an example of how Kurt Weill set one of Bertolt Brecht's songs to rhythmically define the basic gestus through a simple tune. The article contends that gestic music is well-suited for the modern theater's goal of showing what people do rather than appealing primarily to the senses.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 6

    "Gestus" in Music

    Author(s): Kurt Weill and Erich Albrecht


    Source: The Tulane Drama Review, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Sep., 1961), pp. 28-32
    Published by: MIT Press
    Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1125003
    Accessed: 17-12-2015 12:56 UTC

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    Gestus*in Music

    By KURT WEILL

    In myattemptsto arriveat a basic formforthe musical theatre,I no-


    ticed several thingswhich at firstseemed to me to constituteentirely
    new insightsbut which aftera closer look were revealed as but logical
    partsof thewhole historicalsituation.While workingon myown compo-
    sitions,I constantlyforcedmyselfto answer the question: What occa-
    sions formusicdoes the theatreoffer?But as soon as I looked back at the
    operas writtenby myselfand others,anotherquestion arose: What is the
    natureof musicwhichis found in the theatre,and does such musichave
    whichlabel it musicof the theatre?Afterall it has
    definitecharacteristics
    often been stated that a number of importantcomposershave either
    never paid any attentionto the stage or that theyhave triedin vain to
    conquer the stage.There surelymustbe definitequalities whichmake a
    particularkind of music seem suitable for the theatre,and I believe
    theycan be resumed under a single head, which I call music's gestic
    character.
    In doing so I postulate a formof theatrewhich constitutesthe only
    possible foundationforopera in our time.The theatreof the past epoch
    was writtenfor sensual enjoyment.It aimed at titillating,exciting,in-
    citing,and upsettingthe spectator.It gave firstplace to the story,and
    to conveya storyit had recourseto everytheatricalaccessory,fromreal
    grass to the treadmillstage. And whateverit granted the spectator,it
    could not deny its creator;he too feltsensual enjoymentwhen he wrote
    his work,forhe experiencedthe "intoxicationof the creativemoment,"
    the ecstasyof the creativeimpulse of the artist,and othersensationsof
    pleasure. The other typeof the theatrewhich is in the processof being
    established,presupposes a spectatorwho follows the action with the
    composureof a thinkingman and who-since he wishesto think--con-
    sidersdemandsmade on his sensoryapparatus an intrusion.This typeof
    theatreaims to showwhat a man does. It is interestedin materialthings
    only up to the point at which theyfurnishthe frameof or the pretext
    * This word has been left in Germanbecause its most naturalEnglish
    JohnWillettin his book on
    equivalent-theword"gesture"-isso misleading.
    Brecht says,". . . there is no single word by which Gestus can be translated.It
    is at once gestureand gist,attitudeand point:one aspectof the relationbe-
    tweentwopeople,studiedsingly,cut to essentialsand physically or verbally
    expressed...."
    28

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    KURT WEILL 29

    for human relations.It places greatervalue upon the actors than upon
    the trappingsof the stage.It denies its creatorthe sensualityits audience
    chooses to do without.This theatreis unromanticto the highestdegree,
    forthe "romantic"in art excludes the processof thinking:it workswith
    narcotic devices, it shows man in an exceptional state and during its
    flowering(in the case of Wagner) it had no image of the human being.
    If one applies the two ideas of the theatreto the opera, it appears that
    the composerof todaymay no longerapproach his text froma position
    of sensualenjoyment.As faras theopera of the nineteenthand the begin-
    ning twentiethcenturyis concerned,the task of music was to create at-
    mosphere,to underscoresituations,and to accentuatethe dramatic.Even
    thattypeof musical theatrewhichused the textmerelyas an excuse for
    freeand uninhibitedcompositionis in the finalanalysisonly the logical
    consequence of the romanticideal of the opera, because in it the music
    participatedeven less in the carrying-out of the dramaticidea than in
    the music-drama.
    The structureof an opera is faultyif a dominant place is not given
    to the music in its total structureand the execution of its smallestpart.
    The music of an opera may not leave to the librettoand to the stage-
    settingthewhole taskof carryingthedramaticaction and its idea; it must
    be activelyinvolved in the presentationof the individual episode.
    And since to representhuman beingsis themain taskof the theatreof
    today the music too must be related solely to man. However, it is well
    known that music lacks all psychologicalor characterizingcapabilities.
    On theotherhand, musichas one facultywhichis of decisiveimportance
    forthe presentationof man in the theatre:it can reproduce the gestus
    which illustratesthe action on stage,it can even create a kind of basic
    gestus which forcesthe actor into a definiteattitude which precludes
    everydoubt and every misunderstandingconcerning the relevant ac-
    tion. In an ideal situationit can fix thisgestus so clearly that a wrong
    representationof the action concerned is impossible. Every observant
    spectatorknowshow ofteneven the most simple and the most natural
    human actions are representedon the stage by wrong sounds and by
    misleading movements.
    Music can set down the basic tone and the basic gestusof an action
    to the extent that a wrong interpretationcan be avoided, while still
    affordingthe actor ample opportunitiesto display his individual style.
    Naturallygesticmusic is by no means limitedto the settingof textsand
    if we accept Mozart'smusic in everyform,even his non-operaticmusic,
    as dramaticwe do so because it neversurrendersits gesticcharacter.
    Music is gestic whereveran action relating human beings to each

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    30 The Tulane Drama Review

    otheris representedin a naive manner-most strikingly in the recitatives


    of Bach's Passions,in theoperas of Mozart,in Fidelio, and in the workof
    Offenbachand Bizet. In "This pictureis bewitchinglybeautiful" ["Dies
    Bildnis ist bezaubernd sche6n"--anaria from The Magic Flute.-ED.]
    the attitudeof a personwho looks at a pictureis completelyfixedby the
    music. He can hold the picturein his rightor lefthand, he can hold it
    up or lower it, he can be set offby a spotlightor he mightstand in the
    dark-his basic attitudewill be rightbecause themusicwill have dictated
    it.
    What gesticmeans does music have at its disposal? Firstof all, there
    is the rhythmicfixingof the text. Music has the power of recordingin
    writtenformthe accents of speech, the distributionof shortand long
    syllables,and most important-pauses. In thismanner most sourcesfor
    a wrongtreatmentof the librettoon thestageare eliminated.One can-
    to say thisin passing-interpreta passage rhythmically in various ways,
    and even the same gestuscan be expressedin various rhythms;the de-
    cisive point is, whetherthe gestusis correct.This settingof the rhythms
    on the basis of the textconstitutesno more than the foundationof music
    that is gestic.The reallyproductivework of the composerbegins when
    he uses all the othermeans of musical expressionto make contact be-
    tween the word itselfand what it is tryingto express.The melody like-
    wise containsthe gestusof the action whichis to be presentedbut since
    the stage action is already rhythmically saturated,there existsfar more
    elbow-roomforformal,melodic and harmonicinventionthan in purely
    descriptivemusic or in music which merelyruns parallel to the action
    and which is in constantdanger of being drowned out. The rhythmic
    restrictionimposed by the textis thereforeno greatera limitationthan
    the formalschemeimposed by the Fugue, the Sonata, the Rondo is for
    the classical master.Within the frameworkof such rhythmically prede-
    terminedmusic all devices of melodic elaboration, of harmonic and
    rhythmic differentiationare possible,if only the overall musical tensions
    correspondto the gesticdevelopment.Thus, a coloratura-type lingering
    on one syllableis justifiedby a gesticlingeringat the same point [in the
    story].
    I shall give an example taken frommy own practice.Brecht
    formerly
    printedtunesto same of his poems because he feltthe need to make the
    gestusclear. Here a basic gestusis being rhythmically definedin the sim-
    plestway,while the melodycatchesthatwhollypersonal and inimitable
    way of singingwhichBrechtadopted when performing his songs.In this
    versionthe "Alabama Song" looks as follows:

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    KURT WEILL 31

    ob W02fA-a a a wemutFo syoo ye wev


    k.~ii-4. --
    ouooP;
    lot ldSam madmutbae
    Whs
    kyhoko ww
    One can see that thisis merelya recordingof the rhythmof speech and
    cannot be used as music. In my own settingof the same text the same
    basic gestushas been established,only it has-in my case-really been
    "composed" by means of the far ampler means of the composer.The
    songhas-in mycase-a muchbroaderbasis,extendsmuchfartherafield
    melodicallyspeaking,and has a verydifferent rhythmicfoundation-but
    the gesticcharacterhas been preserved,althoughit appears in a totally
    differentform:

    A Ab,
    A a-b
    ob moo of

    :09
    11 1aI - - a
    ?~U I po"

    A gi FMMM04
    ,ir-

    - I izi=i=
    ~Tif
    i
    :AW-

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    32 The Tulane Drama Review

    One more thingneeds to be said: that by no means all textscan be set


    in a gesticmanner.The new formof the theatrewhich I assume forthe
    purposeofmyargumentis used nowadaysbyveryfewpoets,but it is only
    thisformwhichpermitsand allows gesticlanguage. The problemwhich
    I have touchedupon in thisessayis thusessentiallya problemof modern
    drama. But the typeof theatrewhich aims at presentinghuman beings
    findsmusic indispensablebecause of its ability to clarifythe action by
    gesticmeans. And only a typeof drama whichfindsmusic indispensable
    can be completelyadapted to the needs of thatpurely musical work of
    art whichwe know as "opera."

    Translated by ERICH ALBRECHT

    S. .
    ..inier .

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