Day 14

21^st July 2019

1. Today was a continuation of the workshop with Sunil Shanbag. We began the day with a discussion of the various questions and thoughts provoked by the previous day’s class. A question raised was how one can escape the clichés when using music. Sunil answered this by stating that intent is key when using music. He told us that we need to know what exactly we want music to be doing in our performance, and that once that part is clear, our decision to use music will also be clear to us. He showed us how our first instinct, when responding to music is usually a conditioned response; for instance, we are conditioned to believe that slow tunes are melancholic and sometimes we need to learn to look beyond this conditioned response. As a result, intent is key when doing this. 

2.  Next, we each presented a moment that we had devised based on the track given to us. We had been provided with 4 tracks, namely Ann Cleare’s Dorchadas, In the Woods, Jean-Miche Basquiat’s Gray and Fatima’s Theme, and each of us had responded to the tracks through a small piece. There was a presentation of each piece followed by a discussion about the way in which each person had approached it and everyone’s response to this. Two people had responded to the same track in two cases, and it was interesting to note the different ideas triggered by the same piece of music. Sunil showed us how music can be used both in a straightforward manner, as well as ironically when a piece is performed and the music goes directly against the tone being set by the actions thus telling the audience something more than what they see. He also showed us how repetition in music can be used to convey something. 

3. Next, we had a session where each person picked a piece to respond to using text or by devising music. We had two live musicians—Mario on the ukulele and Satchit on the harmonica. They worked with Shatarupa on devising live music to the piece she had performed, while Abhimanyu responded to Saudamini’s piece via text and Usha responded to Kausar’s via text again. All three pieces were then performend. In the first case, it showed us how music either follows a piece, or the performer can follow the music. Sunil told us to note that it was important that music not be used simply as an accessory, but have some meaning in its usage. Here, we also discussed how it was important even for the silences and the gaps in the music as that was also a part of the composition itself. Sunil spoke about how music can also be used to set up the way one wants the audience to receive something. When music colours a scene strongly, one cannot possible simply receive the scene the way it is presented and ignore the messages from the musical score in the background. 

4. Abhimanyu and Saudamini’s piece was then performed to two different tracks, and Sunil used this to show us how even with text, a piece could be received in very different ways depending on the music being used. It was also interesting to see the way the three pieces—music, text, and acting—interacted with each other in this example and in Usha and Kausar’s example. Sunil highlighted the importance of this working together. He also told us that music allows for different imaginations, while text can sometimes be reductive and it is often up to the director to decide the right proportions of each of these. Sunil also showed us through these exercises how music opens the possibility of abstraction by making one of the scenes abstract first, and then particular by placing a singular object in the centre. We were thus shown how in both cases, the audience is given a very different takeaway.

5. Lastly, Sunil spoke about the importance of music when creating a moment, and how one needs to extrapolate from the particular to the universal using this as it is that which truly communicates with the audience. He said it is important for us to create space in a piece for music and not just use it ornamentally. Music helps capture the core of a scene and either bring it out or accentuate it, and this is where and why intent is key. It strips the scene of all the extraneous content and lays emphasis on what is at the centre, which is key to theatre making in general. 

Questions considered:

1. What role does music play in a piece?
2. How can music be used in different ways to communicate something further than what has already been said?
3. How can music colour the audience’s perception of something they see?
4. What is at the core of a dramatic piece and how is that different from what is at the centre of a cinematic piece?