THE TECHNIQUES AND THE INTERVENTIONS’ FORMS
4.1. Given circumstances
The given circumstances mean the story of the play, its facts, events, epoch, time and place of action, conditions of life, the actors’ and regisseur’s interpretation, the mise-en-scene, the production, the sets, the costumes, properties, lighting and sound effects,—all the circumstances that are given to an actor to take into account as he creates his role.(Stanislavski, 1989, p. 54)
By studying the ‘given circumstances’ we build the framework which will guide our learning process. Together with logic they draw the boundaries that will keep us on the right track in our creative path towards a truthful performance. Whitehead made a very detailed translation of the idea to music, which was a big help for me in designing the intervention's form. He included genre, instrumentation, structure, key-scheme, time signature, textures, registers, phrasing, dynamic and expressive markings, tempo indications, articulations, modulations, historical and stylistic considerations, topoi, etc. (2019, pp. 8-9) in the musical translation of the concept.
Moreover, the ‘Given Circumstances’ of a work may spark the performer’s creative desire and stimulate interpretive ideas. For example, a modulation or tempo modification indicated in the score may support the performer’s belief that emotional intensity or a specified action has been altered. (2019, p. 9)
Another element that I incorporated in ‘given circumstances’, though it can be quite ambiguous, since it can also be understood as ‘supposed circumstances’, is the questions: ‘who [does the musical voice belong to]?’, ‘what [does it do]?’ and ‘what [does it want]?’, ‘where [does it go]?’and ‘how?’. To adapt the questions to music I was aided once again by Whitehead (2019, p. 25) and the Portuguese translation of An Actor Prepares. The ambiguity lies in the fact that some can be answered by analysing the score (which has its degree of subjectivity) and others we can only suppose, since the composer most likely did not write answers to them in the score. Furthermore, they can be answered in musical terms or in extra-musical ones. In any case, it is practically irrelevant, because I suggest that these questions (and eventually some more, such as the ones I added in the ‘supposed circumstances’ part) should be asked in the same moment – which technically means the last part of the ‘given circumstances’ or in the first part of the imagination techniques, the ‘supposed circumstances’.
Analysis is of major importance in the filling out of the ‘given circumstances’. For instance, Schoenberg and Schenker’s theories, which, as discussed in the previous chapter, can be seen as having dramatic elements (Maus, 1988, p. 73), thus building a bridge between music and theatre. Also Leonard Meyer’s approach could be of interest, once he tries to explain the emotions to which music gives rise by analyzing just what it is that a listener expects to happen at any given point in a piece of music, and comparing this to what in fact does happen. (Cook, 1987, p. 70)
Lastly, an addendum to the general information part of the form (which I did not use in my intervention but could enrich our imagery) would be the filling out of information on the following topics:
• historical background
• and ‘composer’s surroundings (philosophy, art, literature, architecture, fashion).