Tracing the Madness

Victoria Oftestad

As a tourist in London during the late 17th century, it was mandatory to visit the House of Bedlam, the biggest mental institution in the city. The patients, being considered completely unreasonable, were attributed animalic characteristics, which was reflected in the brutal treatment behind the bars. The ultimate mirroring of the culture of exposing madness could be found in the theatre. Composers for the theatre, in wanting to explore the inability of reason in humanity, wrote The Mad Songs, where the madness is reflected in quick shifts in emotions. These songs have been my tool to gain access to a broader palette of expression in singing. I have developed a handbook of historically informed techniques and documented my process of embodying them, using sources such as Le Brun's "Conférence (...)" (1698); Walter Charleton's "Natural History of the Passions" (1701); Aaron Hill's "The Art of Acting" (1753); and George Vandenhoff's "The Art of Elocution" (1846). My quest for madness has also become a quest for genuinity. When Charles Le Brun conveyed his theory of expression on canvas, he strongly distinguished the difference between painting tense muscles and painting genuine expression. This has become a guideline for my research: in order to gain genuinity, one has to channel a reaction and produce an impulse. This study is an attempt to bridge the gap between now and then, allowing for a deeper understanding of the Mad Songs, as well as encouraging others to dive into theatrical repertoire on its own premises.

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V.III Despair

"Restless in thought, disturbed in mind"

Walter Charleton

"Art. 34,

The Motions in Desperation.

This Fear, when it excludes all hope of evasion, degenerateth into the most cruel of all passions, Desperation. Which though by exhibiting the thing desired as impossible, it wholly extinguishes desire, which is never carried out but to things apprehended as possible: yet it so afflicts the Soul, that she preserving in her Constriction, either though absolute despondency yields up herself as overcome, and remains half-extinct and entombed in the body; or driven into confusion and neglect of all things, contracts a deep Melancholy, or flyers out into a furious Madness ; in both cases, seeking to put an end to her misery by destroying herself."¹

Charles Le Brun

"Extreme Despair can be shown by a man grinding his teeth, foaming at the mouth, and biting his lips, having his forehead furrowed with vertical folds, his eyebrows drawn down over his eyes, and strongly contracted towards the nose. His eyes will be burning and full of blood, the pupils rolling and hidden now by the upper lid, now by the lower, sparkling and restless. His eyelids will be swollen and livid, the nostrils large, open and raised up, the end of the nose drawn down, and the muscles and tendons of these parts very swollen, as wil be all the veins and nerves of the forehead, temples and parts of the face. The upper part of the cheeks will appear fat and prominent, but they will be drawn in about the jaws; the mouth will be open and very much drawn back with the corners more open than the middle, the underlip full and turned out, and livid like the rest of the face. The hair will stand on end."²

George Vandenhoff

"Despair vents itself in a low, moaning tone ; till it reaches its wildest paroxysm, when it is cracked and shrieking. Both shades of expression are beautifully and distinctly individualized by the poet in the descriptive verses."³

A SHORT REFLECTION ON EMBODYING DESPAIR

In search of a feeling of Despair in myself, I interpreted Charleton's complex description as a feeling of deep helplessness. I experienced a sensation of going from frozen fear to extreme Desperation, which corresponded to Charleton and Vandenhoff's descriptions. The fact that Charleton uses the word Madness to describe a possible development of the passion, made me create the narrative of a character who slowly realizes that she is going mad, and has lost all control of her mind. The flow of emotion that I felt in reciting was very hard to transfer to song, therefore, I added movement to aid my airflow and availability. This I will explain further in the Observations and Solutions part of the exposition.

I also treated the rythm more freely in this phrase, as the bass only keeps one chord,and therefore allows for more freedom.

Footnotes:

1: Charleton 1701,pp. 124-125

2: LeBrun 1698, translated in: Montagu 1994, pp. 138-9

3: Vandenhoff 1846, pp. 198-9

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Victoria Oftestad - Tracing the Madness - 2025