How the dramatic genius of five nineteenth century composers has been re-commissioned to find a new, contemporary audience.
The music in the play is taken from piano works by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt and Mussorgsky. Whereas this might seem to offer a limited choice, the opposite is true. This repertoire has a prodigious selection of pieces which can evoke virtually any phenomenon, feature or state of mind in the natural and mystical worlds, and all with the clear, confiding voice of intimate story telling. It is music with a compelling sense of drama, breadth of expression and enthralling beauty.
‘The Terminus features’ twenty-eight piano pieces, each lasting anything from eight seconds to over three minutes. The music makes a substantial contribution to the play yet comprises only a modest part of its running time. It passes comment, provides reflection and helps depict moods, settings, characters and movement. It establishes the milieu of the concourse and time frame in which the play is set, and underpins shifting references to past and future epochs. The piano music also offers an emotional and psychological depth that complements the actors’ performances. A railway station soundscape is invariably preferred to music during scene changes,
The piano pieces chosen are by composers whose writing has qualities uncannily pertinent to the play. Schumann is so contemporaneous with the concourse’s milieu he could be part of it. He embraces and re-defines its rapidly changing world with new forms, and uses rhythms most likely inspired by industrial machines rather than spinning-wheels, horses and brooks emulated by earlier composers. Schumann is also a consummate storyteller: depicting the passion of lovers, the experiences of a child or heroic deeds on a barricade.
Other composers featured are no less apposite or compelling. Beethoven is the musical colossus standing astride the upheavals of the Revolution. His music exudes profound wisdom and sensitivity, as well as momentousness and timeless strength. Schubert’s intimate, poignant writing often expresses a gentle, nostalgic melancholy, yet many of his last songs, collectively entitled Schwanengesang, are also disturbed and filled with angst. Liszt’s transcriptions of the songs further exploit the unease. Mussorgsky recreates the ferocious reality of battle and the devastation of its aftermath he experienced as a soldier.
All the piano pieces chosen are ideal for the theatre: succinct, exhilaratingly articulate and able to connect immediately with an audience. None of them is high-brow or in need of specialist understanding. Live performance of the music allows its full presence to be felt, and the sonority and nuance of every note to be appreciated. The idea that these pieces have lost their cutting edge in a bygone age is, at best, an urban myth and, at worst, stupidity. Played well, they are as fresh and as potent now as when first performed.
The musical format of ‘The Terminus’, its iMD (integrated Music Design) is inspired by several genres, particularly opera and song. However, the music and dialogue are not primarily designed to be heard simultaneously, in the way orchestral and piano music accompany a sung text. Instead, the music and dialogue combine as if in conversation, usually one after another, commenting on and developing what the others have said. There are several occasions where the music and dialogue overlap, and twice when the dialogue and music are simultaneous.
Inserting music into the finished script would have damaged the play’s structure and broken up its momentum. The script was therefore woven into and around the piano pieces, pieces identified at The Terminus’ inception and early development for their potential to contribute to the play’s dramatic ambition. I found that the more decisions regarding precisely which music to include and exactly which words to write were delayed, thereby keeping everything fluid for as long as possible, the more thoroughly all the elements fused together when the play was complete.
For the iMD to succeed, it is vital for the music to connect specifically to elements of the play – its characters, their dialogue, moods, movement etc. – and for the choice of music to avoid even a fraction of a bar which interrupts, slows down or fails to enrich the drama. If these two requirements can be implemented without using a superfluity of musical ideas, those musical ideas which take to the stage will be clearly identifiable and able to flourish through consolidation and development. The following examples should show something of how the music contributes to the play.
Music by Schumann begins and ends both acts and features throughout the play, providing a framework which helps to establish the play’s early industrial setting. Remarkably, his piano pieces are so fresh and immediate that they also help to establish the ‘here and now’ of the concourse’s milieu.
The milieu alienates and intimidates Boney, so he joins it on only a few occasions: when he feels he has the protection of Lady Buller, when he enjoys the concourse through beer goggles, and when he looks for Lady Buller so he can say goodbye to her, a very short while before he dies.
The shifting of Boney’s mind to earlier and later epochs is underpinned with music written before or after Schumann’s music. Liszt’s transcriptions of Schubert songs, however, heard during episodes of Boney’s mental imbalance, manifest an unsettling synthesis of music from two different eras. This synthesis is especially telling when heard in comparison to the present ‘normality’ provided by Schumann’s music. That such a structure might not be obvious to an audience does not, of course, lessen its effect on them.
Not only does Beethoven’s music help to portray Boney inhabiting an earlier epoch, but it also adds weight to the inference at the top of the play that Sir Lionel is an old-fashioned, stiff upper-lipped Brit. As the play develops, it becomes apparent that Schumann’s music provides an equally well-informed portrayal of Sir Lionel, depicting his passionate and dynamic forward thinking.
Meriel means sea nymph. Her music, Boney’s recollections of his childhood sweetheart, are taken from Liszt’s piano transcription of the Schubert song, Am Meer (By the Sea). All three excerpts have the same, distinctive character, even though each manages to respond precisely to its unique dramatic context. The first is a brief excerpt of fractured music which depicts a fractured mind catching half a glimpse of Meriel. The second provides a consoling, full contemplation of Meriel through a complete statement of the tune. The final excerpt helps express the closure Boney brings to his delusion of Meriel remaining alive by resolving the thematic strands from the first two excerpts.
During the penultimate scene of the play, hearing excerpts from two ‘Diabelli Variations’ in close succession enhances the contrast between them .First, the lavish pomp of the ceremonials, when fireworks make their showy dash into the sky, and then the bare struggle of Boney’s last journey, and its gentle, sublime ending. The longest and most ambitious usage of music is in the conclusion to Act I. The actors’ challenge is to fit their dialogue to the music. This sounds daunting, but it’s much easier than it first appears. The benefit to the dramatic ambition is, when the dialogue finishes and the narrative is handed over to the music, the events at the end of Act I are brought to a speedy yet unhurried conclusion. This enhances the scene’s momentum. The music’s narration is clear and articulate, adding to our understanding of the characters on stage, and making the drama they create more telling.
In my opinion, in the conclusion to Act I, the music substantially elevates and enriches my writing. The last three minutes or so of Schumann’s Fantasie in C is nothing short of a gift to an iMD ending an act which consists mainly of dialogue. In fact, the music is so completely integrated, there’s not a single moment when we listen to merely a ‘suitable’ piece, playing out the act to get us to the interval.
To maximise the choice and suitability of music, nearly all the pieces have been abridged, twenty-two out of a total of twenty-eight. Sometimes, only repeated sections have been cut, but most abridgements have been more adventurous, often made to isolate a single idea from the others in a particular piece. Whatever the dramatic necessity, though, no piece has been cut so drastically as to reduce profound music to a brief, impoverished effect.
Decisions as to when and where to cut have not employed a formula. They have been felt rather than deduced. After all, however long or short a piece of music is and whatever its original context, if it works when it takes to the stage then it works. Two of the shortest excerpts in ‘The Terminus’ are only ten and thirteen seconds long respectively, yet they are both taken from a movement of Schumann’s Fantasie in C major which lasts for over six and a half minutes. Pieces performed whole include the opening number, despite several repetitions of its brief themes and the final Diabelli Variation used, which unravels at a tantalisingly slow pace.
When the actors are required to speak over music, great care has been taken to ensure it is practical, as well as desirable. A brief rehearsal on the timings should enable the actors to enjoy the dramatic contribution of the piano. More rehearsal will probably be needed for the conclusion of Act 1. The pianist remains visually neutral, even though the music takes to the stage, and on occasion moves into its centre. There are two brief exceptions to this, where there is a bit of business specified in the stage directions of the play’s first and last scenes.
Certainly, inclusion in ‘The Terminus’ must not allow interpretive compromise to be inflicted on the piano pieces. Some people will argue that the only way to hear the music at its best is in a concert hall and in full, That may or may not be so. My hope is that many in the audience will make a new and exciting connection with the music when it is performed in the context of a play, and a pianist with a feel for the theatre will welcome the interpretive prompting the pieces receive from being an integral part of a stage drama.
Copyright Nigel W Fair July 2024
