continuation...Theater music

continuation...Theater music

In the West, the concept of music as an intellectual experience for its own sake emerged only in the second half of the 18th century. Theatrical music is variously related to something other than itself, whether as an enrichment of words (as in operetta), a factor in structure and mood (ballet), or an intensification of situation and feeling (as in incidental music for plays and films).

In some instances music is dominant, in some it is subservient, and in operetta or stage musical the emphasis alternates between speech, song, and dance. In opera and spoken drama, in which words are wholly sung or spoken, a convention once set is consistently sustained and thereby creates its own kind of reality. The constant change of focus in operetta and musical, from music to speech and back again, emphasizes the artificiality of the illusion they seek to create.

The classical mainstream of theatre music in the West extends from the mid-17th century to the 1930s, and the instances of drama and music meeting on an equal level of imagination are relatively few. More frequently great music was lavished on weak or corrupt theatre, or great drama was embellished with indifferent music. From the early 20th century new dramatic developments were seldom directly matched in music. A German-Italian composer,Ferrucio Busoni, wrote in 1906:

The greater part of modern theatre music suffers from the mistake of seeking to repeat the scenes passing on the stage, instead of fulfilling its own proper mission of interpreting the attitudes of the persons represented.

ence.