6/02/2010

Whose personality is more important? Musicians or actors?

I started reading the book "The Empty Space: A book about the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate" by Peter Brook when I came upon the following paragraph.
There is a "conflict between theatre directors and musicians in opera productions where two totally different forms, drama and music, are treated as though they were one.  A musician is dealing with a fabric that is as near as man can get to an expression of the invisible. His score notes this invisibility and his sound his made by instruments which hardly ever change. The player's personality is unimportant; a thin clarinetist can easily make a fatter sound than a fat one. The vehicle of music is separate from music itself. So the stuff of music comes and goes, always in the same way, free of the need to be revised and reassessed. But the vehicle of drama is flesh and blood."
Wow! I never thought of comparing music and drama, but if I ever did I would not have tried to decide which one of the two was the "truest" and hardest art form. 

Musicians are always revising and reassessing music, deciding where to put accents, the same way actors decide what word to accentuate in order to best express and idea. 

As an actor's technicality comes from his ability to change the physical language of his body, a musician technicality comes from his ability yo change the physical language of his fingers, hands, arms, shoulders and back for each piece. 

As an actor's artistry shows through the understanding of his character and of the entire play, a musician's artistry comes from the understanding of each individual voice, line and of the entire piece. 

And as an actor's personality is important, so is a musician's personality.
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