Colm Molloy Bmus 3 1411868

The Process of Evaluating Performances (and its ramifications)

Or The Inner and Outer Critic

Bill of Fare:

Second Study Case in Point The Value of Originality in Performance

Wearing Multiple Hats
Counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Second Study Case in Point The Value of Originality in Performance

Excerpts used for 2016 Second Study Piano Recital:

1925. The Modern Age. The Golden Era. Safely past the debris of the devastating Great War
and firmly in the height of theatre, or art, and of music. Tonights petite soire is a deluge into
the avant-garde, the schmaltzy and the profound. We are living, seemingly, in the best of
possible times, so tonight I ask that you enjoy yourselves. But first, if there is any notable
tragedy to be mourned in this, the Roaring Twenties, Les Annes Folles, then it is the death of
an extremely eccentric man1

To the Director of the Comdie-Franaise

Paris, 21 February 1925
Sir,

You have infested the news long enough. Your brothel is too greedy. It is time the
representatives of a dead art stopped deafening us. Tragedy does not need a Rolls Royce nor
whoredom jewellery.
[]
The theatre can do without you. It is made of a different matter to your wretched tissues.
French Theatre, you say? You belong no more to France than to the land of the Kafirs. At best
you belong to the Fourteenth of July.
The theatre is the land of Fire, the lagoons of Heaven, the battle of Dreams. The theatre is
Solemnity.
You leave your droppings at the foot of Solemnity like the Arab at the foot of the Pyramids.
Make way for the theatre, gentlemen; make way for the universal theatre that is content with
the unlimited field of the mind.2

About the singing of songs:

When an actor sings he undergoes a change of function. Nothing is more revolting than when
the actor pretends not to notice that he has left the level of plain speech and started to sing. The
three levels plain speech, heightened speech and singing must always remain distinct, and
in no case should heightened speech represent an intensification of plain speech, or singing of
heightened speech. In no case therefore should singing take place where words are prevented
by excess of feeling. [] As for the melody, he must not follow it blindly: there is a kind of
speaking-against-the-music, which can have strong effects, the results of a stubborn,
incorruptible sobriety, which is independent of music and rhythm. If he drops into the melody
it must be an event; the actor can emphasise it by plainly showing the pleasure, which the
melody gives him.3

High focus on non-musical factors, none on musical factors for what benefit? Are these
factors just as important? See quote below from playwright Edward Albee:

One of the other things I tell my young playwriting students is: you should know every aspect
of the theatre. You should look at directing, you should think about directing all the time. You
should familiarise yourself with the possibilities of set design, costume design and lighting
design, because all of this stuff is going to affect the way your play looks once its off the page
and once its on the stage.4

1 Molloy, C. Forbidden Fruit (Excerpt, 2016)

2 Artaud, A. (Ed. Schumacher, C.) Artaud on Theatre (London: Methuen Drama, 1989) pp. 15-16
3 Brecht, B. The Threepenny Opera, Additional Texts (London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2005)
pp. 86-87
4 American Theater Wing (2013) The Playwright (Career Guides). Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jyC_9YwdIs&t=609s
Colm Molloy Bmus 3 1411868

Perceived originality in performance, redundant in this case (personally), but can the mean
perceived originality model be applied? (See Fig. 1)
Adopting interpretations into the mainstream, and them no longer being perceived as
original: this performance must have seemed highly original then, but it does not seem so
now5

Fig. 1 Mean Perceived Originality Model6

I am aware though that each play demands a slightly different kind of reality, a slightly
different style, for its content; style, form and content co-determining each other; that each
play must be a totally different world, a totally different environment, the characters must be
real in a totally different way in each particular play. So, all of my plays seem very dissimilar to
each other, which is, indeed, the way they must. I suppose there is a particular sound going
through the plays, which is the way my mind translates my thoughts into my characters minds
and my characters speeches. There must be a use of language which is now considered the way
Albee writes.7

Wearing Multiple Hats

The application of being taught through different disciplines, i.e. dance, music performance,
composition
The consequences of negative critique, objectivity vs. subjectivity
Holistic self-assessment, and holistic vs. analytical marking

Counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Taking effective care of the body and mind allows for original thought and creativity
Mindfulness, being conscious

5 Williamon et al. (2006), Creativity, originality and value in performance, in Delige & Wiggins
(eds.), Musical Creativity, Psychology Press, p. 177
6 Ibid. p. 176
7 DukeLibDigitalColl (2008) About the Arts: Edward Albee, 1978. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYzO2_IbWl4