Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2001 - 21

organized for the purpose of communicating. By defining
these terms in this manner, the paper does not differentiate between music composition and sound design.
They are the same and can be used interchangeably.
The last pair of synonyms are "speech" and
"song," and their derivatives, such as "dialogue" and
"singing." In this paper, these terms refer to vocal
communication combining words and music. Treating
speech and song as synonyms is fundamentally important to the development of a unified aesthetic for the
function of the soundscape.

The Function of the Soundscape

his paper will attempt to present the single principle
that guides my work as a composer and sound
designer of theatre soundscapes. It begins with a discussion relating Adolphe Appia's theatre aesthetic to fundamental principles of sound in the theatre. Next, these
ideas are developed in a discussion about the relationship between the language of the script and the music of
the drama. That discussion leads finally to the development of a guiding principle for sound called "The Function of the Soundscape."

APPIA'S HIERARCHY OF DRAMA

t seems that Appia could have written his revised
foreword to Music and the Art of Theatre just as
appropriately today as in 1918:
At the time when I wrote and published this
volume the problem of production, and consequently of dramatic art, was of concern to no
one. The audience, as well as the specialists in
the field, was preoccupied solely with innovation through an ever increasing sumptuousness in setting, or else through an ever more
complete realism: this attitude toward stage
setting condemned the dramatist to mark
time. (Appia 1962, 1)
Let us take a look at how Appia's views reflect back
on "The Function of the Soundscape."
At the 1999 OISTAT Scenography Symposium, Belgian director Marc Schillemans said, "All theatre starts
with a script." Most theatre artists agree with that thesis
and begin their work on a production with an analysis of
the intellectual ideas communicated by the words in the
script. However, Appia suggests a radically different way
to understand drama:
Out of Music (in the widest sense) springs
the conception of the drama which the
author embodies out of word and tone to
form drama and permits it to be presented
through: actor, setting, lighting, (and)
painting. (Appia 1962, 27)
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W I N T E R

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TD & T

Appia explains the importance of this hierarchy:
A dramatic idea requiring musical expression
in order to be revealed must spring from the
hidden world of our inner life, since this life
cannot be expressed except through music and
music can express only that life. By means of
the spoken word, [the dramatist] endows it
with a practical dramatic form and composes
the poetic-musical text, the score. (Appia 1962,
26)
The idea here is that the script and the spoken
words are only the outward manifestations of the inner
life of the character and the drama. They are not the inner life, and are relatively powerless on their own to express the inner life. Music, on the other hand, expresses
that inner life directly, and is incapable of expressing anything but the inner life. Our potential to experience and
participate in an inner life draws us to the theatre in the
first place. The primal impulse for the creation of the
drama is music, and, for Appia this implied that the
drama itself would be full of music. He could not help but
"wonder what usefulness a scenic reform...could have
for dramatic works in which music plays a minor role or
is absent altogether." (Appia 1962, 196)
Of course, music has always been an integral part of
drama. Drama evolved out of music, or more precisely,
any area presided over by the Muses. Aristotle believed
that tragedy derived from the dithyramb and comedy
from the phallic songs (Aristotle 1962, 74). Thespis
changed the structure of the tragedy by introducing the
spoken word, which was nevertheless governed by strict
rules of rhythm, melody and harmony (Brockett 1968,
11). One needs to look no further than the overwhelming
popularity of the Broadway musical compared to spoken
text plays to realize how successfully this concept has
withstood the test of time. However, if Appia's premise is
correct, then where do we find this music in the spoken
text play, and what are the implications of our findings
for "The Function of the Soundscape?"

THE DUALITY OF LANGUAGE: Ideas & Music

ne element is largely missing from the pervasive power of music: intellectual discourse.
Schopenhauer said, "Music by itself never expresses the
phenomenon, but only the essence of the phenomenon."
(Schaupenhaurs 1911, 308) Language, on the other
hand, has the ability to communicate precise intellectual
ideas, which prompted Appia to suggest that "in order to
define his expression, the musician needs the poet."
(Appia 1962, 45)
Written language differs from spoken language in
that written language provides the intellectual ideas to
which the reader interprets the music of the inner life.
Within the capacity of the spoken word, however, we find

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2001