Music

LAURIE ANDERSON, MUSIC I saw one rehearsal of The Birdcatcher and was very impressed with how much the actors were improvising. With each run-through, the play took a new direction. I recorded several of the actors' voices so I could transfer them to the Synclavier and build them into the score. The Synclavier is a digital computer that can sample soundwhich can then be assigned to a note on the keyboard and played. I also have a large collection of birds, so I built the score around birds and human voices. Unfortunately, I never saw the final version performed, so I was unable to do any fine-tuning. I tried however to record the work in a very airy way, to build distance into it through a series of delays. Hopefully, this had the effect of suggesting landscapes, of opening up the stage. LAURIE ANDERSON AND ROBERT WILSON Ihaven't been completely successful, but to some extent I have not been so redundant with the gestures and movements of the actors. Like in the Japanese theatre. You look at a Noh play, you have gestures that Illustrate the action and the actor or the story. And then they'll do something very abstract. They'll have a movement that's very abstract anddoesn't "mean" anything. In a sense I have dealt with the textmusically. What we hearIs an audio score. Sometimes what we are doing Is inventing a new language.If I make a gesture and that is associated with a sound, In a sense I am creating a language, and then that language becomes discernible, and we destroy the code. It's true that you hear birds and water and the tinkling of bells, but because those sounds are not in a realistic context, you can be aware of what you feel when you hear them. There's a space around them. It seems appropriate for a Greek classic to get someone who Is trained in a classical school in a traditional culture. I would like to work with Suzushi Hanayagi In everything. I learn so much from her.She has a way of hearing and seeing Inside of the material. She goes to show someone in the chorus how to sit and they're not used to thinking that way. She knows about the weight of the body. The contact of the feet on the floor. The space around the movement. The space under the arm. In the theatre you have to always fill the auditorium with a presence, and frequently you see that the audiences don't get to the back wall. The weight of that gesture has to get to 92 the exit signs. And the space around It helps us to see it.Andas I've.aald many times, you can take a small dot in a large room, but It will fill the room simply because of the space around it. LikeSheryl's tiny littlehand gesture In Einstein. SUZUSHI HANAYAGI, MOVEMENT I had a class almost every day. At that time I asked the actors to take a position , it's all the same: in ballet, in Martha Graham too, you need to hold inside . My zen teacher said, "Go to knock the universe!" Bob Wilson is always asking to have a space, you know, around everything. He wants a space so that the audience can see more clearly. He is also saying that the power is not just in the limb but in the space. It's a very true thing you know. If Admetus needed a movement or a gesture, I would give it to him. For instance , when Admetus has the line, "I hate this god.. ." he is very angry. So I gave him a movement with his fists, very strong and slow, all at right angles. Another time, when Alcestis is crying, I changed her gesture from naturalistic crying to a slow, abstract gesture of her hand rising to her eyes at an angle with the fingers extended straight and closed. I didn't want to put so many dance movements into the play, but some kind of formal gesture could be a dancey movement, you know. The...