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Gerhard, electronic music and King Lear

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Irena Cholij
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Extract

Between 1947 and 1962 Roberto Gerhard contributed incidental music to eight Shakespeare plays for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (later Royal Shakespeare Company). Of these, easily the most controversial was George Devine's production King Lear for the Stratford Touring Company in 1955. A far cry from his very traditional The Taming of the Shrew (1953) and still relatively ‘safe’ A Midsummer Night's Dream (1954) – for both of which Gerhard also composed music – this was a thoroughly modern production. The sets and costumes were designed by the American sculptor Isamu Noguchi (of mixed American and Japanese parentage), and were his first theatre designs. The rationale behind the production was set out in the programme:

Our object in this production has been to find a setting and costumes which would be free of historical or decorative associations so that the timeless, universal and mythical quality of the story may be clear. We have tried to present the places and the characters in a very simple and basic manner, for the play to come to life through the words and the acting.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 198 , October 1996 , pp. 28 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 Lewin, David, Daily Express, 27 07 1955 Google Scholar.

2 For further information on all these productions see: Cholij, I.B., ‘Roberto Gerhard's Music for Stratford Shakespeare Productions 1947–1962 and its context’, unpublished MA dissertation, The Shakespeare Institute, The University of Birmingham 1995 Google Scholar, from which this article is adapted. Gerhard, also contributed an electronic sound track for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard (1961)Google Scholar: the rest of the music comprised arrangements, by Brian Priestman, of traditional Russian pieces.

3 Trewin, J. C., Shakespeare on the English Stage 1900–1964 (London, 1964), 221 Google Scholar.

4 Shakespeare, William, King Lear edited by Bratton, J.S., Plays in Performance (Bristol, 1987), 44 Google Scholar and viii–x.

5 Shakespeare, William, The Tragedy of King Lear edited by Halio, Jay L. (Cambridge, 1992), 49 Google Scholar.

6 Downer, Alan S., ‘A Comparison of Two Stagings: Stratfordupon Avon and London’, Shakespeare Quarterly vi (1955), 429–33 (pp 431–33)Google Scholar.

7 As quoted by Potter, Keith, ‘The Life and Works of Roberto Gerhard’, unpublished undergraduate dissertation, The University of Birmingham 1972, p 25 Google Scholar. I have not seen the original letter.

8 These are: ‘Sound Observed’, a two-part talk broadcast on 28 January and 3 February 1965, and ‘Talking about music: No.124’, broadcast in 1970, which includes a posthumously relayed talk. These can be listened to at the National Sound Archive (BIRS 739W/740R and BBC TR 126519). Quotations have been taken from these talks.

9 This was the one non-Stratford theatre production for which Gerhard composed incidental music.

10 Davies, Hugh, ‘The Electronic Music’, Tempo 139 (12 1981), 35 Google Scholar. In 1955 Peter Brook composed some musique concrète for his production of Titus Andronicus. I wonder what equipment he used, and to what extent he might have been influenced by Gerhard, (with whom, of course, he had worked on Romeo and Juliet in 1947)Google Scholar.

11 Davies, op.cit., 35 Google Scholar. I have not examined any materials relating to The Prisoner.

12 The parts for both Gerhard's and Bridgewater's music are held at the Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon. The full score of Gerhard's, King Lear music is held by Cambridge University Library (Gerhard 3. 108)Google Scholar.

13 At the Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-upon-Avon. The records include not just the electronic sounds but also the orchestral pieces. However, as far as I can tell, the orchestra went on tour with the company, thus there was no need for their cues to be recorded. Also, the records contain the earlier versions of several numbers which were later revised. Perhaps it was a precautionary measure.

14 Cambridge University Library (Gerhard Notebook 7.102).

15 I wonder from where Gerhard obtained his white noise, since the BBC Radiophonic Workshop had not yet been set up.

16 Act and scene divisions, and line numbers, have been taken from the Oxford edition of The Tragedy of King Lear.

17 So referred to by Trewin, J.C. in his review for the Birmingham Post on 9 07 1958 Google Scholar.