There is a new play by Oliver Cotton about to open at the Theatre Royal Bath. It is called ‘The Score’. It is the story of how Johann Sebastian Bach came to compose ‘A Musical Offering’. It is based on an encounter on the 7th May 1747 between Bach and Frederick II (The Great), at Potsdam, in the King’s palace at Sans Souci. The King had given Bach a single musical theme and challenged him to improvise a three voice fugue. He did, and later developed the theme into a six voice fugue, and sent the score to Frederic as an offering.
You can listen to the piece on YouTube with Barthold Kuijken on traverse flute, Sigiswald Kuijken on violin, Wieland Kuijken on viola da gamba and Robert Kohnen on harpsichord, playing at the Old Town Hall, Leipzig.
I have attached the video herewith but for technical reason you may have to go to YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzT_elDRLJM
Just as Bach’s composition develops into multiple voices, so Mr Cotton's theatrical offering is multi-layered. Johann’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a valued member of Frederick’s’ royal orchestra. The King was in fact an accomplished musician and played the flute. Carl was one of the foremost clavier players in Europe, and his own compositions, which dated from 1731, included a number of sonatas and concert pieces for harpsichord and clavichord. Also in attendance at the court were Carl Heinrich Graun, Kapellmeister to Frederick and Franz Benda violinist and composer.
Frederick was 28 years old when he succeeded to the Prussian throne in 1740 and had grown up with a particularly abusive father, Frederick William I. An entry in Wikipedia states:
During his early youth, Frederick lived with his mother and sister Wilhelmine, although they regularly visited their father's hunting lodge at Königs Wusterhausen. Frederick and his older sister formed a close relationship, which lasted until her death in 1758. Frederick and his sisters were brought up by a Huguenot governess and tutor and learned French and German simultaneously. Undeterred by his father's desire that his education be entirely religious and pragmatic, the young Frederick developed a preference for music, literature, and French culture. Frederick Wilhelm thought these interests were effeminate, as they clashed with his militarism, resulting in his frequent beating and humiliation of Frederick. Nevertheless, Frederick, with the help of his tutor in Latin, Jacques Duhan, procured for himself a 3,000 volume secret library of poetry, Greek and Roman classics, and philosophy to supplement his official lessons.
From 1740 on however, Frederick developed his own autocratic style of leadership and militaristic endeavours. He was a devoted reader of Machiavelli’s The Prince. During the second Silesian War, which ended with the Treaty of Dresden on the 25th December 1745, the city of Leipzig had been occupied by Frederick’s troops. That did not endear the citizens of Leipzig, of which Johann Sebastian was one, to Frederick the Great.
Thus the meeting in 1747 just under two years later was not exactly without issues, on top of which Johann was having his own quality time with his son Carl. Frederick was 35, Johann was 62 and Carl was 33. Johann was only three years older than Frederick’s father would have been had he lived, and he had only been dead some seven years. You can therefore begin to appreciate the complexities of the encounter and the ramifications which flowed from it. To produce a play from these circumstances is as challenging as Bach’s answer to King Frederick’s musically themed throwing of the gauntlet.
Writing about historical events is never an easy matter. Researching people’s backgrounds and relationships provides the writer with some insight, and being able to see and read actual letters and diaries of the people one is writing about, will give perspective. Testimony of certain of their encounters with others is of great value; however, there are encounters of which there is no actual record of any kind. Therefore, once one has gathered as much information as one can, the writer can give voice to the situation. It is the informed imagination that provides this voice. Whilst it is not crucial for the reader or viewer to have the same degree of background knowledge, it is sometimes helpful to have a little bit of information. The work itself however, will stand on its own. It is up to the reader/viewer to interpret the text.
Indeed all the writer can hope for, once s/he has let it go, is that there are readers or viewers who understand the text and are able to interpret the various layers explored by the work. Once it is on its own, like all living things, it hopes to be understood. Much of the clarity of a theatrical work, of course, depends on the performance of the characters and how they mesh, clash and interweave across whatever platform that encapsulates the piece itself. It is in itself like a musical offering with all the sounds and speech creating a harmony or discord. It will be sonata or symphony so long as it is co-operative and well-orchestrated.
The proposed production of the play will open at the Theatre Royal Bath from the 12th October 2023 to the 28th October 2023. It will be under the direction of Trevor Nunn and will have as interpreters, Brian Cox, Nicole Ansari-Cox, Matthew Burns, Doña Croll, Peter de Jersey, Stephen Hagan, Benedict Slater, Eric Sirakian and Christopher Staines. The Composer and Sound Designer is Sophie Cotton, Designer Robert Jones, and Lighting Designer Johanna Town. With such a team, I have no doubt that Mr Cotton’s theatrical offering of The Score will be well worth attending.
No comments:
Post a Comment