Why is Acting in Song So Different?
The last piece of literature I found is an Academic Journal written by Dr. Matt Bean, Professor of Musical Theatre and Voice, and Co-Director of the BFA Program in Musical Theatre at Western Illinois University.
I found great interest in this article as it relates to my major, musical theatre, and talks about the differences of the 'rules of music-theatre' and the 'rules of-theatre' (Bean, 2007).
Straight acting versus singing-acting; this is what the writer focuses his article on, comparing just speaking to what it takes to act when music is added to the speech.
He states how 'singing is bigger than speaking' and, therefore, acting. Singing comes when simply speaking is not enough to express what you want to say, he cites Ibid when he writes that 'music is justified once speech is no longer sufficient, “because there is an abnormal, heightened need to communicate." '
Music gives speech a greater dynamic (Linklater) and it's what singers need when what they have to say is more urgent and they need to express a higher level of emotions, otherwise, he explains, if the singer doesn't need to express what he "wants" more than an actor does, he may as well just talk instead of sing.
He then carries on giving explanations on how, for him, the music gives to the singer notes and variations to the text than normal speech don't have, dynamics, notes such as p, mp, f, mf, crescendo, intonations, melody, time extensions, tempo, melody, rhythm, none of the which are given in an monologue or script.
A 'blessing and a curse' at the same time as he values the freedom of interpretation for the actor but highly values the great help the singer gets with the designed parameters of the music written by a composer.
A very interesting point of the article is made about the Challenge to expressing text on a foreign language; he advises 3 level for communication when singing in a foreign language (this is mostly related to Opera that almost always is sung in Italian even for English speakers). The lowest level, where the singer doesn't know the meaning of the words he/she is singing and vaguely act them out, a second middle level where the singer has a general understanding and knowledge of the words and translate them back and forth in his/her mind, or the highest level where the language is well know by the singer that can actually think in the foreign language and therefore act the words sung at its best.
He then talks about the Need for concentration, as the words in singing are stretched out and the thought process goes faster than the words sung. This require a great level of concentration not to loose the meaning of what's said while singing.
Also Text repetition is a key in singing; he already pointed out that when someone sings is because it's 'the most important thing in our lives right then', and what happens when something is so important? We obsess about it and therefore the thought keeps coming back to our minds. That's the reason why text repetition is a fundamental part of a song, to show how important what we are singing about is.
Bean believes that Spontaneity is another hard task for singers has it's never real in a song, as it probably has been rehearsed many times, nonetheless the song has to remain natural and the singer should sound and look spontaneous throughout the song.
Last but not least, he speaks about Synergy, derived from the Greek syn-ergos, meaning to work together (Balk). He writes how 'Opera and music theater are the most collaborative of all art forms in the way they seek to combine music, drama, design, and movement to create something new. As singers learn to integrate acting and singing, they likewise have the unique chance to create synergy, that wonderful artistic state where the singing and the acting begin to feed off each other and unite to take the performance to a new and higher level.'
Reading this journal, I strongly appreciated Bean's knowledge in musical theatre, especially in the works of Stephen Sondheim, American composer an lyricist for stage and film (Wikipedia, 2011). The examples he used within the text to explain the reason for repetition in a song, where extracts from Mozart and Sondheim's work, and having studied and performed in one of Sondheim's musicals Into the Woods, gave me a very clear understanding of the text and its meaning.
In conclusion I believe the point that then author wanted to make, is how singing and acting together is a very difficult but very effective way to perform and how acting on his own give a way more freedom interpretation to the actor.
I found a good part of what is stated in this article, a synthesis of what I learned in college when taking Musical Theatre classes. The whole construction of a song and its text is a great help that the composer gives to the singer/actor, but unless you don't really learn them and understand why they are in a particular point in the song, the work becomes useless. Bean himself states how much improvements students get when starting to sing "acting" the emotions that the given notes generates and fully understanding the choices that the composer makes.
References:
Bean, M., Nov 2007. Why is Acting in Song So Different?, Journal of Singing [e-journal] 64(2) pp. 167-173. Available through: Ebscohost database. [accessed 23 Dec 2011].
Wikipedia, 2011, Stephen Sondheim [online]. Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sondheim> [accessed 02 Jan 2012].
I found great interest in this article as it relates to my major, musical theatre, and talks about the differences of the 'rules of music-theatre' and the 'rules of-theatre' (Bean, 2007).
Straight acting versus singing-acting; this is what the writer focuses his article on, comparing just speaking to what it takes to act when music is added to the speech.
He states how 'singing is bigger than speaking' and, therefore, acting. Singing comes when simply speaking is not enough to express what you want to say, he cites Ibid when he writes that 'music is justified once speech is no longer sufficient, “because there is an abnormal, heightened need to communicate." '
Music gives speech a greater dynamic (Linklater) and it's what singers need when what they have to say is more urgent and they need to express a higher level of emotions, otherwise, he explains, if the singer doesn't need to express what he "wants" more than an actor does, he may as well just talk instead of sing.
He then carries on giving explanations on how, for him, the music gives to the singer notes and variations to the text than normal speech don't have, dynamics, notes such as p, mp, f, mf, crescendo, intonations, melody, time extensions, tempo, melody, rhythm, none of the which are given in an monologue or script.
A 'blessing and a curse' at the same time as he values the freedom of interpretation for the actor but highly values the great help the singer gets with the designed parameters of the music written by a composer.
A very interesting point of the article is made about the Challenge to expressing text on a foreign language; he advises 3 level for communication when singing in a foreign language (this is mostly related to Opera that almost always is sung in Italian even for English speakers). The lowest level, where the singer doesn't know the meaning of the words he/she is singing and vaguely act them out, a second middle level where the singer has a general understanding and knowledge of the words and translate them back and forth in his/her mind, or the highest level where the language is well know by the singer that can actually think in the foreign language and therefore act the words sung at its best.
He then talks about the Need for concentration, as the words in singing are stretched out and the thought process goes faster than the words sung. This require a great level of concentration not to loose the meaning of what's said while singing.
Also Text repetition is a key in singing; he already pointed out that when someone sings is because it's 'the most important thing in our lives right then', and what happens when something is so important? We obsess about it and therefore the thought keeps coming back to our minds. That's the reason why text repetition is a fundamental part of a song, to show how important what we are singing about is.
Bean believes that Spontaneity is another hard task for singers has it's never real in a song, as it probably has been rehearsed many times, nonetheless the song has to remain natural and the singer should sound and look spontaneous throughout the song.
Last but not least, he speaks about Synergy, derived from the Greek syn-ergos, meaning to work together (Balk). He writes how 'Opera and music theater are the most collaborative of all art forms in the way they seek to combine music, drama, design, and movement to create something new. As singers learn to integrate acting and singing, they likewise have the unique chance to create synergy, that wonderful artistic state where the singing and the acting begin to feed off each other and unite to take the performance to a new and higher level.'
In conclusion I believe the point that then author wanted to make, is how singing and acting together is a very difficult but very effective way to perform and how acting on his own give a way more freedom interpretation to the actor.
I found a good part of what is stated in this article, a synthesis of what I learned in college when taking Musical Theatre classes. The whole construction of a song and its text is a great help that the composer gives to the singer/actor, but unless you don't really learn them and understand why they are in a particular point in the song, the work becomes useless. Bean himself states how much improvements students get when starting to sing "acting" the emotions that the given notes generates and fully understanding the choices that the composer makes.
References:
Bean, M., Nov 2007. Why is Acting in Song So Different?, Journal of Singing [e-journal] 64(2) pp. 167-173. Available through: Ebscohost database. [accessed 23 Dec 2011].
Wikipedia, 2011, Stephen Sondheim [online]. Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sondheim> [accessed 02 Jan 2012].
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