"What the hell are we supposed to do with program notes these days?
Am I supposed to keep talking about 'motifs'?
Seriously....motif?
Nobody cares about motifs!!”
- A dear musician-friend who shall remain anonymous
Hello World!
Thank you for checking in on Medea. Later this week I will start introducing the creative team and all the collaboration that has taken place to put this project in motion. But today, I will want to talk about my old nemesis….program notes.
Since beginning my doctoral studies, I have had a complicated relationship with my program notes. I’ve been trying (rather desperately) to find ways to understand them, to innovate them, to incorporate them into the performance, to avoid them, to abolish them, all to varying degrees of success.
In most concerts I attend or create, the program notes are delivered to the audience at the entrance of the concert hall, just before the concert begins, and in some kind of booklet or printed format. They usually include a personal note to the audience from the performers or presenters, some pictures and biographical information about the creative team, an outline and order of the material that will be performed and a longer explanation of the material and its creators. In the case of vocal recitals or programs that use text, one will most likely find the text in its original language alongside a translated text.
This is what is familiar to me and if you are an avid concert-goer or performance-attender, it probably is, to some extent, familiar to you too.
But what looms large over every performance I create, are the questions:
How do these program notes affect the concert experience for the audience and the performers? Are they going to enhance it or distract from it? Or will they have no effect (in which case, why do we have them to begin with)?
What kind of content do I want to deliver in the program notes? Is this content integral to the performance or is it supplemental? If it is integral, then what kind of format should it be presented in? If it is supplemental, when should it be delivered so as not to disrupt the performance experience?
Theses questions and my ideas concerning program notes have been shaped by an interview (which will be published in my doctoral dissertation) with the sound-artist, composer and audio-visual performer, Bora Yoon. In our discussion, she talked about how every aspect of a performance, from the venue, to the seating configuration, to the program notes, to the material being presented, to the way the performers are dressed, to the instruments are all part of the performance context and all these aspects convey important information to the audience about the experience they are going to have. And most importantly how we, as artists, think about and shape these aspects of a performance will impact the ways in which an audience can engage with and experience the performance.
In general, I like receiving my program notes at concerts. I like to learn about the performers and the ideas in a show and when I am bored at intermission, I like to have something to read. But my struggle comes from creating these performances that don't really fit into what we might call a traditional format. And this is especially the case with Medea which is a four-episode performance that will take place, predominantly in the imagination of the audience members (I know. This sounds very elusive so I promise to explain more in later posts). I still want to deliver information to my audience about the creative team, the ideas and the development of the project but I can't really deliver an actual, printed program.
So. Here they are. The program notes in the form of an online blog (my fourth attempt at a new kind of program notes within the context of my doctoral studies). As the weeks progress and we get closer to the release of the first episode of this performance project, I will continue releasing information about the project, the collaboration, the creative team and the concepts that have shaped this performance.
In the case of this performance, these online program notes are supplemental to the performance project and like the other aspects of this project, you, as an audience member, will have the choice to engage with them as much or as little as you like. For those who are interested in following the progress of this project, I hope these notes will help you to develop a deeper understanding of all the moving parts, voices and layers that have been woven together to create this telling of Medea.
In the meantime, if you have thoughts on program notes and how they shape your concert experience (as a performer or an audience), I would love to hear them! Share your comments here, or on the Facebook page!
Until next time,
Debi
