Music-theatre as music: A practical exploration of composing theatrical material based on music-centric conceptualisation of myth

This thesis examines the notion of 'music-theatre as music' in its relation to myth. It is provided as an indispensable tool of critical commentary for the accompanying performances (that are included in the submission in DVD documentation) and as an in-depth analysis of the issues that relate to the concepts at hand. In the context of this project, the term 'music-theatre as music' is understood as a music-theatre that derives musical strategies of organisation in the composition of 'all theatrical means' (Lehmann 2006: 91) from music-centric conceptual models. Initially based on the connection that Levi-Strauss draws between myth and music, the research explores alternative ways that the affinity between the two domains can be used in the creation of 'music-theatre as music' performances. In the first performance Clastocysm (2007), the project examines practically the idea of structuring and performing mythical fragments based on the notion of the 'continuum' (which is presented as an alternative to Levi-Strauss' 'binary'). In the second performance Metax; ALogon (2008), the idea of binaries in the musico-theatrical investigation of this relationship (between myth and music) is problematized through the conceptualisation of music as that which creates 'a diagonal [ ... ] between the harmonic vertical and the melodic horizon' (Deleuze and Guattari 2007: 327). This is an idea which is based on Deleuze and Guattari's notion of music as a 'becoming'. Accordingly, through the creation of a rhizomatic performance and the analysis thereof, the research project investigates how we can re-conceptualise the relationship between myth and music through the notion of the 'becoming' in the making of a 'music-theatre as music' performance which is inspired from a mythical text.