International Festival
THEATRE METHODS 05
Between Tradition and Contemporaneity

Victor Copytsko (Belarus)

Lecture
"Theatricality in non-theatrical music"
(From composer’s point of view)

Both in contemporary music and in music of the past there are a lot of compositions have been attributed to the academic concert tradition while they have some obvious theatrical signs, not only with their external characteristics but with their internal as well. By the way, not accidental signs; they were imparted by the authors, the composers to their music.

External seems to be clear (however one have to demonstrate a lot of delicacy to realise them practically; we must remind that we are talking about a concert pieces), but working with the internal theatrical characteristics the performer (director, choreograph etc.) would be able to find them in the text, even if there would be no any author’s commentaries & then would be ready to read & to realise them correctly.

All this would be the main subject of our conversation.

1. At first we should explane why such phenomenon as Happening would be wandered off from the lecture.

2. Then we should propose the concept of musical PERFORMANCE from the composer’s view point. We should analyse: 
a) Coda of the «Farewell Symphony» by Joseph Haydn (1772) as one of the mostly impressive performances in musical history (music fragment, CD audio);
b) «Elegy in memory of Arrigo Boito» by Victor Copytsko (2002) as a piece for one performer who have to combine himself some different functions (DVD Video).

3. We should pay a special attention to the confusion with such a terms as «Performance» & «Instrumental Theatre».

4. We should analyse the idea of INSTRUMENTAL THEATRE, should discuss the correct & incorrect (from composer’s point of view) understanding of this term using as the examples the 1st Symphony by A.Schnittke (CD audio fragment) & his “3 Scenes for voice & percussions” (incorrect using of the term); “Peter & Wolf” by S.Prokofiev & the 3rd part from “Playing Chekhov” by V.Copytsko (CD audio, score) as the correct using of the term.

5. Very important part of the conversation.
a) Fantasia with playing, singing & recitation “Northern Wind” by V.Copytsko (DVD or VHS video);
b) Fragment of Akt 2 from “Zauberflöte” by W.A.Mozart (CD audio); We should discuss some director’s practical problems, easy enough in “Northern Wind”(here– special attention at the author’s screenplay propositions in «Elegy in memory of Arrigo Boito» for example), but very untrivial in Mozart’s fragment.

6. Now, since the audience is ready we should talk about even more complicated phenomenon as Theatre of Symbols in Baroque tradition (using music by I.S.Bach; scores, CD audio, better – some keyboard) & some possibilities of visual-plastic working-out of this Symbolarium.

7. As a conclusion we could here once again (we have seen VHS video version of this piece at the beginning of the lecture, and the audience has been invited to pay attention to the crew of performers & the acoustic relations between them) the 3rd part from “Biblical Scenes”by V.Copytsko. But now it would be CD audio version following the score. There are no author’s commentaries in the text, so any member of our Master-class could propose her/his visual-with-a-plot interpretation of the piece. The author would propose his own vision & this discussion could be the final point of the lecture.

SHORT BIO

Victor Copytsko (born 1956, Minsk, Belarus) is a composer, musicologist, conductor, director. Versatile musician with more then 30 years of experience in music composition in a wide variety of gen-res ranging from opera & symphonic to chamber & choral works. His music has been performed throughout Belarus’ and Russia, as well as Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Greece, Spain, Portu-gal, Holland, Germany, Switzerland and USA. He has a permanent practice as a movie (feature,  car-toons, documentary & videofilms; about 100 as a whole) and  theatrical (about 30 plays as a whole) composer in Belarus’, Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Gemany, France, USA.

Most of the time Victor Copytsko works as a free-lance artist in close association with a variety of Philarmonic societies, film studios and theatrical establishments.

TITLES AND CITATIONS:
1995 Composer in Residence (Washington and Lee University, USA).
1997, 2003 Best  Music Award at the 1st and the 3rd National Film Festivals (Belarus)
1997 Best  Music Award at MCM International Film Festival
1980 Song cycle “Six poems by A.S.Pushkin” won the Best Composition in International Music Competition (Moscow, former USSR).

FESTIVAL PERFORMANSES:
2003 Krakow International Contemporary Music Festival (Poland)
2001 1st Festival of religion music of Patmos (Greece)
1998, 2002 Sollertinsky Music Festival (Vitebsk, Belarus)
1999 New Sacred Music Festival (New York, USA)
1995 Sonoklect 1994-1995 “Interselection” (Lexington, USA)
1994 Celebration in Honor of the Ministry of Peace of the United Nations (New York, USA)
1994 “Passages European” Music Festival (Switzerland)
1993 “Music Silentium” Music Festival (St-Petersburg, Russia)
1993 “Bonner Summer” Music Festival (Germany)
1993 3rd Baltic Music Festival (Vilnius, Lithuania)
1992 Ussachevsky Festival (New York, USA)

EXPERIENCE:
1992-1994 Musical Director of State Drama Theatre (Minsk, Belarus)
1991-1992 Musical Director of “Russian Video” (St-Petersburg, Russia)
1982-1984 Teacher of music composition at Municipal Music School (Minsk, Belarus)

EDUCATION:  
1982 B.S. in music composition. St-Petersburg State Conservatoire, Russia.
1975 Certificate of Graduation in music theory and composition / High School Diploma. Minsk State Music College, Belarus.

MEMBERSHIP:
Member of the Belorussian Cinematographic Society.
Member of the Belorussian Theatrical Association.
Member of the International University «Global Theatre Experience».

NEXT 

Return to THEATRE METHODS 05