Variété (1976)
(Concert Suite for 6 players)

The starting point for composing this Concert-Spectacle was to write music which tried out different ways of combining stage routines and musical accompaniment. One could describe this initiative as théâtre trouvé: new pieces of music, not tied to any visual content, are confronted by other, inherently self-contained presentations. The result is Music-Theatre.

A basic conditio sine qua non for Variété was to avoid a prescribed sequence of artists or numbers. Here the process should be the opposite of conventional vaudeville. Whereas in the latter the musical program is largely the chance result of a series of attractions, here the sequence of musical pieces is fixed in advance, and represents an innately closed form. So the objective is to compose a vaudeville program in terms of musical considerations.

The cast of artists for a scenic production may belong to one of three different categories: 

A Only professional variety artists e.g. dancers
B Only amateurs (including beginners)
C Combination of A + B

Remarks on A

The only artists involved here are professional practitioners, so one must come up with a situation in which the ability and skills of the participants do not differ essentially from the usual presentation of the genre.

Note always that most of the attractions are meant to be silent (or at least muffled and faint):
Illusionists, jugglers, magicians, acrobats, strip-tease artists (both sexes), sword-swallowers, card players, eccentrics, athletes, sleight-of-hand artists, midgets, tight-rope walkers, fakirs, caricaturists, mimes, quick-change artists, freaks, fire-eaters, shadow-show artists, contortionists, all-round artists.

Maybe also:
Animal trainers, trick cyclists, comedians, ventriloquists (with mute dummies!), trapeze acts, clowns, telepathists (silent demonstration using blackboards, hypnotists.

If existing acts can be made compatible with “Variété”:
Exotic or belly dancers, marionettes, tap-dancers.

The same artist can appear several times with different acts.

Almost all the artists listed above normally perform with music, though admittedly the latter’s role varies greatly from one artist to another. With some artists the music has no real relevance, or only a minor one; it obviously functions just as accompaniment, except where the climax of the act has been reached. Other artists who synchronise their actions exactly with a melody or the rhythmic structure of existing music will only be able to perform after a long period of training using a tape playback of the relevant section of Variété. One will encounter acts in which a pause or the traditional drum-roll is indispensable. For this purpose, 12 different examples of such synchronous points of climax are given in the appendix to the score (pp. 151-159).

The audience should be pulled back and forth between synchrony and asynchrony. It will try to find – or to imagine – the contextual relationships between the visual and aural events.

Remarks on B

Whereas bitches or minor mishaps occuring in the category A can lead to failure, a different standard must obviously be applied to a performance with amateurs and beginners. Here is no risk of jeopardizing a professional reputation or falling into disrepute in the event of, say, the juggler dropping one of his balls, the conjurer’s doves making an untimely appearance, stage properties being wrongly positioned, bitches occuring while handling utensils, or handkerchieves that were to have been conjured up being spoiled.

Nevertheless, a scenic realization of this kind calls for careful preparation. With some practice, stage actors might e able to learn a large number of simple tricks or pseudo-tricks, apart from studying new numbers specifically intended for this production. Effective laboratory experiments learned during science courses and involving lights, fire or water might prove an ideal way of adding variety. Of essential importance as applied to this class of performance is the deliberate process of converting the world of success associated with supershows into a controlled slovenly atmosphere that is carried through with failures, accidents, mishaps and shortcomings. The music of Variété is thoroughly capable of supporting this atmosphere of latent and actual failure.

Remarks on C

The aim here is a mixture of stagings A and B. Objections are bound to arise on the part of the professional artists. Appearing in the same program as amateurs can create some problems. Such concerns can be dispelled if the intermingling of professionals and amateurs is shown to denote a different form of entertainment.

M. K.