Beckett’s crystalline dramatic structure concealed sharp insertions like Berg’s tonality
Evidence
In some scenes, Beckett counterbalanced the musical arrangement of the repetitions and analogies by using apparent spontaneity. As with Alban Berg, who composed according to the twelve-tone technique, but in such a way that there was considerable room for tonal elements, so in Beckett’s plays there were many insertions within the crystalline structure which had obvious, sharp significanceeven though in the context of the play this was disguised by cynicism, weariness or speaking in broken phrases. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2243 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Endgame, written in the mid-1950s, is a more bitter version of Waiting for Godot: circling the abyss, but still a game. The categories of drama, treated parodically, and the principles of musical form give a minimum of structure to the contents. There is still a soliloquy in Endgame, for example; but it is nothing more than a series of halting, empty-sounding allusions. Instead of the curtain rising, Hamm takes a handkerchief off his face. This produces a play which is merciless towards everything that is no longer possible after the
end', and which nevertheless takes what is no longer possible and presents it on stage. — <cite>Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2240</cite> (#corroborates`, via linked claim)
Beckett did go onwith plays and texts in which, although the discursive meaning of the words is never entirely destroyed, the connection between ever more barren groups of words was achieved more and more by using phonetic arrangement, leitmotifs, repetitions, analogies and echoes, and, in the plays, through gestures and pantomime. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2239 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Beckett built spontaneity into his crystalline dramatic structures like Berg used tonality. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2243; Beckett’s Endgame structures drama through parodic categories and musical form. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2240; Beckett’s later work substituted phonetic and gestural structure for discursive meaning. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2239
Related
- Beckett’s Endgame structures drama through parodic categories and musical form. (similarity 0.92)
- Beckett’s later work substituted phonetic and gestural structure for discursive meaning. (similarity 0.89)
- Beckett built spontaneity into his crystalline dramatic structures like Berg used tonality. (similarity 0.87)
- Beckett’s austere plays secretly remain true to the circus and stage magic (similarity 0.83)
- Adorno heard Endgame’s dialogues as governed by musical listening, not logic (similarity 0.81)
Broader Connections
- Beckett built spontaneity into his crystalline dramatic structures like Berg used tonality.
#expands(0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2243 - Beckett’s Endgame structures drama through parodic categories and musical form.
#corroborates(0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2240 - Beckett’s later work substituted phonetic and gestural structure for discursive meaning.
#complicates(0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2239