Arnold Schoenberg also spelled
Arnold Schönberg 1874–1951

Pierre lunaire, No. 18 "Der Mondfleck"
palindrome
sprechstimme (speech song)
Comedia del Arte (Commedia dell’Arte)

 
Pierrot
Pronounced As: pro [Fr.,=little Peter], character in French pantomime. A buffoon, he wore a loose white tunic with big buttons, balloon sleeves, and white pantaloons. His face was painted white. A creation of Giuseppe Giaratone or Geratoni (fl. 1639-97), Pierrot was introduced to early 19th-century France by Deburau.

"The 'beautiful' in music is a by-product of the composer's integrity, a function of his search for truth."
— Arnold Schoenberg

The Viennese composer Arnold Schoenberg, under the influence of the German Expressionist movement, sought new ways to organize pitches. He first abandoned tonality altogether (atonality), then unhappy with the results, devised a complex system (serialism or twelve-tone method) based on a particular arrangement of the twelve chromatic tones (a tone row), which became the source for building themes, harmonies, and counterpoint. His music is dissonant and highly disjunct in style. He also united text and music through the use of a new vocal style (Sprechstimme), used in Pierrot lunaire. He refined the twelve-tone system in his later years, while teaching in the United States.
http://www.wwnorton.com/enjoy/lessons/lesson63.htm
 
 

Aristotle's Six Parts of a Tragedy

1. Plot
2. Character
3. Thought (theme, idea)
4. Diction (Language)
5. Music (sound)
6. Spectacle

1. Plot:
 

1. Exposition

Everything the audience needs to know to understand the play.

"antecedent action" (everything that has happened before the play begins)? and how is it revealed?

"point of attack" The point in the play in which things change.

2. Conflict -- the clash of opposing forces man vs. self, man, environment, natural forces, group, God, or group vs. group.

"Inciting incident" (or "initiating incident"): the event that occurs to begin the conflict.

"Complications" --

Discoveries, reversals (peripety)

Sub-plots / parallel plots major and minor conflicts

3. Climax -- (Wilson, p. 276) the point at which one or the other of the forces is favored; the point at which events must turn in one direction or another. Not necessarily the "high point"

Falling Action

4. Resolution / Denouement -- whatever comes after the climax.

Not always resolved satisfactorily:  the "deus ex machina" (Wilson, p. 4, 285):  -- god of the machine -- a contrived or unrealistic or unbelievable ending / resolution.

Physical, social, and psychological traits.

Protagonist -- "agon" = struggle; the pro side of the struggle -- often used to refer to the lead character in a tragedy (Wilson, p. 271).

Antagonist -- the anti side of the struggle -- often the bad guy, but could be anyone / thing that struggles against the protagonist.

Foil: (Wilson, p. 322) reveals some aspects of the main characters by having similar or different circumstances or by behaving similarly or differently

Stock characters -- (Wilson, p. 316). exemplify one particular characteristic, as in commedia dell' arte (Wilson, p. 316).

Type -- a character who is larger than life -- as opposed to a "real" or life-like individual [Sporre, 95].

The idea, theme ("the me") of the play.
It is often allegorical or symbolic sometimes direct, sometimes indirect.

Plays may often be written about an idea, but the playwright will probably focus more on plot and character to get idea across -- plays are seldom about an idea.

In production, directors seldom try to direct the idea--it is the other values that will get the idea across (tho' sometimes the idea will not be obvious / overt).

Language is used to:

depart information, reveal characters, characterize, direct attention, reveal themes and ideas establish mood / tone, establish tempo / rhythm appropriate to character (again, "decorum" had nobility speak poetry, peasants speaking prose).

The sound of the dialog, etc. musicality, rhythm, pace, etc. helps establish mood, characterize, lend variety, pleasurable.

The most immediate element
--appropriate and distinctive (but perhaps least important for the "drama / play").
 

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI
(Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari)

Directed in 1919 by Robert Wiene, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the story of murder and intrigue set in a small German town of Holstenwall. Francis (Friedrich Feher), our narrator, is a student who makes the near-fatal error of attending a seemingly innocuous carnival with his best friend, Alan (Hans Heinrich).

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