Canadian
theatre 
Image
Gallery Music of the 'Speare (2007)
Link to Video: And in the Pouches of Mine Ear did Pour
Link to Video: The Touches of Sweet Harmony – A Tragedy
Link to Video: Shahnn! n?! lburpmah
Music Artist Statement:
 |
| Ellen Waterman |
The Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) at the University of Guelph is an improvisation-based collective whose work is project oriented. Our philosophy is influenced by the democratic artistic processes and commitment to deep listening modeled by improvisers such as George Lewis and William Parker, and by sound ecologists Pauline Oliveros and R. Murray Schafer. We are committed to the idea that creative music should provide agency for all people involved. For us, the dynamic process of collaboration is as important as the final performance. After working with us early in 2007, Parker renamed us the “Creative Music Ensemble” and that’s probably closer to the spirit of the group. The CME is led by Ellen Waterman, a flutist/vocalist and scholar of experimental music, who teaches in the School of Fine Art and Music.
For spring 2007, we had a mandate to create music on the theme of Shakespeare for “Music of the ‘Speare” a concert presented at the River Run Centre as part of Guelph’s Shakespeare Made in Canada Festival (January-June, 2007). How on earth do you improvise Shakespeare in abstract musical terms? After dividing into four smaller ensembles of 5 to 7 players each, we began to jam on a number of ideas. Over several weeks each group developed a distinct approach to the problem, scouring the Bard’s work (or at any rate the Internet's rich resources devoted to the Bard) for quotes, and creating four quite different pieces.
And in the Pouches of Mine Ear did Pour is a delicate soundscape in which accordion, processed toys, and electric guitars carress sweet and creepy vocals that hint at, but don't actually speak, Shakespeare's words. The Touches of Sweet Harmony draws on pop culture references, romantic Shakespearian quotations, and musical clichés (like rock guitar licks vs. sentimental flute and cello) to create a narrative musical structure. Shahnn! n?! lburpmah is a comic reenactment of a classic stage sword fight with dialogues between friends and adversaries, dramatic horn calls, and a fight to the death. Finally, Speare is a completely improvisational work that takes a poetic rather than a dramatic approach to the theme, striving for intimacy of gesture and precision of mood. The only common parameter for the pieces is time: each group was given 7 minutes.
We were very fortunate to collaborate with Kenneth Doren, a wonderful video and audio artist. Kenny’s mandate was to create four videos that would resonate with the
musicians’ playing. After attending a rehearsal, Kenny dove into the CASP vaults and came up with happily synchronous material, creating 3 new seven minute videos in addition to an earlier work of his own. The video and audio were presented simultaneously, but the musicians did not see the videos until the dress rehearsal, once the parameters of their pieces had been well established. The audience is left to find the serendipitous correspondences between the visual and the aural aspects of the performance. The CME is grateful to Kenny for his generous work on this project, and to CASP for archiving the work on the web.
Ellen Waterman
Video Artist Statement:
 |
| Kenneth Doren |
The Touches of Sweet Harmony – A Tragedy :
I was initially captivated by the ‘Technicolor’ intensity of Henry V (directed by Laurence Olivier in 1944 at the age of thirty-eight), but through research discovered that this film provided the British people during the Second World War encouragement to “keep up their spirits and the battle.” A few months after I came across this film, I was approached by the Music of the 'Speare project to create videos based on pre-existing Shakespeare media works. Henry V is a pro-war, jingoistic, propaganda document in the form of a Shakespearean adaptation for film; it has a beautiful aesthetic and is innovative in its treatment of vivid primary colours, but it also has a troubling past. While the sets are not unlike ones used for live theatre, the design seems to deflect the hyper-reality of movie making, thus allowing the audience to escape into the romanticized war scenes on a highly mediated stage. By mentally completing the purposely vague set details and constructed backdrops, the British audience of 1944 had a chance to align Shakespeare’s allegory with their own ”hopeful” position during wartime.
Olivier’s film had a very complex development that I wanted to further mediate by re-filming it off a television monitor with a consumer video camera. By zooming in and cropping the film’s full image, the intended scene becomes abstracted. This helped release the film from the linear narrative and allowed me to condense the story into visual gestures that provoked a combined visual and ethical gravity, one that I hope reveals a new way of seing the film’s political contexts.
Kenneth Doren
 |
Credits:
- And in the Pouches of Mine Ear did Pour
And in the Pouches of Mine Ear did Pour
Video source: Elseneur (1995), Director: Robert Lepage, Ex Machina
Video sources were re-edited by Kenneth Doren
Accordion: Erin Crickett
Percussion: Germaine Liu
Voice: Megan-Fay Rothschild
Electric Bass: Liam Sanagan
Electric Guitar: Dustin Seabrook
Electronics & Small Instruments: Chad Tindall
- The Touches of Sweet Harmony – A Tragedy
The Touches of Sweet Harmony – A Tragedy Video source: Henry V (1944), Director: Laurence Olivier, United Artists
Video sources were re-shot and re-edited by Kenneth Doren
Voice: Robin Copestake
Small Instruments: Joe Carere
Flute: Emma Kapetanovic
Cello: Daniel Smith
Piano: Nora Klemencic
Electric Guitar: Nick Rogers
Electric Guitar: Alex Smith
Percussion: Mark Zurawinski
- Shahnn! n?! lburpmah
Shahnn! n?! lburpmah Video source: The Stratford Adventure (1954), Director: Morten Parker, The National Film Board of Canada
Video sources were re-edited by Kenneth Doren
Guitar: Lavneesh Abrol
Trombone/Shakuhachi: Seamus Doherty
Party Horn: Aaron Levy
Electric Guitar: François Mouillot
Percussion: Michael Reid
Piano: Ferenc Stenton
- Speare
Speare Pavane - for Ophelia (2004), Director: Kenneth Doren
Choreography: Danielle McCulloch
Dancer: Danielle McCulloch
Video & Editing: Kenneth Doren
Violin: Tegan Ceschi-Smith
Clarinet/Electronics: Martin Eckart
Percussion: Germaine Liu
Voice: Megan-Fay Rothschild
Flute: Ellen Waterman
Percussion: Mark Zurawinski
External Links:
Ellen Waterman University of Guelph page
Link to CASP Remix Videos:
Link to Video: And in the Pouches of Mine Ear did Pour
Link to Video: The Touches of Sweet Harmony – A Tragedy
Link to Video: Shahnn! n?! lburpmah
Disclaimer: This site has been designed with only non-commercial, academic uses in mind. Although every effort has been made to secure permission for materials uploaded on the CASP site, in some circumstances we have been unable to locate copyright holders. Links may be made to our site but under no conditions are the texts and images to be copied and mounted onto another site server. Researchers using the site should accredit it following standard MLA guidelines on how to do so. Correct citation of information from the site is as follows:
Fischlin, Daniel. Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project. University of Guelph. 2004. <http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca>.
