Concerto

Pinchbeck, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8444-5549 and Smith, Ollie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5656-9931 (2024) Concerto. In: Following the Score: The Ravel Trilogy. Playtext . Intellect, Bristol, pp. 73-94. ISBN 9781789389333 (hardback); 9781789389357 (ebook); 9781789389340 (ebook)

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Abstract

The full performance text of postdramatic devised theatre performance Concerto: an immersive musical experience inspired by Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. Pianist, Paul Wittgenstein, commissioned Ravel to write him a concerto after he lost his right arm during the First World War, whilst assassin Gavrilo Princip was in prison, his withered arm tied up with piano wire. Unravelling narratives such as these surround this music's composition and together they weave a true story that spans 100 years in this deconstructed exploration of creativity and conflict. Concerto is part of The Ravel Trilogy (2014-2018), devised by Pinchbeck & Smith. Each piece deconstructs a piece of classical music by the composer, Maurice Ravel, and transposes it into contemporary performance as score theatre. In doing so, the body of devised theatre work asks questions of the relationships between dramaturgy and musicology, performance score and music score, stage direction and musical notation.