Musical Psycho Performance

Gianmarco Moneti

Although I love attending traditional classical music concerts, I have long felt that they missed certain aspects that would make them more relatable to the inner world of the audience. In this research exposition, I argue that this missing aspect is a social element and I guide the reader through a possible application of social themes to a classical music concert. On a formal level, I use the techniques of psychodrama – a form of group therapy – as a tool from which I borrow some fundamental concepts, along with the conception of characters, to understand how social themes can be addressed in a context in which multiple people connect to the same object. In this case, the object of common interest is the representation on stage. On a substantial level, I draw upon material I collected in my interviews with Clara Scarafia to study a social theme she has been directly involved with: suicide. The two levels are brought together in my pilot session, where I experiment through a sample of the complete performance I am designing and an audience questionnaire how psychodrama and the interview interact and influence one another. The goal is to show that the classical repertoire, with its complex emotional kaleidoscope and non-verbal language, can easily bear a social theme and enhance the collective reflection of relevant themes in our times.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Castelnuovo Tedesco, Mario. Una Vita di Musica. Firenze: Cadmo, 2004.

Ferraro, Guido. Teorie della narrazione “Dai racconti tradizionali all’odierno storytelling”. Rome: Carocci Editore, 2020.

Fox, Alistair. "Personal Cinema as Psychodrama: Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (1957), Winter Light (1963) and Hour of the Wolf (1968)." In Melodrama, Masculinity and International Art Cinema, 93–114. Anthem Press, 2022.

Goebbels, Heiner. "Estetica dell’assenza." Culture teatrali, 10-20. Firenze: Casa Usher Editore, 2018.

Marineau, René F.. Jacob Levy Moreno : 1889-1974 : Father of Psychodrama Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy. London: Tavistock/Routledge, 1989.

Moreno, Jacob Levi & Moreno, Zerka Toeman. Manuale di Psicodramma (Handbook of Psychodrama). Vol.2. Rome: Astrolabio Ubaldini, 1987.

Murphy, J. J.. In Rewriting Indie Cinema: Improvisation, Psychodrama, and the Screenplay, 319-322. New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2019.

Rosen, Judith. Grażyna Bacewicz: Her Life and Works. Vol. 2, Polish Music History Series. Los Angeles: Friends of Polish Music, 1984.

Schneidman, Edwin S.. Autopsy of a Suicidal Mind. Oxford: University Press, 2004.

Essays and Researches

Copland, Aaron. "Gabriel Fauré, a Neglected Master." The Musical Quarterly 10, no. 4 (1924): 573–86.

Landormy, Paul, and M. D. Herter Norton. "Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)." The Musical Quarterly 17, no. 3 (1931): 293–301.

Margulies, Ivonne. "A 'sort of psychodrama': Cinema verité and France’s self-analysis." South Central Review 33, no. 2 (Summer 2016): 68-79. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Moreno, J. L. "Mental Catharsis and the Psychodrama." Sociometry 3, no. 3 (1940): 209–44.

Sobaskie, Jame. "The Emergence of Gabriel Faure's Late Musical Style and Technique." Journal of Musicological Research 22, no. 3 (2003): 223-276.

Umansky, Abraham Lionel. "Psychodrama and the Audience." Sociometry 7, no. 2 (1944): 179–89.

Website articles

Australian Chamber orchestra: Discover the life and work of Grazyna Bacewicz https://www.aco.com.au/news/2023-march/discover-grazyna-bacewicz

Films

Anderson, Wes, director. The Royals Tenenbaums. 2001. Touchstone Pictures, American Empirical Pictures. 109 min.

Kaufman, Charlie, director. Synecdoche. 2008. Sydney Kimmel Entertainment. 124 min.

Kaufman, Charlie, director. I'm Thinking of Ending Things. 2020. Likely Story, Projective Testing Service. 137 min.

Kaufman, Charlie, director. Being John Malkovich. 1999. Gramercy Pictures, Propaganda Films, Single Cells Pictures. 112 min.

Kelly, Richard, director. Donnie Darko. 2001. Newmarket Films, Pandora Cinema, Flower Films. 113 min.

Wells, Charlotte, director. Aftersun. 2022. BBC Films, British Film Institute, Screen Scotland, Pastel Productions, Unified Theory, Tango Entertainment. 101 min.

>> Appendix: Interview with Clara Scarafia

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Gianmarco Moneti - Musical Psycho Performance - 2024