PhD Thesis: Science, Music and Theatre - An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Singing Tragic Chorus of Greek Tragedy 

This thesis argues for the relevance of the history of science, and its natural corollaries of music and space, in the disclosure of the tragic chorus’ historical and cultural interconnections. The synchronous emergence of ancient natural philosophy, a new form of mousikê and theatre space during the birth of the tragic chorus suggests more than coincidence. In seminal productions of Greek tragedy throughout European history the singing tragic chorus will be aligned with concurrent modulations in scientific principles and in aesthetics. 

My interdisciplinary approach recognizes an on-going interrelation between science and the arts based on shifting notions of the principles of order and disorder. A scientific analogue resonates with philosophical ideas that in turn shape aural and visual concepts regarding the tragic chorus. Each chapter focuses on an exemplary production in the performance history of Greek tragedy: Sophocles’Oedipus Tyrannus in c. 429 BCE Athens (ancient), Oedipus Rex in 1585 Vicenza (renaissance), Antigone in 1841 Potsdam (classical/romantic), and Oedipus Rex in 1927 Paris (modernist). The chronological arrangement is a comparative reading and infers no continuous historical narrative or comprehensive survey. The interface of science with music and theatre will be discussed from two standpoints which I have defined as Chorality and Theatricality. In Chorality, I look at the relationship of text and music. In Theatricality, I discuss the interaction of the chorus with theatre space. 

Using the singing tragic chorus as a nexus for the interaction of science and art, I conclude that the coexistence of order and disorder, in both nature and the human condition, continually necessitates changes in the explanatory and descriptive language of both disciplines.

As a rule, interdisciplinary activities have been central to my experience as an academic and as a practitioner. I regard performance practice as much as creative activity as an intellectual pursuit. Currently within my theatre group, Zeb Fontaine, I collaborate with multimedia specialists and performers within the framework of postdramatic theatre: exploring text in a non-conventional relationship to the other media in order to achieve a particular performance aesthetic. 

At present I am interested in the notion of intertextuality in musical terms. In intertextuality the dramatic text or performance aesthetic is shaped through a process of multi-layering or paraphrasing of other texts in order to create new signs and references. The interface of various kinds of music or sound during the creative processes (intermusicality) is intended to yield similar dramatic structures.

PAPERS

‘The Orbits of Oedipus’  Archives of Performance of Greek and Roman Drama Symposium - ‘The Chorus’(Oxford: 2002)

‘The Chorus: Nothing to do with Cosmology?’50th Anniversary of the Institute of Classical Studies (Senate House, London: 2004)

‘Body Heat: Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics and the Tragic Chorus’ Theatre of sciences conference (University of Glamorgan, Wales: 2004)

‘Theatricality and Chorality: the tragic chorus in Vicenza’s Oedipus’ APGRD - ‘Sight and Sound’(Oxford, 2004)

‘Crossbreed: Cult, Cattle and Chorus (Sophocles’Oedipus Tyrannus transposed to the Texas Bible Country)’Ancient Drama in the Modern World lecture series –‘Dionysus Recast’(Oxford, 2005)

‘Theatricality and Chorality: the tragic chorus in Vicenza’s Oedipus’The Classical Association Annual Conference (University of Newcastle, 2006)

‘All mouth, no body: the Chorus in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex’ APGRD -‘The Body’(Oxford: 2006)

'The Word-Tone Relationship - a choral perspective' Stage, Song & Screen II (University of Leeds, 2007)

'Science and the Modern Tragic Chorus : aspects of chaos and complexity' British Society of Literature and Science (UCE -Birmingham, 2007)

'Did the earth move for you? The cathartic event in tragedy and music' The Reception of Ancient Greek and Roman Drama (Institute of Classical Studies, London)

MONOGRAPH
I am preparing my thesis for publication in the new series Oxford Studies in Classical Receptions: Classical Presences (OUP).

CHAPTERS
'Multidisciplinarity: its reception within reception', in Theorising Performance: Greek Drama, Cultural History, and Critical Practice, ed. Edith Hall (Duckworth & Co.- 2009)

'Catharsis, tragedy and music', in Dialogues with the Past: Reception Theory and Practice (BICS - 2009)

BOOK REVIEW

David Wiles, Mask and Performance in Greek Tragedy (Cambridge University Press, 2007) in Didaskalia: Ancient Theatre Today http://www.didaskalia.net/issues