Chapter 16 The Art of the In-Between

Abstract

This chapter discusses certain forms of music theater, particularly in the United States and in France dominated by stage directors or choreographers acting as auteurs (rather than composers). It considers how much experimental theater has evolved towards the condition of music theater over the years; the term melodrama — originally a spoken or declaimed theater accompanied by continuous music — and many modern examples found in the work of Schoenberg, Cage and others; and other forms of in-between art involving jazz, percussion, and noise.