Musicality and meaning in the theatre of Samuel Beckett

Abstract

The analysis of dramaturgical works by Samuel Beckett indicates the presence of certain musical devices, such as pauses, stops, repetitions, and motifs as being an integral structural component of the dramaturgy. This use of musical devices is in turn indicative of the fact that the conception and development of the dramaturgical works is underpinned by a ‘compositional’ attitude. As a result, Beckett’s dramatic texts may be considered, beyond their linear dramatic structure, also as musical scores. The inherent musicality of these texts imbues them with various layers of meaning that surpasses the immediacy of the narrative. Further to the semantic meaning of the narrative, a musicalised consideration of the language informs the speech of the performer with specific musical qualities such as rhythm and melody. The interplay between musical and semantic layers in the texts results in multiple meanings being generated in performance through the shared experience of the actors and spectators. In this regard, Beckett’s theatre gains a degree of self-referentiality not unlike that of music. Due to the intrinsic musicality of these texts, directors and actors of Beckett’s plays ought to approach them with a musical awareness whereby the rhythms and melodies suggested in the text are decoded and embodied in performance. Thus, a complete realisation of a Beckett play in performance is one that accounts for the various layers through which meaning may be generated, i.e. through the semantic use of language and through the musical elements that are embedded within it.