Translating comedic materials into music

Abstract

This commentary is an engagement with comedy through the translation of comedic materials into music. The written commentary is an accompaniment to, and analysis of, selected works I composed from 2019-22. As a response to lack of existing framework for comedy in music, I develop a new one intended for use in my own practice as a composer and performer. By looking at existing writings on humour in music and general humour theory, I identify criteria for an original framework for the translation of comedic materials into music. I devise three categories for this enquiry, which offer three distinct perspectives. Each ‘lens’ draws on theory stemming beyond the field of musicology (semantics, aesthetics, psychology), analyses of comedy examples (jokes, comedians, clowns), examples of comedic materials in existing music works, and contextualisation of my own work. I have made the framework deliberately broad with the intention of accommodating the practice of other composers and performers working with similar materials. I also offer new terminology specific to these translations, with some applicable more generally to humour, that may be utilised in the study of humour by musicologists.

Each ‘lens’ comprises a different chapter of the commentary. The first is on pun mechanisms, where I outline a comic mechanism from the field of semantics for the translation of puns into music. The lens of interruptions is a focus on improvised timing through the translation of an everyday device. I consider terminology from Interruption Science and explore its applicability to comedy and music. The final chapter on comic archetypes is a consideration of music specific comic roles that contribute significantly to the performance of comedic music. I draw upon ideas from aesthetic theory and modernist philosophy to outline four music specific comic roles and plot music works within the diagram I devise. Works are assessed throughout for their humorous effect and for their merit beyond humour, with both scored instrumental works and intermedial compositions.

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Identifiers

ORCID for James Christopher Oldham: orcid.org/0000-0001-6023-9337

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