for string quartet and digital playback
Christopher Theofanidis and Mark Wingate, Composers
Maura Hooper, Actress
I. Extroverted
II. Edgy
III. Mercurial
IV. Noble
V. Very fast
VI. Euphoric
Duration: 15 minutes
What is the Word? is based on Samuel Beckett’s last poem of the same name, which was written in response to his own late encounter with aphasia. The actress, Billie Whitelaw, once said of Samuel Beckett’s work, “I looked at his work like music, and to me it was rhythm and pauses, and lack of pauses.” This approach guided Mark’s and my own musical response, and our piece begins with the reading of the original poem in its entirety and unfolds over six subsequent movements which combine the abstracted voice with the quartet in a highly interactive and surreal way.
In the Beckett, the aphasic search for ‘the word’ becomes something which itself spins off rhythm and phrase in a kind of virtuosic dance, the text moving along a spectrum between meaning and pure musical sound. Music, then, seemed to us the natural way to amplify this search for this intersection of sound and meaning.
—Christopher Theofanidis and Mark Wingate, composers
“What is the Word” by Samuel Beckett
Used by arrangement with Georges Borchardt, Inc.
On behalf of the Estate of Samuel Beckett. All Rights Reserved.
Biography