SAMUEL BECKETT, BEETHOVEN

Portrait of Samuel Beckett by Reginald Gray, painted in Paris, 1961

Επιμέλεια: Christos Sipsis

 13/2/2015

Beethoven, Piano Trio in D major, Op.70 No.1 "Ghost" (Σχόλιο 1)
Samuel Beckett., Ghost Trio (television play) (σχόλιο 2)
Ghost Trio is a television play, written in English by Samuel Beckett. It was written in 1975, taped in October 1976 and the first broadcast was on BBC2 on 17 April 1977 as part of the Lively Arts programme Beckett himself entitled Shades. Donald McWhinnie directed (supervised by Beckett) with Ronald Pickup and Billie Whitelaw. The play’s original title was to be Tryst. "On Beckett’s notebook, the word was crossed out vigorously and the new title Ghost Trio written next to it. On the title page of the BBC script the same handwritten title change can be found, indicating that it must have been corrected at the very last minute."
It was first published in Journal of Beckett Studies 1 (Winter 1976) and then collected in Ends and Odds (Grove Press, 1976; Faber, 1977).
Its three ‘acts’ reflect Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Trio (Opus 70, #1), known as The Ghost because of the slightly spooky mood of the second movement, Largo. The passages selected by Beckett are from the "ghostly" second theme.
Geistertrio, directed by Beckett was recorded by Süddeutscher Rundfunk, Stuttgart in May 1977 with Klaus Herm and Irmgard Först and broadcast 1 November 1977.
The idea for the piece dates back to 1968. At the time, whilst Beckett was working on the French translation of Watt, he had the first glimmerings of an idea for another television play. He discussed this with Josette Hayden who made the following note, which is probably all that remains of the original sketch:
A man is waiting, reading a newspaper, looking out of the window, etc., seen first at distance, then again in close-up, and the close-up forces a very intense kind of intimacy. His face, gestures, little sounds. Tired of waiting he ends up getting into bed. The close-up enters into the bed. No words or very few. Perhaps just a few murmurs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Trio_(play)

The music
There are seven excerpts from Beethoven’s Piano Trio heard in the play. Beckett indicates precisely where they come in according to the camera movements:
I.13; beginning bar 47: faint music, for five seconds, the recapitulation of the second motif of the opening subject, the ghostly haunting theme. Music linked to the camera’s focus upon the door.
I.23; beginning bar 49: "a more dissonant and highly charged version of the motif, with the main rising interval or the melodic line being greater, thus producing greater tension." Again the music is linked to the door.
I.31; beginning bar 19: as at I.13, but with piano accompaniment, with crescendo, increasing harmonic tension, rising pitch, and a stretto effect as motifs overlap.
Beethoven's Piano Trio Opus 70, No 1, 2nd movement, bars 19-25, violin
II.26-29; beginning bar 64: a parallel passage, a recapitulation of that used in I.31-34, but with the stretto effect beginning earlier, and so greater tension
II.35,36; beginning bar 71: like the previous passage, but with the "ghostly" theme overlapping itself, with more movement on the piano part.
III.1,2,4,5; beginning bar 26: again a recapitulation, the equivalent passage to bar 71; marginally more restful since the rising intervals are all octaves.
III.29; beginning bar 64: the same music as II.26, but this time the footsteps are heard and the boy appears.
III.36; beginning bar 82: the music grows as the camera moves in; this is the coda, the end of the movement.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Trio_(play)