PHOTOS from my HARLEKIN performances and a note of the piece
The character of Harlequin (Arlecchino) is one of the main figures of commedia dell’arte, the Italian improvised theatre, established around 1550, and developed over several centuries into one of the strongest and most influential styles of stage performance. Harlequin is unquestionably one of the most recognizable characters and definitely an amusing figure. Many of his characteristics come from his physical attributes. He is, by nature, an extremely agile acrobat, a dancer and a tumbler, and dance is certainly his native medium, especially in the very early commedia dell’arte style. Over the ages he transformed from a basic farm servant, a poltroon and a foolish peasant, into a more developed and entertaining character, and this is how he remained in the public’s collective consciousness: a witty joker, occupying the triangle defined by clown, dancer, and mime.
Karlheinz Stockhausen wrote the piece HARLEKIN for American clarinetist Suzanne Stephens in 1975. The composition is a 45-minutes long stage piece for clarinet solo, and it requires from the performer not only playing the whole music from memory, but also moving, dancing and acting on the stage according to the very precise composer’s directions. For the premiere performance, in December 1975, Stockhausen wrote in a programme note: The traditional figure of HARLEQUIN is reborn in a new form: a clarinet player. HARLEQUIN is now completely a musician. Coming from the heights, he unwinds out of a spiral until – kneeling directly in front of the audience – he presents his entire melody. He then winds upwards into the heights, again in the form of a spiral.
Out of the enchanted dream messenger awake one after another the playful constructor, the enamoured lyric, the pedantic teacher, the roguish joker, the passionate dancer, and finally the exalted spinning spirit with his bird cries.
Seven sections can be distinguished within the whole composition. Stockhausen provided names for these after completing the whole piece, but he always conceived of the work as a whole, and never intended it to be performed with any internal pauses, let alone an intermission. The seven sections correspond to phases of the piece, but they “must follow one another continuously without pauses or drastic character changes” (composer’s commentary to the score). Also, as Stockhausen indicates, none of the component sections may be played separately. The sections of HARLEKIN are:
Der Traumbote (The Dream Messenger)
Der spielerische Konstrukteur (The Playful Constructor)
Der verliebte Lyriker (The Enamoured Lyric Poet)
Der pedantische Lehrer (The Pedantic Teacher)
Der spitzbübische Joker (The Roguish Joker)
Der leidenschaftliche Tänzer (the Passionate Dancer)
Der exaltierte Kreiselgeist (The Exalted Spinning Spirit)
The poetic names of these sections refer in some way to the main typology of commedia dell’arte characters. We could associate them, respectively, with: Pierrot, Brighella, The Young Lover, Dottore, Pulcinella, Colombina, and Harlequin himself. However, the seven “faces” of Harlequin were added to the already existing piece, and are supposed to reflect only the general character of the music in particular parts of the composition. They probably don’t have a deep meaning in terms of historical connections with commedia dell’arte, but they definitely direct the performer to focus on an adequate interpretation, and help the audience by encouraging its members to enlist appropriate cultural categories as a way of understanding what is going on in terms of music and movement.
I heard of HARLEKIN the first time years ago, when studying in Kraków, Poland. However, although fascinating and tempting, the piece always seemed to be beyond my abilities. It was only last summer that I came back to the idea of facing this composition. And although extremely challenging in many ways, HARLEKIN also gave me a lot of fun and pleasure while working on it. The process of preparation was very intense. Stockhausen’s immense care for details resulted in a score loaded with precise directions. Every single note, its duration, articulation, and dynamic is written down, as well as every dance step and most of the theatrical movements. Yet, the more I worked on the piece, the more I discovered possibilities for my own interpretation, and this gave me the great opportunity to create a new face of HARLEKIN, my own. I prepared my performance under the guidance of Cris Inguanti, the assistant principal clarinetist of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Susan Bertoia, an actress and artistic director of BellaLuna Theatre.
Kasia Marczak