Theatrimusicality

Situated at the interstices of music and theatre studies, Theatrimusicality: Spectauralising Performance reframes the dynamic interplay of theatricality and musicality and theorises theatrimusicality as a conceptual consequent of analysing contemporary performance practices that lie in the intersection between theatre and music. The book establishes theatrimusicality as a hermeneutic apparatus and a dramaturgical approach to examining these works of the ‘in-between’ that defy neat taxonomies. Examining the co-transformative inter-workings, where the musical frames the theatrical even as the theatrical fashions the musical, Tan demonstrates how theatrimusicality allows new ways of meaning-making and analysis. The book also introduces an accompanying concept of spectaurality, a mode of reception that involves ‘seeing’ musicality and ‘listening’ to theatricality. Encountering performance spectaurally engenders alternative interpretive and affective experiences. Through deep analyses of a range of performances from varying cultures and contexts, Theatrimusicality encourages an appreciation of the co-presence of listening and seeing where perception becomes intertwined and relational.