Beckett, Music, Intermediality

Abstract

The topic of ‘Beckett and music’ has gained considerable attention in recent years. In previous work I have argued that music in Beckett’s plays does not, as some have suggested, exist beyond or exceed the ambiguities of body, knowledge and subjectivity that are apparent in other aspects of his work, but rather that its use parallels and reinforces these processes. If this kind of intermediality, involving music, operates already in some of Beckett’s work, how does it manifest when musicians work with or in relation to it? This question is addressed through a discussion of John Tilbury’s version of Worstward Ho, for piano, recorded voice and electronics.