Words and Music

Beckett Suite: musical radio drama
Music by Giambattista Giocoli

Performed on radio, in Italy, only in 1980, this work presents a peculiarity: the Music itself is one of the characters and although during the drama Beckett amicably baptizes it Bob, nobody will be able to take away from Music the enviable role of co-protagonist in the performance.
The setting: an old man with a poetic nature, Croak, regularly pays visits to his two servants: Words (also called Joe) and Music (called Bob, as mentioned previously).
With them he has the chance to create musical poems on heterogeneous themes. "This evening fear...love" he shall say to his two servants. However Words and Music don’t get on.
Words would prefer to compose a poem on sloth and especially he never follows Music’s suggestions.
For the first time in his career, Beckett consciously chose to write a piece renouncing the composition of part of one of the characters: indeed Music expresses itself through music. The presence of the human voice and of music are therefore conceived as participating entities that actively take part in the dramatic action.

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