Search - Teiji Ito :: King Ubu

Teiji Ito is most famous for his sound work with pioneering filmmaker Maya Deren; but here, on the score for a 1961 production of Alfred Jarry's absurdist classic Ubu Roi (King Ubu), he hits one of his many creative peaks. But the score to King Ubu is not used to mimic the intended atrocities within the play. Instead, Ito builds a network of strictly rhythmic whistle sounds and percussion of all types (drawing from Haitian voodoo drumming and Japanese Noh theatre) in order to propel the action along. But when the play launches into the realm of melody and Ito follows, watch out. The familiar is rendered disturbingly and enchantingly unfamiliar: "Beer Barrel Polka" and "Tea for Two" are charming and haphazard, with xylophone, pipe, clarinet, and ukulele twisting brilliantly, lurching and seasick. Which is quite apropos for a play about corruption--of the State and of the body. --Robin Edgerton