File puptcrit/puptcrit.0902, message 692


From: Gregory Ballora <gregballora-AT-sbcglobal.net>
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:07:20 -0800
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Stephen Sondheim


Mies Van der Rohe was also the one to say "less is more", which is  
probably used more in theater now than anywhere else. Van der Rohe is  
responsible for the modern glass and steel sky scraper we now see in  
any big city.
I don't really know his work that well, but my understanding of "God  
is in the details" is really a reference to the power of attention to  
the details. A great idea and broad strokes in a work of art will get  
you far, but to truly approach the sublime, all the parts of the  
creation must be aligned with that one clear vision, and then it may  
become sacred.
Clumsily put, and I don't really remember how I came to this  
interpretation (possibly Prof. Hackett at UCLA) but I like it, and it  
feeds me, so I go with it. I hope other wiser minds out there can  
expand.
I do often find that I hang up on the use of the word God because of  
all the connotations in our current society, but when I substitute  
sacred, I am more open to appreciation.
Greg

On Feb 23, 2009, at 9:35 PM, Steve Abrams wrote:

> To some extent I agree with Alan the phrase "God is in the details"  
> is a cop
> out.
> It is glib and very non-specific, perhaps a sound byte.
>
> But the Sondheim event was like a glorious seminar on theatre.
>
> I might have some sense of what Mr Sondheim meant.I just googled  
> the phrase
> to check-
> "God is in the details" is attributed to Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, the
> modernist, minimalist architect.
>
> Mies work is very disciplined. If you are working with a  very few  
> elements,
> every detail  is of great importance. The same is true in cooking.  
> If your
> dish has only a few ingredients, they should  be of t good quality  
> and very
> carefully prepared. There is no fussy ornamentation to hide behind.
>
> The Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George is about the  
> painter
> George Seurat.
> George is obsessed by his work, and neglects  his long-time mistress.
> Sondheim was asked if the character  of George was  also somewhat
> autobiographical.
> The song that speaks most directly about artistic dedication/  
> isolation/
> obsession/ and reward is "Finishing the Hat." Sondheim said that  
> "finishing
> the hat" was not so much about himself but It was about the creative
> process, and it is something every artist would understand
>
> Another example. Sondheim loves puzzles- a collection of small  
> details where
> everything fits together perfectly at the end- building a song is  
> something
> like that
>
> I think most  performers and audiences love patter songs, songs  
> that are
> lists that are loaded with clever words and rhymes and performed at  
> great
> speed. Such a song will not work if the lyrics use words that do  
> not fit
> together in just the right way. Sondheim's song "(Not) Getting Married
> Today" from Company is perhaps one of the most fiendishly difficult  
> (and
> hilarious) tongue twisters of a song ever written.
> A simple fact- there must be places in such a song for a performer to
> breathe!
>
> Sondheim said that the last third of the song is not quite as good  
> as it
> should be, I think he called it a tangle of spaghetti. Some  
> actress's manage
> to make it work but he said he would sometimes relent, and allow an  
> actress
> to change  a word or 2 in the last third of the song, because the  
> fault was
> his, and not hers.
>
> Steve
>
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 8:23 PM, Alan Cook  
> <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com> wrote:
>
>> I think "God is in the details" means EVERYTHING ELSE INVOLVED. It  
>> is a
>> wonderful cop-out when you only have so much time to talk to an  
>> audience.
>>
>> One can also look at that phrase as a theological shorthand. A lot of
>> "God-fearing people" have a very limited sense of Creation and
>> Creator---rather ironic since they tend to foce narrow beliefs on  
>> the rest
>> of us. Adam & Eve and the Garden of Eden were the center of the  
>> Universe
>> until we learned that the sun did not revolve around Earth.  
>> Rather, it was
>> the other way around. Now we know that Creation is bigger than we  
>> could
>> imagine, that Creation is ongoing, that things as part of the  
>> plan, happy
>> accident, or whatever are changing, and that people can change too.
>>
>> Lots of artists can relate to that & Sondheim is one of them. I see
>> Artistic creation as a Spiritual expression. And some atheist  
>> friends are a
>> hell of a lot more spiritual than some true believers,--- they  
>> have wider
>> more encompassing outlooks, and figure if they are to do good  
>> works it has
>> to be done in a single lifetime instead of an afterlife.
>>
>> Heaven is supposed to be UP, but which way is UP from a round  
>> planet? If we
>> make it to Heaven, do we have to dodge meteors & comets and  
>> defunct space
>> debris?
>>
>> So definitely, "God is in the details". You can spend the rest of  
>> your life
>> looking into those details. No reason to be bored when there are  
>> so many
>> questions to ask, and solutions to discover.
>>
>> ALAN
>>
>>
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