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This thesis is a cross-disciplinary investigation of how music and theatre interact and proposes a framework of terms for the analysis of music within the theatrical misè-en-scene (Chapter Two). As original research, this framework is proposed as appropriate for two scholarship disciplines, theatrical performance studies and performed music, as these relate both to reception and to artistic intention. The framework is also proposed as a practical means of communication between these two artistic practices. Within this framework, music is analyzed according to four broad processes: music as structure; music as intervention; cinematic music; and music as engagement. Drawing on scholarship in film music (e.g. Gorbman 1987), performance studies (e.g. Auslander 2006; McAuley 2000) and cultural and theoretical musicology (e.g. Scruton 1999; Frith 1996), it identifies and discusses the common uses of music in theatre, arguing that there are six frames under which the function of music can be considered: emotional, diegetic, metadiegetic, temporal, spatial and formal. The elements of music contributing to this framing (tonal content, formal structure, timbre, signal processing, improvisation and genre) are also considered. The framework of terms (abbreviated to how, what, why) is applied in reception of script-based performance (Chapter Three), within the physical text of circus performance (Chapter Four) and, by contrast, in one artistic process of production (Chapter Five). The "visual object" of music is also discussed, examining how the musician in performance can be theorized within the theatrical context (Chapter Six). While genres such as opera and musical theatre are commonly studied, there is less scholarship considering theatre in which music is "incidental" (Savage 2001; Pavis 1998). But in the hybrid practices of contemporary performance that encompass both the script-driven play and the complex set of practices that can be considered as "physical theatre", the analysis of the role of music should be considered integral, rather than "incidental". [author summary]

This article considers the nature of acrobatic performances in Ottoman Turkey, as represented in illustrated records of circumcision ceremonies. The circumcision of the sons of the Sultans Murad III in 1582 and Ahmed III in 1720 were the occasions for weeks of festivities, including parades and presentations by guild craftsmen, interspersed with other entertainments, such as music, dancing and various acrobatic entertainments. These two circumcision ceremonies were documented in lavishly illustrated histories, part of a growing tradition of Ottoman historiography, consisting of exquisite miniature paintings accompanied by text.

Although a century and a half separate these two celebrations, the snapshot they present of entertainments indicate both the continuity of types of acrobatic performances and their development. The illustrated records of these celebrations also reveal acrobatic traditions that combine performances familiar in early modern Europe and which continued into the development of the early modern circus, alongside performances that are now usually associated with the Chinese acrobatic tradition. [editor summary]

The hippodrama existed as a popular spectacle during the nineteenth century, an entertainment marrying the equestrian acts that were staples of the early modern circus with a grander narrative purpose. As such it was denigrated by the guardians of ‘legitimate drama,’ such as Leigh Hunt, as an example of the triumph of the taste of the masses over the claims of the intellect. Within circus, equestrian performances waned in importance during the twentieth century, ceding prominence to wild animal and spectacular aerial acts. While animal performance within circus has also declined, there has been a recent resurgence of equestrian companies. In the contemporary equestrian spectacle the relationship of horse with human is radically re-defined, based on an ‘equal’ or ‘reciprocal’ sharing of the theatrical space, emphasising non-human animal agency and de-emphasising suggestions of coercion. Yet these spectacles retain strong traces of the traditional divisions of equestrian acts within the circus, from the formal movements of Haute École to ‘liberty’ acts. This article investigates the shifting narratives surrounding -the contemporary equestrian spectacle. [editor summary]

John Bill Ricketts is generally credited as the founder of American circus, setting up a circus in Philadelphia in 1793. This paper examines evidence from Ricketts’ early career in England and Scotland and argues that the successful transplant of the early modern circus form initiated by Philip Astley into America rested on Ricketts’ experiences with a small circus in Edinburgh, established by the equestrian performers George Jones and William Parker. Not only did this circus provide a repertoire and a business model which Ricketts replicated in his American circuses but, crucially provided him with a network of experienced performers whom he subsequently employed. Ricketts has often been presented in terms redolent of the myth of the self-made man, an individual single-handedly forging his way to success, a myth that has particular resonance in the American context, and is particularly attractive in a founder figure. His achievements in America, though, were enabled through lineage and collaboration. The first circus in America owed much to the first circus in Scotland. [editor summary]

Circus is a global entertainment form, which, as it is not reliant on the spoken word, has easily incorporated performers of different nationalities. Yet its institutional roots are within a dominant Euro-American form and as a spectacle it is heavily reliant on music. This article discusses the historical role of music within the dominant Euro-American circus tradition and argues that this role has remained remarkably constant. Historically, circus music has been both reflective of what is popular and also, through the use of the wind band, constitutive of the popular. Its characteristic musical structures and instrumentation shape the nature of the circus spectacle. Circus music performs both emotional and cultural reassurance, and, it is argued, has an important role in the construction of a cultural ‘Other’, through its musical assimilation of Chinese and Japanese acrobats. Kim Baston lectures in circus history and culture at The National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) in Melbourne, Australia , where she also leads the clown band. She is a member of Windjammers, an American organisation dedicated to the performance of traditional circus music and works professionally within circus, theatre and film as director, musical director, and composer. [editor summary]