Paul Clark
Photo: Bella Eacott

Paul, you have worked both in the UK and Germany within quite different institutional contexts – you are co-director of your own theatre company, Clod Ensemble, have composed music for theatre and opera at institutions such as Opera North or the National Theatre but have also experienced the German ›Stadt and Staatstheater‹, the municipal theatre system in Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg, so I am intrigued to talk to you about your experiences from outside and inside of German ›Theatermusik‹. What do you call your work in relation to theatre? Incidental music?

Paul Clark: It depends on the piece. With Clod Ensemble’s work it wouldn’t be the right word at all. That work is often driven by a score, and often has no spoken text at all. But perhaps with naturalistic plays like, eg., Fräulein Julie¹, those kind of very text-based straight narratives you could call my contribution ‘Incidental music’. The music tends to be very much supporting that text. But I try to avoid all the terminology and just say ‘music’. In a recent piece I did with Katie Mitchell, Cleansed², the music was, you could say, a loud colour in...