A Musical Analysis of Unsuk Chin's "Mad Tea Party"

Voiceover:
Alice in Wonderland is one of the most popular and well-known fantasy stories of all time. Originally a novel written by English author Lewis Carroll, the story tells of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world inhabited by strange, anthropomorphic creatures. Of her many strange encounters, there is one specific encounter that we will be discussing today: The Mad Tea-Party. In the novel, Alice stumbles upon a “mad” tea party hosted by the March Hare, the Hatter, and the Dormouse. The characters confuse Alice with illogical riddles and stories. The Hatter then states that they have tea all day because Time has punished him by eternally standing still at 6 pm, which is tea time. Alice eventually grows tired and annoyed by the onslaught of unsolvable riddles and leaves, claiming that this was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to. This iconic scene has been adapted into several film versions, including Disney’s 1951 animated feature, and Tim Burton’s more sinister, live-action take in 2010. In both adaptations, the respective music of the scenes play a crucial role in the execution of the story. Building off of Danny Elfman’s haunting score, and Disney’s more kid-friendly “The Unbirthday Song,” there is another piece I believe to be an even more accurate representation of this scene. In 2007, Korean composer Unsuk Chin released an operatic adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, holding its world premiere at the Bavarian State Opera at the 2007 Munich Opera Festival. Take a listen to an excerpt of her “Mad Tea Party.” Before we analyze the piece, let’s take a brief look at Chin herself. Unsuk Chin is a South Korean composer of classical music, based in Berlin, Germany. At a young age, she taught herself piano, as well as music theory. She has been awarded various awards and prizes over the course of her illustrious career, and her works have been performed by world-renowned orchestras and ensembles. Chin names Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Anton Webern, Iannis Xenakis, and Gyorgy Ligetti as 20th-century composers of special importance for her. As we discussed in class, Debussy and Stravinsky were some of the main advocates of the modernist movement, based on the cult of the new and the shocking, that rejected traditions and styles of the past. In music, this was reflected in clear melodies and form breakdowns, with dissonance, atonality, and serialism as some of the key driving factors of modernist pieces. Chin has set music to poems and stories, and playful aspects are quite dominant in her work, as seen in “Mad Tea Party.” Now, to take a more in-depth analysis of the piece, we must first determine the instruments involved. As we can see, the piece is performed by an orchestra, and is driven by the string, woodwind, and percussion sections. The rapid bowing of the violins, violas, and cellos as well as the fluttering breaths of the woodwinds contribute to the portrayal of the fantastical setting of the story. Listeners can imagine themselves as guests at the Mad Hatter’s loony gathering. Although the piece does sound quite haphazard and disorderly, there are certain sections within it that are actually quite conveniently discernable. For example, the piece begins with a sharp whistle that leads into a heavily violin-driven melody. (0:00-0:17) This melody is actually a ritornello, that reappears around the 1:40 mark of the piece. The string and woodwinds sections rapidly build into a staccato and pizzicato section that is rapidly cut by another sharp whistle at the 1:02 mark. From here to 1:40, the woodwind section enters, and is accompanied by random horn flares and sliding strings. The piece literally spirals into madness, and the woodwind section plays a rapidly changing part, oscillating by step throughout scales. The strings and percussion sections build the piece, until we return to the ritornello violin part at 1:40. However, this isn’t the same violin part as before, as around the 1:53 mark, the violins start to spiral out of control. The piece builds and builds, as all the orchestral instruments make their entrances, layering the chaotic and intense musical scene. This piece is played in the 5th scene of the opera, when Alice meets the Mad Hatter. The aforementioned instruments come together busily, to perfectly portray the hyperactive environment of our story. To conclude, the 2007 production was hailed as “World Premiere of the Year” by German opera magazine Opernwelt. If anything, much social pressure would have been applied to this performance, as it was a starting step for a passionate composer and was heralded with such a grand title by the press. Also, adapting a widely successful literary work is quite a daunting task, which Chin accomplishes with much ease and virtuosity.