A Matter of Interpretation

A Matter of Interpretation

By Bobby Neal Winters

Interpretation is a craft that mostly goes unnoticed, but if there is no interpretation, art can’t be art.

Recently Jean and I went out to a production of Fiddler on the Roof put on by a Broadway touring company.  I’ve seen the movie before, but this was the first time I’d seen it on stage. If there was one word different between the movie and the stage play, I didn’t notice it.  All the songs were there; all of the dialog was there.

But the two productions were different.  It wasn’t just the difference between a movie and a play.  It was bigger than that. The actors interpreted the characters differently.  

In the movie, Topol interprets Tevye as being someone who is very intelligent, but simply uneducated but who desires learning above all else. The Tevye in this stage production took it a different way.  Tevye is not an idiot, but he’s not as smart as the one portrayed by Topol in the movie. This is not due to one actor being better than the other; it’s simply a choice.

A play is just words on a page.  To have meaning, it must be interpreted.  In something like a play, the actors, possibly with the help of a director, do the interpretation.  It goes in through the eyes, is processed in the soul, and comes out on the stage.

I am listening to an audiobook with the title “The Philosophy of Modern Song.”  Don’t let the word “philosophy” in the title turn you off.  The book is written by Bob Dylan and is a collection of essays each of which focuses on a particular song by a particular artist. (If you do a search for the book title on YouTube, you will find a list of the songs.)  I am about a third of the way through now, and I’ve found no particular order, grouping, or commonality among the songs.  Perhaps there will be a summary at the end.

What we do get, however, is Dylan’s interpretation of these songs.  Dylan provides a lens with which we can examine this art.  I say lens, but as a whole, it is a telescope.  There is the lens of the songwriter who looks at reality and interprets; then there is the singer who interprets the words on the page; then there is Dylan interpreting the singer.

The abstract mathematical model for communication has three parts. The first part is the sender who sends the message. The final part is the receiver who receives the message.  That is straightforward and self-explanatory. Between them is the channel.

Mathematically we often talk about a noiseless channel or a noisy channel, but when we bring in an interpreter it is something different.

The interpreter fits where the channel does, between the sender and the receiver.  Technically speaking, the interpreter does add noise, but depending upon the skill of the interpreter, the so-called noise might be added-value.

In reference to “Fiddler on the Roof,” the interpretation of the actors can either amplify or mute.  In the flat words on the page, the conflict between Tevye and Golde is there.  In the movie we see that somewhat, but it is muted to a certain extent.  In the stage production, we see Tevye and Golde are in fact at war.  Ironically, this is made most clear in the song “Do you love me?” at the very climax of the song. 

Tevye: Do you love me?

Golde: I suppose I do.

Tevye: Then I suppose I love you too.

One might not realize the infinity of ways “suppose” can be pronounced nor the effect on the meaning until one hears the actors say the word.  They love each other, but they are at war.

There is the interpretation of the writer, the interpretation of the actor, the interpretation of the painter, but there is also the interpretation of the critic.

Each of these is a lens and the quality they bring to the coloring of the lens might be given the name “Soul.” Soul is the cumulative effect of the miles one has walked, the shoes worn, and the quality of the road.

A book like “The Philosophy of Modern Song” written by someone like Dylan has a whole different weight and quality than one written by someone without his experience, without his point of view. He’s a poet, a songwriter, and a singer who is acting in the capacity of a critic.  He’s been an interpreter in multiple capacities (remember, he’s been an actor too) who is now sitting in a critic’s chair.  He brings with him credibility in interpreting these songs to us; he brings weight with his point of view.

He’s got enough city-miles on him to make us think he knows what he’s talking about.

The actors in “Fiddler” doubtless have their own preparation in terms of their lives, their experiences, their history, and their beliefs. They bring that in with them, and they offer us the results.

Blessings to them.

Bobby Winters, a native of Harden City, Oklahoma, blogs at redneckmath.blogspot.com and okieinexile.blogspot.com. He invites you to “like'' the National Association of Lawn Mowers on Facebook. Search for him by name on YouTube. )