So the recording session went REALLY well, it's hours later and I'm still high on the joy of it all. The process of creating music with talented and sensitive people is totally engaging and rewarding and fulfilling for me. Starting at 9am was counter-intuitive perhaps, but worked...
Picture this: 5 improvising musicians huddled in a circle of music stands, mike stands, headphones and cords, with the director of the play just one small step back from the circle, but still a part of it. Two violins, cello, upright bass, and electric piano. First we played the piece that will be heard last in the play, a beautiful ballad of counterpoint and texture, in order to "warm up", check levels, get used to wearing the headphones, etc. The trick (at least with acoustic instruments like we're playing) is to slip the headphones off one ear, or partway off both ears, so you can hear yourself and the others "live" as well as hear what is in the mix.
Next we did the "soundscape" moments, 5 to 10 seconds worth of various whispering, scarey, tense, and ethereal ideas, to be used when the lights dim and characters switch places on stage.
The director would ask for something less scarey, and we'd have another go at it. For ethereal, the pianist was noting that we ended up in C major, I maintained this was because I started us off on an open fifth drone of c and g. Very little discussion of what to do, just the doing of it, the creating together, following the cues and hints of each other's playing...
Then we tackled each character's theme music in turn, creating several versions of some of them: scattered then jubilant, sad then frantic. Signaling each other with eyebrow lifts, which worked great except when the other violinist had his eyes closed. "I was in a trance" he said.
The main male character's theme the director and I had decided would start with solo cello, and we did a version of it with the two violins and cello all playing in octave unison, piano and bass making up the chords (because I hadn't gotten that far with the composing process!). Another theme featured the violin playing longer notes above a swirling of short phrases woven around each other and repeating endlessly in minimalist fashion. The main female character's theme was a halting, hesitant rendition of a slow jazz ballad I wrote, with chords not coming quite in the right place, to illustrate her attempts to be "normal" and to cope, not quite working.
Music is something else, isn't it? Now I need to get back into the independent film I'm attempting to score.
Picture this: 5 improvising musicians huddled in a circle of music stands, mike stands, headphones and cords, with the director of the play just one small step back from the circle, but still a part of it. Two violins, cello, upright bass, and electric piano. First we played the piece that will be heard last in the play, a beautiful ballad of counterpoint and texture, in order to "warm up", check levels, get used to wearing the headphones, etc. The trick (at least with acoustic instruments like we're playing) is to slip the headphones off one ear, or partway off both ears, so you can hear yourself and the others "live" as well as hear what is in the mix.
Next we did the "soundscape" moments, 5 to 10 seconds worth of various whispering, scarey, tense, and ethereal ideas, to be used when the lights dim and characters switch places on stage.
The director would ask for something less scarey, and we'd have another go at it. For ethereal, the pianist was noting that we ended up in C major, I maintained this was because I started us off on an open fifth drone of c and g. Very little discussion of what to do, just the doing of it, the creating together, following the cues and hints of each other's playing...
Then we tackled each character's theme music in turn, creating several versions of some of them: scattered then jubilant, sad then frantic. Signaling each other with eyebrow lifts, which worked great except when the other violinist had his eyes closed. "I was in a trance" he said.
The main male character's theme the director and I had decided would start with solo cello, and we did a version of it with the two violins and cello all playing in octave unison, piano and bass making up the chords (because I hadn't gotten that far with the composing process!). Another theme featured the violin playing longer notes above a swirling of short phrases woven around each other and repeating endlessly in minimalist fashion. The main female character's theme was a halting, hesitant rendition of a slow jazz ballad I wrote, with chords not coming quite in the right place, to illustrate her attempts to be "normal" and to cope, not quite working.
Music is something else, isn't it? Now I need to get back into the independent film I'm attempting to score.
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