Writing Music For A Dramatic Performance

[leigh]

Hello All,

I may have to write some music to support an actor doing a dramatic reading of between 4 and 6 minutes. The music will be live behind the actor. Instrumentation is 2 violins, 2 celli, viola, double bass, trombone, piano, drums and vibraphone/glockenspiel.

I've never done this kind of coordinated music and drama thing before and would appreciate any suggestions on how to approach this and how to get it to work live. I'm assuming it's similar to doing film cues, which I also have never done.

Thanks.

**Leigh

[daniel.sneed]

A bit off topic, but in case you'll have to play your music from your Mac for first rehearsals :

Actors' time will vary between shows. This is not the case in video.
I usualy use one DP sequence for each music piece or sound effect.
Then set sequences (or so called chunks) to chain in *play enable* mode.
If I'm on stage, I use several momentary footswitches placed where I need them. They'r all daisy chained to my 828mk1 punch-in input. I set my Motu 828mk1 driver to send a play command to DP.
When times come to real public show, I leave only few windows opened : A big real-time counter; a chunk window; the transport window.
If I don't want screen light to bleed on stage, or in the venue, I set monitor to negative display : Ctrl+Alt+Cmd+8.

Just a tip : if you use a long soundfile and select a portion to make a short soundbite from it, DP may take much extra time to chain to next chunk.
Merging this long soundbite should help in this situation.

Each music piece tempo may vary greatly during creation weeks. There's a *fitting process* where music, director and actors are involved.
IMHO DP's hability to handle in a handsome way tempo changes, for MIDI AND audio, is a great feature for dramatic music job.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Hello All,

I may have to write some music to support an actor doing a dramatic reading of between 4 and 6 minutes. The music will be live behind the actor. Instrumentation is 2 violins, 2 celli, viola, double bass, trombone, piano, drums and vibraphone/glockenspiel.

I've never done this kind of coordinated music and drama thing before and would appreciate any suggestions on how to approach this and how to get it to work live. I'm assuming it's similar to doing film cues, which I also have never done.

Thanks.

**Leigh

That is what I do and it is not exactly like a film score. Film is set in stone, in live performance anything can happen and you need to be prepared for it.

I'd say get the actor to record the piece and then (and this is not to be flippant) rehearse, rehearse and rehearse some more. Your biggest issue will be good balance. Timing should be taken care of in the writing process.

Another thing that is different from film is that the actor can wait for the music if you're ahead or behind. Actors are often cooperative, but some (like all humans and small animals) can be a real PITA - so I hope you are getting a "good one" and not a "bad one."