Author: Naomi French

As part of the role of a sound designer, my job is to edit the sound files. Below is a picture of the separate sound files I uploaded to Audacity which I recorded using a Auna mic 900b USB Cardioid studio condenser mic. One of the top tips for editing sound and music is, ‘if the tracks are available, lay down each effect on its own track’ (Kaye and LeBrecht, 2009, 112). So I cut each individual recording of the five separate voices into their own track to layer and overlap each other.

The reason each track is layered on top of each other is to reflect the build-up of anguish and tension between the wife and husband (Kirsty and Michael) which was shown through the increasingly distressed physical theatre presented on stage.

Lots of factors had to be taken into consideration when recording vocals; the proximity to the mic, the consistency between recording different voices, volume and noise control within the room. I also edited together the voice recording of Michael at the beginning of the ribbon sequence. Sound Designer Ross Brown talks about how sound files can be used ‘to create a mood in the audience so that they interpret the narrative or scene in a different way’ (Brown, 2010, 145). The reason the voice over sounds quite fragmented is because I want to reflect to the audience the sense of disjointed, jumbled thoughts that are going on in his brain, as he tries to comprehend what the doctor is telling him about Encephalitis.

Above is a picture taken from our final performance, where Michael slowly begins to remember his music again, and regains the memories of playing the piano. Music is chosen on the whole as an underscore to compliment the scene. If the levels of music are not correct, it could be ‘distracting the audience and detracting from the performance of the actor’ (Leonard, 2001, 121). This is why the director and I have made an executive decision to use only instrumental music because we did not want lyrics to detract the audience’s attention from the content of the scene. Overall, I am very proud of the final performance we have achieved as a Theatre Company. It raised awareness for Encephalitis, it spoke to each audience member individually and although the overall performance was subtle and understated, this worked to our advantage in telling a story of love, music and memory loss.

 

-Naomi

 

 

Works cited

Brown, R. (2010) Sound: A reader in theatre practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kaye, D. and LeBrecht, J. (2009) Sound and Music for the Theatre: The Art and Technique of Design. Oxford: Elsevier.

Leonard, J. A (2001) Theatre Sound. London: A and C Black (Publishers) Limited.

Levitin, J. D (2006) This is your brain on music. London: Penguin Books Ltd.

As part of the piece, I want to incorporate Michael playing piano on stage as well, to bring a sense of realism to the story, the fact that the man in the play can still remember to play piano, even though he suffers from severe Amnesia. The reason this particular piece of music was chosen is because of its simplistic, yet haunting and captivating melody. One of the outstanding things about Encephalitis is although the memory is severely impaired, and yet their memory of music and how to play the piano are intact, ‘the brain’s music system appears to operate with functional independence from the language system’ (Levitin, 2006, 127). It is indeed a daunting prospect at the thought of learning a song on piano, for someone who had never played piano before. The piece of music I have chosen is John Tavener’s The Lamb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2V9lE_FxK8

The reason for this was because Tavener is a well-known classical composer, so I want to bring some variety of musical genre into the show. Although it was a relatively simplistic melody, by the end of the hour, we managed to add in chords on the left hand as well as playing the melody on the right. Michael has never played piano before and he picked it all up in the hour which was incredible!

We started off first with the basics, learning the melody on the right hand. We did it note by note, slowly adding on a new note every time with Michael copying me 2 octaves below, continuing this method until he had picked it up. The main challenge was holding on the different notes for different counts, so introduced the pedal which sustains the note for longer. We then went on to learn just the left hand melody and split it into three sections. For an aid for Michael I placed small blank stickers on the piano with either the first or second chord he was meant to play. The two chords were G major and D major so the G major chord had #1 written on, and the D major chord had #2 on it. This made it much easier for Michael to differentiate between the notes. I have made a decision that it is best to leave out the slightly discordant harmonies from the beginning of the original song, as it is going to be played over some happy emotive text spoken by one of the cast members playing the wife.

-Naomi

 

Works Cited

Levitin, J. D (2006) This is your brain on music. London: Penguin Books Ltd.

Tavener, J. (1996) The Lamb. [online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2V9lE_FxK8 [Accessed 28^th April 2015]

I have recently been researching into the music I want to use in the performance now we have found our concept. Through the music and the voice overs, the audience should be immersed within the experience of the performance; ‘the shape of sound is round and I am in the middle’ (Brown, 2010, 141). I have specifically chosen tracks that accomplish just that, encompassing the audience to accompany the scene. Below, I have linked my current Spotify playlist that either has tracks being used in the actual performance or songs that I have been inspired by.  In the playlist, there are a range of different genres of music from drum and bass for the faster, upbeat tempo physical theatre sequences, classical, instrumental, minimalist beats, and acoustic music. Each track has been chosen for a specific reason because ‘music is an exceptionally emotionally rich and engaging sensory stimulus’ (Agustus et al, 2015, 232). Therefore, I have chosen quite a number of instrumental piano songs as the piano is such a emotional, thought provoking and gentle yet dramatic instrument. One of the pieces I am aim to use in the final ending song is Call to the Dance by Michael Jones. With the melody in a major key, the piece uses only the higher end of the octave notes which evokes memories happy, playful times, due to its fun, almost magical feel to it, truly capturing the name of the piece.

Throughout our piece, we have chosen to incorporate a lot of physical theatre sequences to portray the story of the relationship. During one of the scenes, we have taken inspiration from Frantic Assembly’s ‘Chair Duets’; ‘a very physical scene of touches, embraces, flirtations and rejections’ (Graham and Hoggett, 2009, 141). After this scene progressed and changed in rehearsals, I tried out what it would be like to have the movement sequence in silence the contrast the scene that preceded it; a heavily fast up-beat drum and bass. It was indeed very effective, subtle and understated which is what this scene showed. An important point that Kendrick and Roesner raise in Theatre Noise is ‘how loudly the absence of sound can ‘speak’ (Kendrick and Roesner, 2011, xix). It forces the audience to focus on what is happening on stage through the stillness and sometimes this can be more effective than having music for the sake of it.

-Naomi.

 

Works Cited

Agustus, J. L Mahoney, C. J Downey, L. E Omar, R. Cohen, M. Warren, J. D White, M. J Mancini, L. Scott, S. K (2015) Functional MRI of music emotion in frontotemporal dementia. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1337 (1) 232-240.

Brown, R. (2010) Sound: A reader in theatre practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2009) The Frantic Assembly book of devising theatre. London: Routledge.

Kendrick, L. and Roesner, D. (2011) Theatre Noise: The Sound of Performance. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars publishing.

 

 

From the outset, it is clear as a company that we were agreed on what we want to achieve in our final performance, we want to make the audience feel something. In order to make it memorable and dynamic we want to include lighting, using the stories of real people, incorporating physical theatre and also the use of live and recorded music to underpin the piece which is my main role; the sound designer.  The primary role of a sound designer is to ‘help establish the emotional atmosphere in which the scene occurs’ (Kaye and LeBrecht, 2009, 226). Early on in the process, we wanted to get as much inspiration as we could from professional theatre companies. After seeing Paper Birds incredible and moving performance of Broke at Lincoln’s Drill Hall, I met with the Musical Director afterwards. I discussed with him different techniques and top tips that musical and sound designers should incorporate, and the one thing I found the most useful was the fact that there should be a reason for having the piano on stage. As part of our production, we want to incorporate live music on stage on stage, and by having a piano it will bring a further dynamic for the audience to engage with. As part of my role as sound designer, I have started to explore the kind of pieces of music I want to use.

During this week’s rehearsals, we began to devise our opening, a movement/physical theatre sequence based on a practical task we explored in rehearsal; writing a letter to someone you know you could never actually send. Today we experimented with intertwining our solo movements with pair movements; creating multiple stories on stage for the audience to interpret. In order to reflect the mood of the scene, I gave Michael (the director) a piece of music that had a more uplifting feel to it.

Onde Corte by Ludovico Einaudi:

After listening to it, and trying it out with the scene we had created, it became clear that we needed something that builds in dramatic and then returns to becoming gentler again to reflect the increase in anguish. So I carried on researching into different artists, and came across Imogen Heap.

You Know Where to Find Me by Imogen Heap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sXnAly79G4

Both pieces of music allow a story to unfold through the piano melody. As Brown mentions ‘hearing is a sense that immerses us in the world, vision is a sense that removes us from it’ (Brown, 2010, 211).  Specifically, the melody of the Einaudi piece is based on one repeated phrase that changes key half way through. The simplistic yet beautiful runs of the melody evoke memories and feelings of warmth and joy. Although the Einaudi piece does not fit in with the opening scene, I want to incorporate in somewhere throughout because it is such a beautiful piece of music.

-Naomi

 

Works cited

Brown, R. (2010) Sound: A reader in theatre practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

Einaudi, L. (1996) Onde Corte [online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B1Nt3TE8EU [Accessed 19th February 2015].

Heap, I. (2014) You Know Where to Find Me (Instrumental) [online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sXnAly79G4 [Accessed 19^th February 2015]

Kaye, D. and LeBrecht, J. (2009) Sound and Music for the Theatre: The Art and Technique of Design. Oxford: Elsevier.