Sean and I (The Mad Man's Laughter) have been hired by Pig Iron Theater to provide original composition and sound design for their upcomming production "Love Unpunished." Details on the actual vision of this production will follow in time, but for now, lets say that the set consists of a gigantic stairwell that resembles those found in... american skyscrapers...
Certain words seem to be thrown around quite comfortably now, including...
meditation on death. prayer.
So Sean and I took a trip to a VT college where Sean's incredible friend hooked us up with some amazing studio space. The first night we played in an auditorium the size of a basketball court. I didn't think much of it at first, but I began to feel a strange comfort and energy while simply being present. I finally took a moment to really look around and noticed that the entire place was made of beautiful wooden panels which stretched from floor to the hundred foot ceiling. It reminded me of the orchestral studios I've seen in pictures of the 1950s NBC symphony.
The gods couldn't have been more generous as there was a collection of handmade instruments which were gathered for an upcomming celebration for the late composer who had crafted them. Every once in a while a chime would ring on its own, or a string would vibrate without us touching it, and we couldn't help but smile thinking that the spirit of that old composer was watching us with pleasure.
We wrote a piece for three parts which was based on a 66 beat cycle. This was performed on gamelan style instruments-- microtone vibrations and all. Practicing the cycle for two hours put us all in a very comfortable, focused frame of mind which proved to be particularly effective come our improvisation time.
Among other things, we improvised on three timpani, vibes, chimes, gongs, strange 20ft banjos strung with piano strings, and of course, piano.
The music is very beautiful and interesting and I can't wait to write more about this as the process continues. I will say that I believe that the future of this project looks fertile enough to produce what I may consider my first piece of public art.
1 comment:
I was careful not to drop names of the college or the name of the composer since I'm not sure if we had full permission to be there and I would not want to make any trouble for our friend who allowed us in. But no, it was not Henry Partch.
The anthology version of "You know my name" is in fact "awesome." I'm a fan of the mumbled british aristocracy near the end.
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