Music & Sound Design for...

Evolution

I heard back from two of our musician/actor/geniuses today. Here’s what our soprano, Sepidah Moafi had to say

“I was wondering if we could experiment with raising Under the Greenwood Tree by a Major 3rd. I sang through it a bit today, and wanted to know what you think. I like the A Major version, but I feel a little more comfy in a C Major. I am also exhausted from no sleep for the past 2 weeks, so maybe when I get a good night’s rest it’ll be a different story. I want to play more with the A Major, and if you are ok with it, with C Major as well :)

For Blow Blow, I wanted to actually experiment with a ‘c’ minor. Reason being that I wanted to mainly work with my belt voice in this piece for a nicer jazzy feel, and ‘d’ minor sits a little high for my easy belt (there’s an intimate feel about this piece and I don’t want it to sound too broadway belt-ish). Also, Are you ok with me playing with ornamentation and improvisation on the end of the piece?”

Sepidah, you can download your revised charts on the sidebatr of this page, and YES ornament and improvise to your hearts content! I can’t wait to hear it! :)

A note  from our accordian player, Adam Yazbeck:

“I am going to fiddle around with different styles and flavors of music and present some examples to Rick and to you as well to see what feels right and what doesn’t fit. Rick mentioned the idea that the exiles are sort of a bohemian, beat neck, political refugee community and that they are always in this world of art/music/poetry. These are the elements that have been purged by this metal, technology, commerce driven culture and so I would love to play around with the idea that music permeates their scenes. Not that music is omni-present, but that there might be sprinklings of it interspersed between lines or actions, or between scenes or crossovers, etc…”

I’m so pumped that I’m working with these folks!!! I think there are good things a brewin’.

Here is my response to Adam:

“As far as other music goes I’m open to whatever Rick feels would be good.  I’d be happy for you to riff on anything I write for the show, The Forester’s Song comes to mind as a riffable tune that might be nice to foreshadow or repeat depending on the scene you wish to underscore. I’m going to be scoring the rest of the forest scenes by doing some heavy quoting of “Greenwood Tree” because it has so many three note melodic structures that can be played with…

If it weren’t for me just changing a section of the “Forrester’s Song” to a sarcastic take on the Wedding March, I’d probably say that I’d steer clear of playing something that anyone in the audience would recognize as I see this bohemian, beatnik group as liking to play songs that they themselves have written or are making up on the spot. I see them as political artists as well as political activists. Kind of like the ragtag group you’ll find at http://www.justseeds.com , but with music instead of painting.

I trust that whatever you, Jonathan, Sepi, and Rick come up with will be right on! I really want to place myself in an assistive role here rather than a directive one since I can’t be in San Jose with you for the next three weeks.”