http://paulpavey.bandcamp.com/album/you-scratch-my-back-ill-scratch-yours
Archives for posts with tag: music
2
There are several instruments that immediately come to mind that will be suitable for this production. I do need to think about as many instruments as possible, within practical limits, to give me as much choice with texture and colour as possible. For example, a piano for all its versatility, drums and percussion for their rhythmic and archaic effects, a flute of sorts (probably a Slovakian Fujara) and quite probably an electric cello (for its combination of real and strange sounds).
I was recently in the gallery ‘Uffizi’ (Florence) and saw in the picture ‘Perseus Freeing Andromeda’ by 16th century artist Piero di Cosimo, an instrument that looked like a cross Hurdy-Gurdy with a Flute/Bombarde.
Given the mythological influence of this scene, I am aiming to capture some of its resounding imagery in elements of my musical score. In the forthcoming blogs I will present some video clips of my early ideas and themes.
Now an understanding between the director and myself has been found regarding creative desires and needs, I now turn to think more specifically about the musical styles for this production. As with most theatre productions that I write for, the music will take several formats. These formats include sound effects (which are usually recorded), recorded music and live music.
Both the recorded and live music is further divided into underlying atmospheric music (designed to enhance the mood of a given situation), thematic music (designed to announce certain characters or activities), songs (often sung by one of the performers but may also be performed by myself) and functional rhythmic music (designed for use with movement and action scenes).
Medusa by Caravaggio 1597
The basic prerequisite to accompany a contemporary dance class is to have a decent level of technical competence with ones chosen instrument (or instruments) and to be sensitive to the fellow protagonists i.e. the dance teacher and dancers taking the class. An awareness of the space where the class is held is very important and it is essential to use the acoustic of the dance studio to regulate the dynamic and amount of musical sustain used for certain dance exercises.
As the musician is quite often in a corner of the studio, one should take care not to be playing louder than the teacher is talking. Equally, one does not want to be too quiet so that the dancers find it hard to feel the music. I use the word `feel` because sometimes music for class can have a lot of space to it. For example, leaving gaps between musical phrases can really take the dancer deeper into feeling the movement, but this should be done only when the teacher and dancers have competence and confidence with the musicality of the exercise. Otherwise, everyone loses the beat and confuses the movement, looks over at the musician….occasionally funny, but usually not.
As far as instrumentation goes, a contemporary class may be played by an experienced accompanist on virtually any instrument ( and I of course include the voice in this category). Although, I do find that certain teachers have preferences towards certain instrumentation and style of music.
Instruments that give a choice of dynamic and sustain are very useful as it is necessary to play a range of styles from smooth (legato) to choppy (staccato) and at varying levels of volume (dynamics). A piano has an excellent range of choice, a guitar also. Within a collection of percussion instruments, there should be an instrument that can sound a sustained note. Likewise, a range of timbre i.e. some low sounds, some high sounds, some soft, some hard etc., are essential. One should also consider how to carry the instruments from class to class, studio to studio as time between classes may be limited. Whatever the choice of instrumentation, I recommend to add Indian ankle bells or something similar to help keep the beat `ticking along`.
Hello and Welcome
In this blog, I will talk about my experiences accompanying modern and contemporary dance classes, something I have done since 1984. The first classes I played were held in Chichester College of Technology, Drama and Dance Department. Over the years, I have travelled the world, playing classes for companies, schools and academies and various associations and have had the pleasure to work with some wonderful inspiring teachers and some absolutely stunning dancers.
I also give workshops to musicians on `how to approach playing a contemporary dance class` and on occasion have been sponsored by the British Council to do so. Here is a link to some of the schools and companies I have played for Class Accompaniment-pavey
I plan to make this blog less personally reflective but more as informative as possible and hope that this may be of interest to accompanists and any musicians who are preparing to play for a dance class. It may well be of interest to dance students and teachers also ! Please feel free to post comments and especially questions..
paul pavey 