Music

At the start of my process, I was enamored with Artemiev’s original score for Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” (above). Artemiev was Tarkovsky’s long-time collaborator, and his score for “Stalker” embraced Tarkovsky’s theme by combining haunting natural sounds with harsh electronic accents. The music draws the image of a desolate, foreign land, matching the landscape of my own piece.

ORIGINAL SCORE

Because dance was the dominant form of my work I could not build the movement to accommodate existing music. I needed an original score, and, like Tarkovsky, I needed a supportive collaborator to convert my vision to sound.

I found this in Cuong Nguyen, a multi-media artist who composes music and dance, and thus has the rare ability to interpret and promote choreographic intent within his music. Early in the process, Cuong and I spent a great deal of time playing samples of existing music for one another. I began by playing Cuong excerpts of Artemiev’s score, and he responded by playing samples of his own compositions or those of other composers whose work he thought reflected my musical and thematic intent. Through this process, we each came to a clear understanding of one another’s musical tastes and techniques, and familiarized ourselves with one another’s musical vocabulary. I have several years of experience playing instruments and have taken a few music courses, so I am able to communicate my ideas with musicians fairly articulately. I tried not to be too explicit with my instructions, however, as I wanted Cuong to be able to use his own artistic voice and interpret my images and inspirations in his own way. Using a combination of technical vocabulary and descriptive language, I was able to elicit a score that created a landscape for the choreography without detracting from it or directly reflecting it. The two work together, with the dance as the obvious dominant element. For music notes and samples, see below.

BEETHOVEN'S NINTH

The piece concludes with parts of the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. There are a number of reasons for this, the most prominent being that this particular piece of music plays in the final scene of Tarkovsky’s Stalker. As an avid fan of Beethoven, I connected with Tarkovsky’s decision to use this piece to summarize the beautiful persistence of humanity in mysteriously inhuman times. In addition to this example, my research revealed many references to Beethoven’s ninth symphony as a great example of Gesamtkunstwerk, created before Wagner popularized the term in reference to music. Beethoven’s innovative synthesis of poetry in symphony brought his work to new heights and allowed Beethoven to clearly express his message of praise and joy in a way that music alone could not. Though choreographing to this grandiose piece of music is daunting, I felt that it unified the work and gave it a palpable connection to the history of Gesamtkunstwerk that could be appreciated by me and my audience.

In order to conclude the narrative established in the first sections of my piece, I added a sound effect of rain to the final section, leading into and overlapping with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. The rain stands as a symbol of new life and relief from the pain experienced in the preceding sections. While dance remains the primary mode of expression throughout the piece, the dance cannot stand alone in the end and still produce the same effect that it does with the addition of the music, sound effects, and video. In the end, half of the dancers revel in the down-pouring rain, expressing joy and freedom, while the other half stand firm, looking on with little expression. As the climax of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” chorus concludes, the joyous dancers fall limp to the floor, appearing dead. The lights fade and the projected image of the sun sets as the rain continues to fall and the remaining dancers return to their first slow, stiff movement motif. All the imagery in this short closing scene suggests closure and death, but the sound of the rain reminds the audience that new life may come. Even when the stage has darkened and the imagery faded completely, the sound of the rain persists, making the piece’s last impression one of rejuvenation and fertility, despite its imagery of death and decay.

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Below: Notes I shared with score composer Cuong Nguyen to aid him in composing the score for "Paisley Mastodons."

Movement 1

We open with strains of eery music as a video projection fades in, projected onto the two tight lines of dancers. In the projection, we see sand rising from a dry ground. The sand rises until eventually the entire projection is moved up into the sky and settles there.

Music Notes: Think about taking the sound of wind - hollow, polyphonic, and slightly whining - and abstracting it. This should be an open sound that is setting the scene of this dry wasteland where the people are desperate and dying. It should sound natural, but not like a sound you would recognize in a natural setting. You may want to add intermittent interjections of strange noises/sound effects that make the audience ask where they are and what is going on. Approximately 5 minutes.

Movement 2

This movement opens with a moment of silence as the dead birds drop from the ceiling. After this, the “rainmaker” (Blake, who later re-enters as “the sorcerer”) enters, accompanied by his theme music. The group breaks off from their individual solos to follow this dynamic leader as he tells them of how he will make rain fall for them.

Music Notes: At the beginning, this music should transition smoothly from the last section, using some of the same sound/tone, and layering on Blake’s theme. As Blake begins to pick up followers (about a minute into the section), the music should swell a bit, maybe picking up more “instrumental” sounds, and supporting his more outgoing, theatrical performance. This should end abruptly for another pause as the rainmaker attempts to produce the rain.

Movement 3

The rainmaker is run out, and the community is left back at square one. One group exits to consider what to do, while the children stay behind to play. As they play in one corner, we see Geneva dying on the other side of the stage. Just as we think she is gone, the sorcerer (Blake) enters and resurrects her. The children see and go get the adults to bear witness to this miraculous event. The sorcerer again tells them he will bring rain, causing a schism between those who believe and those who do not. The sorcerer sprinkles his magic around and tells the people to wait for the rain, then leaves. Soon after him, the non-believers exit as well. The followers are left standing in silence waiting for the rain.

Music Notes: This section should open with a reprise of movement 1. Blake enters a few minutes in, bringing back his theme from before, with a slightly different interpretation for his new role of sorcerer. When he resurrects Geneva, his theme should transform into something more lighthearted, perhaps picking up the pace and incorporating a hymn-like quality. This is sustained for several minutes before dying back down to the original movement 1 music as he and the others file off and the followers are left to wait.