“Can you possibly conceive it. The unendurable oppression of the lungs, the stifling fumes of the earth, the rigid embrace of the coffin, the blackness of absolute night and the silence, like an overwhelming sea.”

My latest delivery from Lovefilm was quite timely: Premature Burial, directed by Roger Corman, which was adapted from the short story by Edgar Allan Poe.  Today I’ve been working on the music and sound design for ‘The Little Jesus Girl’ scene from The Pillowman.  Watching the adaptation of Poe’s short story, I was struck by the opening image of bloodstains on the underside of a coffin lid caused by the desperate scratching of the prematurely buried victim…and I wondered how that horror could be translated to sound.

This particular scene from The Pillowman is reminiscent of Poe’s gothic horror, but loaded with black humour.  At first I wanted to write and record a big choral piece, but, given the surreal and darly funny nature of the events, I chose to go with a mellotron effect (see The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever or Radiohead’s Exit Music (For a Film)).  Hopefully, the effect will work.

So, a typical Valentine’s Day……..

I bumped into a music student on my way to the rehearsal and we chatted a bit about the play.  When I gave him a brief synopsis, he mentioned a scene that appears in the recent Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy movie (the scene where Mark Strong’s character is tortured in a room covered in child-like wallpaper; he is played intermittent bursts of horrifying sounds through headphones while nearby, a woman sits casually reading her newspaper).  Coincidentally, I had seen the film for the first time a couple of nights before, and was struck by how the score that I’m currently putting together for The Pillowman was reminiscent of the sounds played through that character’s headphones – the difference being that it isn’t intermittent – it’s fairly full-on for the duration of both scenes.

Anyway, I think that the rehearsals went well.  I took some recordings of dialogue that will be played back during performance.  I had a lot of fun today trying to make those recordings sound even more eerie.  I share an office with a few postgraduate musicologists and composers – I’m not sure what they made of the strange drones, religious dialogues and blood-curdling screams that must have been emitting from my headphones.  But when I first signed up for this project, I was prepared for a few stange looks!

Scream 1

And here are some photos that I shamelessly stole from the Aberdeen Performing Arts Facebook page (click to enlarge):

To see more, you can access the Facebook page here.

I’m starting off the New Year in a suitably dark fashion.  Having been given the job of scoring the music for a production of Martin McDonagh’s play The Pillowman, I’ve been immersing myself in the sounds of dripping taps, distant footsteps and ominous drones.  It’s a wonderfully dark world to explore…

Last night, the cast and crew met for the first time and did a full reading of the play.  When I first received my copy of The Pillowman I read it over three or four days so that I could slowly analyse it and consider what music might fit where.  However, to read through it in one sitting is an entirely different experience – the intensity and horror (and indeed humour) is almost overwhelming.  It’ll be a brave audience that sees it through to the end.

I’ve also been given the task of creating some video elements for a backdrop projection.  I’ve been given some interesting hints and suggestions for what the appearance might be: “1930s Italian fashion”, “postmodern”, “surreal”, “like a child’s drawing…”

This is going to be fun!

The Pillowman will be performed at The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen from 29th – 31st March.  More details to follow shortly…

www.aprivatespace.com

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/music/album-reviews/classical_opera_rich_and_strange_on_the_planet_of_sound_1_1904140

http://sound-scotland.co.uk/sound_events/ross-whyte-and-shenpen-chokyi/

It’s strange creating a work for a place that people are incredibly sensitive about – it’s almost like holy ground to many of those that visit there.  Hopefully, they’ll find that what I’ve done is respectful and in-keeping with the purpose of the Memorial Court.  Hopefully…