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Music for Theater
Elephant/Man
Elephant/Man
Directed by Beth Pierson
Performed at the Playhouse at White Lake
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Produced in partnership with Stage Partners, our little Whitehall theater was selected among thousands to be the inaugural theater to produce this brand new script.
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The story of Joseph Merrick (a.k.a. The Elephant Man) comes to life in this highly theatrical retelling featuring an ensemble of performers that share the role of Merrick. Whether on a bare stage or with an elaborate set, this adaptable play shines the spotlight on the vivid inner life of Joseph Merrick, and his relationship with the good Dr. Treves. This classic story of the ultimate outcast feels as fresh and as relevant as ever.
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Since the visual elements were decisively minimal, Sound and Music were given a lot of focus to illustrate the internal and external world of Joseph Merrick. Music in particular is used for the flights of fancy he experiences throughout and is used to emphasize the tenderness and humanity of the character. The orchestration is based around classical elements to support the Victorian time period, but also contains abstract, ambient elements to support the more cerebral, fantastical moments.
Fantasies
This piece occurs when Merrick is abused by a crowd on a train, but he copes with the traumatic intensity of the moment by pretending all attention is on him because he is at the center of a ballroom dance with a beautiful partner.
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I composed a simple waltz here because the community actors needed a simple, easily paced thing to dance to. The melody is composed to reflect the fantasies of high society that Merrick dreams of.
A dreamier piece, this music plays in a scene where Merrick is sitting comfortably in Victor Treves's elegant home and imagines he is the master of the house and his Butler comes in to bid him a goodnight.
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This music is used to evoke the call of nighttime sleep and the setting of a sitting room in a affluent mansion. The primary voice is sourced from a stretched Vibraphone sample to compliment the textures of clock sounds that are used to set the scenery.
This piece is played when Merrick meets the Princess of Wales and imagines them professing their undying love for each other.
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This slightly satirical piece was composed to evoke the sweeping music of old Hollywood Melodramas. As I thought this particular moment reminded me of the tone and delivery of them.
This is a sort of culminative piece that plays during Merrick's final scripted fantasy as his health deteriorates. During a visit to a countryside estate, he imagines a complex fantasy where he owns gorgeous property and is visited by an ensemble of the people he has become acquainted with.
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This music reintroduces several themes explored earlier, including one for Princess Alexandra and Merrick's Mother and is made up of delicate textures to evoke Joseph's growing frailty as his health declines.
"To the Editor of the Times"
One of two central pieces of music to this play, this music underscores a pivitol moment in the story where a times piece is used to raise funding for Joseph Merrick to receive permanent residence in the London Hospital. This moment features a theatrical montage of numerous London citizens reading the letter out loud and their interest in the title character being captured.
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This minimalist piece is used to evoke the sense of public opinion being shifted, supports the abstraction of time and space that this moment in the script creates and constructively propels the momentum of a rather talky chunk of script, helping to retain the audience's attention. It's built on a repetitive progression of plucked string melody, which unfolds and variates over time as public thought changes and cadences in a loud, triumphant delivery as the money is raised, and is brought out suddenly when Merrick resigns to a despair of low confidence.
The Christmas Pantomine at the Drury Lane
The second of two central pieces of music to this play. This music serves as diegetic music to the performance of a pantomime at the Drury Lane theater that Victor Treves treats Merrick to for Christmas. As it progresses Merrick gets swept up in the drama of the performance and feels frightened.
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Underscoring a fairy scene, this piece is composed to be light, elemental and fitting the mischievous, light-footed performance of the pantomimers. It becomes more menacing as Merrick becomes frightened of the performance.
Full soundtrack available for purchase and streaming on Bandcamp
There and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale
The Hobbit
Directed by Cindy Beth Davis - Dykema, Sky Harsch & Amber Hellewell
Performed at the Playhouse at White Lake
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This brand new script, based off of JRR Tolkien's classic children's novel was written by The White Lake Youth Theatre. Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit of Middle Earth, is swept off on an adventure by Gandalf the Wizard, joining the company of twelves Dwarves, to reclaim their mountain home and gold from the Dragon, Smaug the Terrible.
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I composed original music and created sound effects to support this production. With the intention of diverging from Howard Shore's iconic music for the film adaptations, I instead went in a very different direction. I went back to the source material, embracing it as a work of children's fantasy literature, Tolkien's influence of celtic folktales and his admiration for a long lost time period. I utilized evocative Mellotron samples, tape wow and flutter, vintage hardware emulation, celtic folk arrangements, acoustic guitar, dulcimers and heavy percussion to realize the world of Tolkien.
Shire Theme (And Variations)
This musical theme, heard at the top of Act I, not only acts as a theme to the Shire, but also to the play as a whole. It is used here when The Narrator introduces Bilbo Baggins, living a carefree live at home.
The theme is reincorporated in a sparser, more delicate arrangement when Bilbo has a heart to heart with Gandalf, after the former turns the Arkenstone over to Bard and the Elves, in an attempt to prevent war. This poignant variation represents Bilbo's maturity over the course of his adventure.
The Shire Theme is used once more when Bilbo returns home. It's varied twice in this piece, used first in a brisk, arpeggiated arrangement with percussion and banjo to denote travel and is then used on guitar and upright piano in unison to denote wistful reflection as Bilbo recounts his adventures in the book he authors.
Misty Mountain Song
In this production, the recounting of the Misty Mountain Song is not sung as has been done in the past, but is performed more like ancient theater, with individual Dwarves taking turn reciting stanzas of an epic poem as the rest represent the tale visually through creative movement.
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I supported this moment with a "modular composition" made out out of a handful of micro-compositions that underscore the monologue of each Dwarf, which is then faded out with the firing of each successive "module". This piece in particular makes heavy use of Mellotron Samples and vintage sound effects, to make the story seems like an ancient tale.
Action
Action and excitement are generally underscored in this play with carefully constructed percussion arrangements. The Celtic Folk staple, the Bodhran, is used throughout as a sort of "heartbeat" for the score. It's an all purpose drum, but the percussion arrangement is fleshed out here with orchestral Tom Toms for the Wolves and a Thunder Sheet rubbed with a friction mallet to act as a voice for the wolves, and denote immediate danger. Brass and choir are used at the end of this piece to signify the rescue of the Dwarves by Eagles.
This fun piece underscores the dwarves engaging in combat with Trolls, who have captured Bilbo. It uses a fairly traditional Celtic Folk arrangement of Fiddle, Tin Whistle and Bodhran at it's core, but the use of Uillean Pipes emphasizes it as a battle piece. The full fight is not scene as lights go down and this music plays into the scene change. The sound of magnetic taping losing speed is used comedically at the end of the scene change, before lights come up on the Dwarves, tied up around the fire, denoting that they lose the battle against the Trolls.
Battle of the Five Armies
This cornerstone music piece, which segues from "Gandalf and Bilbo", starts in on the Flute Mellotron motif and expands into deep cello and war drums. A choir comes in, supporting a solo soprano vocalist and the battle motif of Uillean Pipes. This piece underscores the titular scene and is composed to be both exciting for the audience and performers as well as poignant, to reflect the loss that the Dwarves and the Hobbit sustain.
Hear this piece in isolation:
Spiders
The youngest cast members (ages 6 - 8) played Mirkwood Spiders that menace the Dwarves and the Hobbit in the Woods. They open Act II with an original choreographed dance.
This piece was composed especially for the Mirkwood Spider Dance. I was given some initial instructions that it should be an easy tempo for the young performers to follow, not be too intricate, short in length and an instantly distinct beat.
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To characterize the spiders, I made melodic contour of the music "scuttley" and have a spiderlike motion, and it is rife with string textures, including pizzicato classical strings, but also all manner of harps, dulcimers, zithers, etc.
The spider theme is reused later in the play when Bilbo and the Dwarves are ambushed by the Spiders and imprisoned in webs. This piece was created late in production when the artistic team and I decided that the actors should have some music to ramp their energy up for the attack.
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To do this, I took the Spider theme, transposed it to a higher tempo and added more raucous percussion.
Riddles in the Dark
Gollum, played to perfection here by Ren Monroe, gets a very special underscore that stands out from the rest of the music for thsi production. It is saved for the moment when it seems imminent that he's going to attack Bilbo and is used to convey the environment of the watery cave and the madness within the mind of the doomed ringbearer.
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To get the watery chime sound, I used a single recorded sample of a struck stainless steel water bottle, with the attack shaved off to make it sound bowed, which was then played back at several low pitches. The higher chimes are simple sine waves, fed through emulations of worn echo tape to get the unsteady pitch, and playing atonal, arhythmic meanderings, representing his madness.
Hear this piece in isolation:
Mirkwood
This piece underscores the Dwarves getting lost in Mirkwood forest before being ambushed by Spiders. I composed it to evoke the disorientation the forest inflicts upon the company, using a vibraphone fed through an echoplex tape delay, a weirdly dry cello sample and a dulcimers played back in reverse.
Escape in Barrels
I created this piece to make the dwarf barrel escape fun and quick paced. It's inspired by skiffle music, and appropriately, uses a handful of found objects as instruments including, but not limited to a blown and struck whiskey bottle, a pillow, spoons and a washboard. It's tied together with an arpeggiated banjo played at a quick tempo.
Chip the Glasses and crack the plates
This musique concrete piece underscores the dwarves improvised song during their dinner, taunting Bilbo's anxiousness. It is made entirely out of impulses of objects I found in my Kitchen, used as percussion instruments.
Full soundtrack available for purchase and streaming on Bandcamp
Beau Jest
Beau Jest
Directed by Jason Bertoia
Performed at the Playhouse at White Lake
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In Playhouse at White Lake's 2023 production of Beau Jest, Sarah Goldman, a young Jewish woman, constructs an elaborate lie by "inventing" a perfect boyfriend to impress her parents. As part of the director's vision, the production was stylized after a late 80s, early 90s sitcom, which these pieces are in the style of.
A key component of the story of Beau Jest is a deep focus on Jewish culture, therefore the composition of these pieces were inspired by Klezmer music. These elements are hybridized with a throwback electronic arrangement to evoke the tone of vintage sitcom. Instrumentation to achieve this include a LinnDrum, an FM Piano, a clarinet sample that has been designed to sound as if it were played by a synclavier, analog synths and mellotrons.
Full soundtrack available for purchase and streaming on Bandcamp
The Night I Died
The Night I Died at the Palace Theatre
Directed by Alexxander Evergreen
Performed by the White Lake Youth Theater
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The Night I Died at the Place Theatre is a comical and complex entry in the murder mystery genre. The play weaves between the testimonies of the dysfunctional cast and crew of ramshackle dramatic theater, after their megalomaniacal director, Dexter, is found dead.
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For this piece, the Director and I instinctually agreed that an overall "mysterious jazz" musical underscoring would best suit the dark, comedic tone of the story and genre. Music served multiple purposes for this show, including supporting individual character monologues, filling the space of scene transitions and underscoring pivotal moments in the mystery. During pre-production I envisioned the music coming from the world of the play, being performed by a janky house band that worked for the titular theater. The imaginary band was composed of a minimalist ensemble of electric guitar, electric bass and a drum kit. The guitar and bass were performed with real instruments being run via direct out into my computer, where they could be processed with synthetic amplifiers and the drums were programmed samples. I composed and recorded simultaneously, while listening to an audio recording I had taken of a rehearsal with the actors. This workflow allowed me to work quickly and efficiently, resulting in the thirty minutes of original music being completed in only a matter of days.
Monologues
The first half of the play consists of all the actors at the theater giving their testimonies to the police, asserting their innocence in the crime of Dexter's murder. Each of these testimonies is supported by an underscoring that supports their individual idiosyncracies.
Glenda's music is composed to evoke the elegant opinion she has of herself, with a sound reminiscent of hazy nightclub music. As her alibi begins to fall apart and she panics, the music likewise begins to break down with descending chords and instruments dropping out.
Kalene Cooper's music uses an upbeat pop rhythm that evokes a materialistic, glamorous vibe that supports Kalene's detached, egotistical personality. The music drops out humorously near the very end when Kalene embarrasses herself.
Luther is the slow-witted archetype of the group. This music is composed to humorously evoke the sense of the neurons in Luther's brain firing weakly, and gradually slowing to a halt.
Glenda Monologue - Tyler Quinn
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Kalene Monologue - Tyler Quinn
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Luther Monologue - Tyler Quinn
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Transitions
To Be Continued - Tyler Quinn
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This song is used to recall cliffhanger stingers that preceded commercial breaks for radio dramas in the murder mystery genre. This piece caps off the first half of the play and the melody reoccurs as a leitmotif for Detective Jimmy Todd as he pieces clues together. It is also heard at the very end of the play when the story ends on an intriguing plot twist.
Pivotal Moments
Shadowy Conversation - Tyler Quinn
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This piece accompanies a clandestine conversation between Jimmy and the mysterious janitor Theodore as the latter attempts to deliver the final trump card in what would be the framing of an innocent character. The shadowy, noir-ish atmosphere for this scene is created on the strength of homophonic musical textures and muted drums.
All Is Revealed - Tyler Quinn
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Jimmy delivers a very complex evaluation of how he deduced the identity of Dexter's true murderer. As the mystery is demystified in conversational acrobatics, the guitar expressively tendrils around the plot twists over static rhythm section ostinatos.
Full soundtrack available for purchase and streaming on Bandcamp
Hallmarks of Horror
Hallmarks of Horror
Directed by Alexxander Evergreen
Performed by the White Lake Youth Theater
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The play, Hallmarks of Horror, is basically a comedic guided tour through every horror movie trope conceivable. It touches upon several subgenres of horror from multiple eras from the 50s to today, and contains an endless assortment of veiled references to several horror concepts, characters and films.
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My design concept for composing the music was to delight the audience by supporting all the horror references with music cues that payed homage to them while still maintaining a level of fright that was appropriate for Youth Theater.
Sitcom Music - Tyler Quinn
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This satirical piece opens the play on a scene of a normal American nuclear family experiencing an over the top, idyllic breakfast. The scene is used to humorously juxtapose the horror elements of the show.
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This piece is used to emphasize the saccharine sweet nature of the moment so that the horror elements stand out. This is one of a couple of pieces in the play that I used a Mellotron keyboard to evoke a vintage orchestral sound.
Narrator Music - Tyler Quinn
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Eerie Book Music - Tyler Quinn
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The family breakfast is undercut by a shifting of lights and the entrance of the narrators, who will guide the audience along on the tour of horror.
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In keeping with the TV show angle, this piece of music was used to evoke the themes of paranormal anthology shows from the 50s - 70s like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. The primary instrument is an FM synthesizer, which gives the theme it's electrical, alien quality.
Along the way, a main character picks up an ancient book and unwillingly becomes enchanted by the spirit that haunts said book.
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This piece is colored by a variety of regular sounds that are manipulated with echo, reverb and unnatural playback speed to evoke an ancient, otherworldly, phantom quality. Such sounds include piano and violin, but also a tea kettle played multiple octaves down and a whispered voice played in reverse.
When the narrators introduce the mainstay of the creepy doll, they also take the time to lecture the audience on how music can be used to enhance the creepiness of the doll. They use four very different types of music cues to illustrate how music influences an audience's fear.
Doll Music - Various
Doll Music - Intro - Tyler Quinn
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Doll Music - Eerie - Tyler Quinn
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This first piece is composed to sound like evil personified. Using delicate chimes works to evoke the innocent nature of the doll, but it is corrupted by the creepy melody and the additional religiously oriented instrumentation like church bells and a Gregorian choir. Numerous recordings of screaming voices are used as well to create a humorously hellish feeliing.
Doll Music - Violent - Tyler Quinn
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To create the violent music, I took purely percussive approach, starting with the furious beating of a frame drum and layering samples of stringed instruments playing a "Bartok pizzicato" patch with massively dense tone clusters, and used one of my brass bells as a quiet lead in to the shockingly loud din.
When the narrators pivot to the point that scary music can be eerie, a sound evoking a musical saw or theremin is used.
Doll Music - Weird - Tyler Quinn
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To create this weird circus music, I used a flute based organ patch to simulate the sound of the circus mainstay, the Caliope, and sweetened it with Timpani playing alternating notes in major fifth intervals to create a bouncy, hyperactive feeling. To weirden the effect even further, I used a "wow" effect to evoke the unnerving sensation of unstable pitch.
Zombie Music - Tyler Quinn
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Masked Killer Music - Tyler Quinn
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Misc. Monster Music - Tyler Quinn
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There are numerous scenes sprinkled throughout that depict Zombies feasting on brains or flesh.
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The zombie music is used to illustrate this visceral scene with, rotten sounding drones. I created them with a desktop drone synth, flipping a switch between two sawtooth oscillators.
Hallmarks of Horror pays special attention to the mainstay of the masked Killer, down to their motivations, fight moves and weaknesses.
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This song is composed as a pastiche of every slasher theme I could think of, specifically Friday the 13th and Halloween. It makes heavy use of a rudimentary retro synth and a roland drum machine, as was a staple of 80s horror.
Whenever a mob of monsters crosses the stage, a throwback to universal monster music is heard.
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These pieces are composed with dissonant chords moving in parallel motion and once again use Mellotron sounds to evoke the sound of a vintage orchestral recording. The secret ingredient to get the very specific sound of universal music are the Timpani sounds supporting the fundamental pitches.
Jump Scare - Tyler Quinn
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This sound combines traditional percussion instruments like concert cymbals and a bass drum, but also very low keys on a piano, wood and metal hits and rolling thunder, performed at extremely high velocities. The sound of fingernails on wood is used to give a forward momentum to the sound.
Beach Ball Mind Control Music - Tyler Quinn
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For this moment, the narrators introduce the supernatural inanimate object that will eventually bring ruin to any character that has the misfortune of coming in contact with it.
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This piece utilizes rhythmic, throbbing bass tones to evoke a controlled cerebral reaction. It is built upon with raw electrical sounds and bizarre elastic waves. It builds to a crescendo until the object (in this case a beach ball) claims the life of it's victim. This piece pays homage to the films of David Cronenburg. Particularly Scanners.
Clown Music - Tyler Quinn
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Like the doll music, this piece is comprised of innocent sonic elements, specifically children's voices that are made unnerving by using the Boy's Choir patch of a Mellotron, and a classroom recording of children singing, distorted and played back in reverse. The distorted synthesizer is an homage to more modern Horror Films like The Black Phone, It (2017) and The Invisible Man.
Agnes of God
Received a KCACTF certificate of Merit for music composition, 2019
Agnes of God
Kyrie - Tyler Quinn
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Pieces like this were composed to be sung live onstage by the actress portraying Agnes. They aurally support the joyous, reverent, innocent face that she presents. They are stylized after movements of the Catholic Mass and follow strict conventions for composing sacred music like this. Stepwise chromatic motion, an avoidance of large intervals between notes and free meters are used to support evoke the sound of sacred compositions. However, in order to evoke the joy that Agnes sings with, I broke convention by making the pieces have a wider, livelier sound by composing in a reasonably large range and with long melismatic phrases.
Promissa Est Terra, pt. 2 - Unknown Artist
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This piece was one of two expressionistic compositions that underscored the hypnosis scenes. These compositions are broader and feature a full choir to convey the idea of Agnes's mind being open to Dr. Livingston and Mother Miriam. The conventions of composing sacred music remain when Agnes is calm, but those conventions are jettisoned when she recalls the darkest moments of her life and gets further away from the light of God. Dissonant harmonies and polyphonic textures are incorporated gradually as Agnes fear increases. Techniques like this would have been considered blasphemous in sacred compositions. These emotional shifts unfold in realtime with the scene.
Entrac'te - Agnes of God
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Instead of the much more common usage of using thematically or spatially related pre-existing recordings for the Intermission, I composed an Entrac'te containing musical quotations of melodic phrases that appear in other sections of the play.
Full soundtrack available for purchase and streaming on Bandcamp
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