|
Notes from the Director's storyboard (written July 2002):
Act 3 scene 2
The first scene after the interval.
The scene starts with Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo singing
themselves onto the beach.
Note to composer: the drink and jolly number that
we last saw them perform has now turned to a drunk, rowdy
and even slightly dangerous song. The scene will probably
be played out in the central area downstage of the proscenium.
If we find that this is not the right start to the scene we
should be ready to have an alternative: I propose we have
music cue 16 up our sleeves which would be a composed
cue that would stop the audience talking and then decay as
the characters enter speaking (no more than 10 seconds). |
Notes from the Composer, Julian Philips (written late September
2002)
The reference in the Director's storyboard
about music cue 16 is now irrelevant as it was needed
as an option should the 2nd half have started with Act 3 scene
2. The second half now begins a scene earlier with Act 3 scene
1 so that cue 16 at the top of Act 3 scene 2 is now only a
tiny little cue, described as below:
Music cue 16 (top of Act 3 scene 2)
Director's brief: two part cue to get Prospero off
(1.5 seconds) and Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo on (2.5 seconds).
This tiny cue is made up of the flute over shimmering marimba
and harp (Prospero) leading into the solo viola (Trinculo
and company). The flute music to describe Prospero fits in
with other cues in the show that attempt to portray his magic
world. The solo viola however, plays a scrap of Caliban's
song from Act II scene 2 (No more dams I'll make for fish)
- I chose this as a way of helping the audience to reconnect
with these three characters, after a 20 minute interval and
scene (Act 3 sc 1) with Ferdinand, Miranda and Prospero.
Once we were in the studio, the Director, Michael Grandage,
realized he needed slightly longer of the Prospero music so
together with the flautist (Vourneen Ryan) we added on a little
music at the top of the cue.
|
Act 3, scene 2 - The Catch
In this production of The Tempest all of the scene change cues are
pre-recorded, but in this scene, what music there is, is generated
by the characters singing live on stage, without accompaniment.
To pass the time in a jolly and matey way, Trinculo and Stephano
attempt to sing a "catch" with Caliban.
A "catch" is a round - like London's burning - that allows
a group of singers to sing the same tune, all-starting in different
places. The only problem is that Stephano gets the tune wrong and
this triggers and Ariel and his sprites to sing a correct version,
invisible, on the air, prompting Trinculo to declare, "this
is the tune of our catch, played by the picture of nobody".
It is this invisible music (the catch) that then draws Trinculo
and his companions offstage before the start of the banquet scene
(Act 3, scene 3).
As composer, my brief was to produce a short and simple tune to
"Flout em and cout 'em, And scout em and flout 'em.
Thought is free" but like all catches, this tune has to work
so that Ariel and the two sprites can sing it in harmony, with the
appropriate staggered entries. I went for the regular waltz time
feel of the verse and set it as a simple modal melody (Dorian mode,
D-D white notes on the piano) so that it would sound appropriately
mysterious.
|
 |
Low quality