A closer look: sound design for Pangs of the Messiah
Thursday, March 5th, 2009 by robBy Robert Steel, composer and sound designer
What is tone?
Origin:
1275-1325; ME (n.) < L tonus < Gk tónos strain, tone, mode, lit., a stretching, akin to teínein to stretch.
Below are various definitions of tone:
1. quality or character of sound.
2. a quality of color with reference to the degree of absorption or reflection of light; a tint or shade; value.
3. a particular mental state or disposition; spirit, character, or tenor.
4. a particular style or manner, as of writing or speech; mood: the macabre tone of Poe’s stories.
5. prevailing character or style, as of manners, morals, or philosophical outlook: the liberal tone of the 1960’s.
6. style, distinction, or elegance.
As a composer for media (theater, film, video, video games), the first question I ask myself is “What is the tone?”. The tone may be consistent across the narrative or it may be constantly shifting or mutating. Either way, the tone at the beginning of the narrative is a key to the rest of the work. Defining the tone at the top requires that I not only understand the text but also the director’s intentions.
We talk tone.
What is the setting? Location, color, material, size, complexity.
What is the period? Era, year, month.
What time of day is it? Morning, afternoon, evening.
What is the weather/season? Fall, Winter, Summer, Spring, snow, hot, humid, pleasant, rain, sun, wind.
What are the characters wearing? Color, fabric, accessories, shoes.
How are the characters relating to each other? Casually, with tension, with irony, with sarcasm, with joy, with affection, with grief.
All of these questions need to be answered before I can start composing the score for Pangs of the Messiah. Although I will be looking at the entire narrative for structure, tone, dialogue rhythm, intention, direction, time and space, it’s that first cue that’s the tough nut to crack. A composer can easily sidetrack the production with a cue that isn’t quite right when it comes to tone.
We talk tone.
What is the setting? Interior house. Samaria Community Settlement. Video Projection.
What is the period? Sometime in the near future.
What time of day is it? Evening.
What is the weather/season? Summer. Hot.
What are the characters wearing? Neutrals, cottons, dirt, blood, religious pieces.
How are the characters relating to each other? Underlying tension. Mild frustration. Fear. All of these are quite subtle. The playwright is giving us hints of the future of these characters at the very top.
So now I need to translate the tone to the opening music cue.
What is the color?
What is the texture?
What is the rhythm?
What is the tempo?
What is the harmonic language?
What is the melodic language?
What is the intensity?
Most of us are going into a world we don’t know when we sit in that theater seat. I know that I want that opening cue to be mysterious. I don’t want to telegraph or overplay my hand in that cue. The cue needs to tell us everything and nothing. It needs to tell us that something is up but nothing more than that. Will I be using Middle Eastern scales and harmonies or will I take some elements of Klezmer or Jewish Liturgical music? Will I do a variation of the song “Pangs of the Messiah”? Will I do none of the above?
Sources:
American Psychological Association (APA):
tone. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition. Retrieved March 05, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tone
Chicago Manual Style (CMS):
tone. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tone (accessed: March 05, 2009).
Modern Language Association (MLA):
“tone.” The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 05 Mar. 2009. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tone>.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE):
Dictionary.com, “tone,” in The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition. Source location: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tone. Available: http://dictionary.reference.com. Accessed: March 05, 2009.
BibTeX Bibliography Style (BibTeX)
@article {Dictionary.com2009, title = {The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition},month = {Mar}, day = {05}, year = {2009}, url = {http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tone},