Raleigh Ensemble Players - Artspace

USA

The aural world of Bent starts off rooted in naturalism, with a radio playing and birds chirping.  Once they are captured, we begin hearing more “psychological” sounds.  Earlier in the show, a live piano plays.  I used this piano moment and stretched it as we began playing with the sound of the world after their capture.  I began writing music for the show, and started off in a piano “voice”.  The director brought up the idea of connection vs disconnection.  Writing the music, I didn’t want it to be menacing all the time.  Aurally, I wanted to reflect on Glen’s idea by playing between a delicate and a dark sound.  I changed the piano “voice” I had been working in and began using a celeste as the delicate sound.  A cello became the menacing sound.  When programming the show, I did not bounce the songs as wholes, and instead separated them out.  I could then have an instrument come in based off of an actor’s line.  I felt this gave me more play over the “orchestra” and that I could construct the song in real-time, with the actors not being locked-down to the music.

Elisheba Ittoop