The theatre department of William Jewell College is presenting The Laramie Project this weekend. It's a powerful, moving testament of how Laramie, Wyoming (which could be any town, really) deals with the aftermath of a young gay man being kidnapped, brutally beaten and left for dead in its community.
A few months back I approached the director about writing some music for the production. He allowed me to do so with the understanding that there was a possibility that it wouldn't be used. I understood this. It was a test.
I knew immediately that I wanted to write a piano-based atmospheric score with subtle electronics underneath. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. Normally my music is busy with lots of notes. I kicked all that out. I wrote simply and without sentimentality...I hope.
It didn't really hit me until we were in Colorado last month. We were driving through Loveland on our way to Longmont to visit Michael Harris. I gazed at the stunning beauty of this land, nature's music realised in landscape. Instantly I understood the irony. The juxtaposition of the brutality of the crime in a place as beautiful as this is tragedy that seemingly only human beings can create. I knew my job then. I needed to provide commentary without sentiment. Something that, like this beautiful place both real and imagined, would just be.
I hope I've done that.
11 comments:
I think it serves the subject and setting remarkably well. It has a neutrally tranquil, almost lazy feel, like Beltrami's The Minus Man, which also provides a counterpoint to the subject matter of kidnapping and murder.
Good job.
We went to the performance Friday evening and it went really well. I was really happy with the way they used the score and a lot of people were very complimentary of the music. And maybe with a little bit of luck this will yield some future work, too.
I don't think I'd go see the play myself, but hopefully it will be performed more in the future. Writers and composers go to an awful lot of work to only get one shot at a decent applause.
I was thinking yesterday that you should adapt Othello into a suite for a larger group.
Laramie has actually been around for awhile and gotten a lot of performances around the country (a local high school even did it last year to the protestations of many).
The beautiful thing about theatre is that you can have so many viewpoints on how to create a production, how it should be acted and staged and what kind, if any, of music should be used for the project.
And I've been thinking about adapting Othello for awhile. It's a good score and the farther I get away from it, the more I realise that that score is closer to the composer I believe I am on a more intuitive level. It's just a matter of time.
Oh and I forgot to say thank you.
Thank you.
What I meant was, hopefully your music will be performed with it in the future. The play is apparently well-known, and will certainly be performed more and more.
Whoa, we said that at the same time. Okay, now THIS is the only comment that makes any sense.
I lose/win.
Even if that doesn't happen, which is probably the case, I'll probably still adapt the score into a piano suite. That's the plan anyway.
"The beautiful thing about theatre is that you can have so many viewpoints on how to create a production, how it should be acted and staged and what kind, if any, of music should be used for the project."
That's not always a beautiful thing.
May I offer you a half-empty glass of blended scotch?
Sure, thanks. I'll take it on the patio, under the partly cloudy sky.
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