Performance Skills

CW 2

 

Requirements used for each composition and performance 

 

Composition 1 : 

( pre-composed and improvised elements )

 

‘ A Deadly Surprise ‘

 

• A graphic score 

• Cue system 

• Free improvisation 

• Avoiding simple song structure 

 

Composition 2 :

( A fully composed piece )

 

‘ Home ‘

 

• An unusual time signature 

• Change of time signature 

• Extended / unusual playing techniques for instrument / voices

 

Concept for each composition :

 

‘ A Deadly Surprise ‘ 

 

This piece is a combination of monologue and and a song structure. It has themes of dark comedy and has also got musical theatre elements to it. As I have a performing arts background and have done storytelling/horror pieces in the past it was  Aghigh who suggested we tell a scary story and she will create and improvise background music to it using cello and a backing track.

 

‘ Home ‘

 

Is a sweet and heartfelt song composed by Aghigh and myself. We wanted to do something that we both can stand behind . We both left our motherlands at nineteen. However it’s not uncommon for people to move to another country at that age. Aghigh moved under unfavourable circumstances and I moved against my will and the following years were the most difficult years of our lives . So this song was our love letter to our birth countries and all that it entails. It has a fairly normal song structure, has a heart warming feeling and there is a predominant use of major chords.

 

Your individual contribution to the creation, rehearsals and performance.

 

As Aghigh and I are great friends we didn’t even feel the need to assign each other rigid tasks. Our contribution to the piece came naturally. However, we played to our strengths as I did more of realising the concept, coming up with foundational ideas, finessing the end product and mainly lyric writing. Aghigh made the backing tracks, came up with some strong ideas and also gave the pieces structure. And performance wise I was the lead vocalist and Aghigh did backing vocals and played the cello as well . I also took on small roles like printing out the lyrics etc.

 

We both set aside a lot of time and rehearsed our piece together after class, on the days we didn’t have class, we practiced individually at home. Aghigh kept improving the backing tracks time to time, I would record reference vocals at home. We would book editing suites or rehearsal rooms, get mics and practice and edit our pieces for hours. 

 

The methods of collaboration : how did you start creating the piece and subsequently develop it together ?

 

Me and Aghigh mainly developed our pieces together in class, after class and communicating on WhatsApp. And of course working on it individually. 

As mentioned previously, I came up with the concept as I wanted to do something that both of us could relate to . I initially sent Aghigh a draft of the lyrics, she added to it, then she created a backing track. Then I re edited the lyrics. She requested I keep the chorus as it is as the backing track was tailored to it, but for the verses I kept some of the old ideas but wrote lyrics according to the backing track. Then I recorded a rough draft at home. Then listening to that reference track we learned it. But still made many changes throughout the rehearsal process. Similarly for ‘ Deadly Surprise ‘ Aghigh came up with the concept. She was inspired by the previous pieces I had performed and she had faith in my storytelling skills. Initially I was looking for short horror story videos on the internet, a video had caught my attention which was situated at a bus stop and Aggy seemed to like it too. I completely rewrote the story and sent it to Aghigh which she converted to poetry format and later was edited by me. Aghigh made the backing track for it too. I initially had an interesting but dark ending in mind but somehow we weren’t being able put it into words and fit it into the duration of the backing track . That’s when Aghigh got inspired from the show "Actor" where they hired actors for a birthday surprise and we decided that ending was going to be a birthday prank. So suddenly after all the buildup and suspense even the backing track smoothly transitions to a more light hearted birthday themed music. Shortly after we finalised everything, we started to practice our singing, dialogues, expressions etc . Aghigh used extended techniques with the cello and I used extended techniques with my voice incorporating spoken words, humming etc. I also improvised how I was going to say or sing certain dialogues as long as some humming in the performance at the underground bar . Before our final performance we couldn’t get an editing suite book. So I took my home recording set up including mic, headphones & my mac book. And we recorded ‘ A Deadly Surprise ‘ at one of the rehearsal rooms so that we could have a complete reference track to rehearse to at home. 

Discuss the various musical elements for each piece: pitch, harmony, melody, rhythm/time, dynamics, texture, instrumentation 

 

For  ‘ Home ‘ there wasn’t many changes in the pitch. We wanted to keep the song catchy and engaging for the audience. However in the bridge there is a change in time signature. The song goes to 6/8 from 4/4 and then back to 4/4. Also we did experiment with our singing and dynamics. Some parts of the song were sung in a high voice and some in low and some parts were breathy.

 

For ‘ A Deadly Surprise ‘ Aghigh in the backing track and whilst playing cello experimented a lot with the pitch as to convey certain emotions. She varied between higher and lower pitches to convey stress, suspense, fear, anxiety, mystery etc. The rhythm changed as well as we tried to convey tension or when we tried to convey relief in the end. With our voices we experienced with different dynamics. We tried to convey the emotions mentioned above. We sang some parts were wordy or loud or whispered. It all kept changing with the narrative of the story.

Aghigh also used cello, violin and viola to translate these emotions.

Staging elements: design of the stage, arrangement of musicians on stage, outfits, props – as relevant 

 

For staging, we decided as it was only the two of us we will be standing next to each other for the first song ' Home '. We decided that in certain parts of the song we would look at the audience and engage with them, and in certain parts we would look at each other and show a sense of communication or show that only we understand each other’s pain, feelings. There was a part where we took alternate lines to sing showing that we were almost having a conversation.

And for ‘ A Deadly Surprise ‘ Aghigh had to be sat as she was playing the cello. But for our performance at the underground bar where she was not playing the cello, we decided that when it was our turn to say our dialogues we would come forward into the spotlight and recite. We both decided to wear black clothing and I got us some gem stickers for our faces to portray a band/duo synergy.

Evaluation of the live performance: what worked well? What could be developed further? 

 

As videos above show we got the chance to perform our pieces twice, and both times were different experience for me.

The first time when we performed, our pieces had just finished developing and we had crammed in all our rehearsals. We didn’t get a break to sit back relax and reflect on it. 

Before the first performance, I had received a news that had thrown me off a bit. So to get through the performance I was looking at the lyrics on the music stand so that I would not mess anything up and I also felt quite withdrawn so I could not engage with the audience  as much as I wanted to. My focus then was just to get through the performance without making any major mistakes or pausing. Even though, I had most of the lyrics memorised; and I did not really require gluing my eyes to the lyrics sheet, but because of my state of mind I had done so.

However, the second performance was a week after. In the weekend I did not revisit the pieces at all so the next time when me and Aghigh had rehearsed I had a fresh outlook on it.  

As I was slightly disappointed with my first performance, I had thoroughly requested Aghigh to go over the pieces again.

The time I performed at the underground bar. I tried not to look at the lyrics and I tried to engage with my audience and look towards them. I was far more relaxed that day and had a fun time performing. However, in the second piece, I messed up some of my lines as I was too late to look at the lyrics as I had forgotten a bit of it but overall I quite enjoyed performing the second time around . Upon reflection of the whole process, I would say, I thoroughly enjoyed working with Aghigh and would definitely want to work together in the future. I feel like things happened the way they were meant to. As performers we have some good days and some bad days, but with practice I believe I will be more professional and will be able to leave my problems outside of stage. I would’ve  said that we could try to manage time better, but we did put in as much time as we could into developing and rehearsing our pieces. For instance, our pieces were prepared by our initial performance, but as we had another week after that to relax and reflect upon our mistakes, and re do it, that one week was necessary for us to fully reach the peak of our performance. Overall, I am very satisfied with everything and have learned a lot about myself and my partner. I feel like things happened the way they were meant to happen and it was a great learning process. And of course, if we had more time, we would obviously perfect our singing and acting , feel more confident and deliver a stronger performance overall.