Hi, Daniel. I want to tell you that the work with the musical “The Slave Prince” is moving forward; The music is finished (well, for now). It fills 58 minutes with songs and arias in the style of “Les Miserables,” (sort of), 8 vocal soloists – professionals and amateurs in all ages, are practicing. The band and the choir are more or less ready for 4 concerts at 2 venues this December.
Avsnitt
I am not the most advanced user of Dorico, and as such maybe what I have to share is not so interesting. But Dorico is not in itself a goal to anything, it is a servant to help the light shine in darkness, and that is, I believe, my story; about learning how to convey the light I have found, and Dorico is the tool that has been helping me from the beginning. I take the liberty to send the story to you, if it can be of any use, then great! It can of course be edited in any way.
Avsnitt
My story begins in the summer of 2019: I was deeply moved listening to a song by Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny: “The moon is a harsh mistress.”
Avsnitt
It gave me the inspiration and an idea: I was stricken by the thought of someone worshipping the moon in the hope of receiving a ray of warm sunlight; it´s the analogy to the lonely child, hoping to be acknowledged and loved by someone who is blind to anyone but him-/herself. It was an idea that I felt strongly for, and that has carried me along through all the hard work so far. Without a strong idea, all fluency in composing or playing is to no avail. With a great idea, everything is possible, despite lack of fluency in composing and playing. Those holes can be mended and fixed along the way, but great music will never be great storytelling if there is no great story to tell.
Avsnitt
During the summer a story evolved out of the idea. I got input from friends and professionals. Being educated as a medical doctor and a man in my fifties, I had no experience with plays and I had to crash-learn how to tell a story and make an action-driven play that carries the audience along.
Avsnitt
In a few words the story is a fairytale about a prince declared dead, and kidnapped by his uncle at the moment of his birth on Christmas Eve. Being told he was a freed slave child, in the end the prince finds his true identity in his own nursery where the hidden paintings of his father and mother tells the true story of his identity. He discovers that he is the heir of the castle where he until then has served his uncle as a servant, or slave.
Avsnitt
I started composing early 2020, and I worked purely from an emotional, inspirational point of view without a greater plan: What felt right, was right. I had some musical training from university but not much knowledge and training in composing. Dorico was essential to the creative process: I found I needed to start somewhere, commit to something. By choosing a key, setting metrics and putting some notes on the screen I had excluded lots of possibilities, and that was really a prerequisite for me to get anything done.
Avsnitt
I also discovered that taking pauses did wonders whenever I was stuck; solutions seems to come from nowhere when I start working again. Lyrics was the hardest part, and luckily I found a partner who helped me out: I sent her a recording of the song and told her what it was all about, and she did the rest.
Avsnitt
Last fall I had 16 songs with lyrics and a story I loved. It was a “number opera;” individual songs and a narrator to make it a coherent story. Two singers, an acoustical band and a small choir performed the concert last December to a corona restricted audience of two times 50. I was delighted that the audience felt touched, and that they loved the music. I could ask for nothing more.
Avsnitt
Then spring 2021 arrived, and I got acquainted with the musical “Les Miserables.” The musical was the theme of my bachelor thesis that I completed this spring. It opened up a whole new world in musical storytelling. I realised that for the music to be a successful storyteller, the story itself had to be great and the characters must be «true-to-life». The main story should consist of several stories intertwined that together form the greater narrative. I looked in awe at the way «Les Miserables» caters for contrasts, for tensions between agonists and antagonists. I saw how the ideas were simplified and purified to the point where they became the exact mirrored image of each other and how this gave “Les Miserables» great energy and momentum. It was all about conflict and resolution. All these points were exploited and amplified by the score and I wanted to run with this technique.
Avsnitt
I started revising my own work – doing what I ought to have done in the first place. I began by identifying the character´s feelings and intentions, their journeys towards a goal, their «mission» so to speak. Would their individual stories contribute to the greater story of the musical? Did their dilemmas and conflicts reflect upon the main theme of the musical?
Avsnitt
After this I turned to my music, this time with, for me, a new tool from Schønberg and «Les Miserables,» the leitmotif. I defined important moments in the musical where a particular intent was at display, and chose the musical theme from that place as a leitmotif for that intent. I was surprised to find that in «Les Miserables», leitmotifs are sometimes used to convey the exact opposite of what had become the leitmotif´s meaning. And it felt wonderfully effective.
Avsnitt
This technique is beautifully illustrated in the song «I Dreamed a dream» in «Les Miserables:» Fantine sings not of her despair and grief, but instead portrays her lost dream with beautiful lyrics and gripping music that reaches for the sky. The contrast is deafening, and the audience is deeply moved by her loss without her saying a word about it.
Avsnitt
I wanted to do the same: I threw out my sad songs and lyrics and replaced them with leitmotifs to reflect the beauty and happiness of what was lost rather than the loss itself. Furthermore, I let the antagonist who is the perverted, mirrored version of the good guy sing the tune and the words his counterpart has used on a former occasion. But in the mouth of the antagonist the music becomes toxic and obnoxious to the audience. Rather than having the antagonist saying: «I am bad,» the audience themselves become part of the storytelling as they shiver and whispers «hypocrite» in the dark.
Avsnitt
«Les Miserables» reuses most of its musical themes, presenting them first as bits and pieces and later they evolve together with the narrative. The way the themes evolve is in itself a story told, and I copied the technique: Only towards the end when the agonist finds his peace and the conflicts are resolved will I let him sing the complete theme which until then has been presented partially in different settings and by different characters. It´s only then that the audience sees the puzzle come together, the larger picture. Then the full meaning of the individual pieces dawn upon the audience, and they are drawn into a creative process of creating meaning.
Avsnitt
«Les Miserables» has no narrator and no acting, instead the recitatives take care of the storytelling. I decided to do the same – having never before composed anything vaguely similar: I took bits of leitmotifs and used them as building blocks for short recitatives that hopefully will reflect the characters feelings and intent.
Avsnitt
I also was inspired by the way leitmotifs are as important in the instrumental parts as in the vocal melodies – in fact the most important leitmotif in «Les Miserables» is a simple arpeggio that is never sung. Even so this leitmotif comes to signify the very meaning of the whole musical, as a narrators voice, a glue that binds the parts together in what becomes a greater meaning. I have made a rhythmic cord progression of 2 bars that surfaces at the right places, and I am looking forward to see if these 2 bars in the end of the concert will stand out as a beautiful beacon, full of meaning to the audience.
Avsnitt
As the project evolves, so does the work, and I am still only a «one man band» trying to be it all: Photographer, graphic designer, composer, arranger, lyricist, organiser, conductor, carpenter. I am becoming more and more dependent on Dorico to easily add new music to the project and to make changes both in music and layout, so I can send out corrections to all musicians and singers. Condensing is a must when scoring for the choir, as is the ability to export individual voices as audio files and putting it all in a shared dropbox folder.
Avsnitt
Today the musical consists of 34 movements, and I regret not having used flows from the beginning. With all the movements as flows in one file I would have saved a lot of work whenever I need to correct something which then has to be updated in 5 layouts in 34 different files. Knowing what I know today, I wish I had taken the time to learn the software from the start – it would have saved me some time.
Avsnitt
This musical is a work in progress, we still have no costumes, no direction, and I use a video projector to set the scene with images and videos. Still, I am excited that 7 brilliant singers have taken the time and effort to get involved, and that we this time will play the concert 4 times at 2 venues. I was anxious last December to see if the play could survive another year, and I still am. It all boils down to whether this is a great story and great storytelling. And of course only the audience can tell.