Jesse Briton’s ‘A Pupil‘, for which I’ve sourced and arranged the music, has its press night tonight (5th Nov) at 7.00. Director Jessica Daniels has used the previews well to develop our original idea of how the incidental music would work; there’s now very little off-stage singing on mic, and Melanie Marshall’s superb voice is now featured on-stage. Ditto Flora Spencer-Longhurst’s violin playing, which features brilliantly. The whole experience has introduced me to two violin pieces in particular which I’ve come to love: Howells’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in E and Respighi’s Six Pieces for Violin and Piano.
Even though I’ve not had a great deal of actual composing to do for this play, it’s good to be involved yet again in theatre music, albeit largely in a researching and compiling capacity. I am pleased, however, with the effect of the vocal line I’ve written for Melanie to sing under Massenet’s ‘Meditation’, where Flora’s character – Simona – demonstrates her skill for the first time to her potential violin teacher. I think it achieves the ethereal effect we wanted so that we could identify with Ye’s reaction.
What I’ve found interesting about the music between the scenes is that it isn’t just linking: it actively contributes to and develops the play’s narrative.
Colin Sell 