Chris Williams
Interesting times. Unpredictable times. Even death and taxes, thanks to life extension research and mysterious government policies are less certain than ever. Gender roles are in a post second wave party hangover where men are the new women. Red is the new black, bimboism is empowering, thirties are the new twenties, crap art is the new good art because it makes an ironic and profound point about crapness and geeks are at the pinnacle of the new social ladder. Nothing is but what is not. And so to this week's guest, Chris Williams, who as a radio drama producer (translation: director) is the new composer.
Computers are responsible.
Not all computers, just the Macs and the software Pro Tools Chris uses to arrange and work with the recordings of his actors, the way an old guard composer would work with notes. He called this "sound design". 1
The concerns Chris talked about were exactly the same issues that face music composers; layering the voices, spacing, timing, flow, paring the work back for both time and artistic reasons. Chris described this composition step as "arranging for ear". (Could this be the collectively lent ear of the audience? Maybe the audience is coming back into fashion?) As he said, because he's working with voice, there is a musicality, therefore it can be approached musically. 1 Chris has gone as far as collaborating with composers in this arrangement of spoken pieces.
Well why not? If Robin Minard can compose music with sonic elements like cars driving past a building, then surely spoken voices make sense? Perhaps I have a singer's bias, but I think the voice is at the very core of musical endeavour.
The piece Chris shared with us that he had produced himself, had an actor being coached in delivering a line which included the word "Oratorio", amongst other discussions of pronunciation. I liked the piece, and I enjoyed Chris's work. It was tightly composed. The sounds of the voices worked well together. The actor delivered his line about Oratorio in a pleasingly oratory style - exactly what composers and singers aim for in Oratorio.
Did we need an excerpt of a genuine baroque Oratorio playing along? Perhaps a touch obvious, but beautifully sung Oratorio is always welcome, arranged for my ear.
Chris played us several other works, including the dramatic Monologues from the Apocalypse, where the arrangement stage was undertaken by other composers. I found this piece overblown, musically I didn't like the tone of some of the instruments the piece was scored for. This is personal preference, I believe drama, and especially tragedy are communicated best with understatement. As Peter Barkworth wrote in About Acting (2001)
"For God's sake be monotonous!" said Alan Bridges, when he was rehearsing Greer Garson and me in a scene from Crown Matrimonial. (We were doing the television version.) "You actors, you're all the same: you're all so good at explaining the text...You've got the right inflections, the right emphases. You know exactly what you mean, and you're determined to let us know. Come on you two...For God's sake stop acting! Mumble. Mutter. Anything...Just don't explain it all." 2
That's exactly how I found the acting in Monologues from the Apocalypse - the text was explained by the actors. But perhaps this is veering far from technology and music concerns.
I found it heartening indeed to experience the way Chris has harnessed music technology to bring an extra layer of artistry to his dramatic work. He did hint at being a musician/composer himself. Perhaps he has utilised a composer's approach not only because of the technology available to him, but his own disposition to composing? Interesting times.
An example of Chris's work for the ABC can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/checklist/ .
1. Chris Williams. Lecture presented at University of Adelaide, 30 March 2006.
2. Barkworth, P. 2001 (4th edition) About Acting (pp 46 - 47) London: Methuen Publishing
Computers are responsible.
Not all computers, just the Macs and the software Pro Tools Chris uses to arrange and work with the recordings of his actors, the way an old guard composer would work with notes. He called this "sound design". 1
The concerns Chris talked about were exactly the same issues that face music composers; layering the voices, spacing, timing, flow, paring the work back for both time and artistic reasons. Chris described this composition step as "arranging for ear". (Could this be the collectively lent ear of the audience? Maybe the audience is coming back into fashion?) As he said, because he's working with voice, there is a musicality, therefore it can be approached musically. 1 Chris has gone as far as collaborating with composers in this arrangement of spoken pieces.
Well why not? If Robin Minard can compose music with sonic elements like cars driving past a building, then surely spoken voices make sense? Perhaps I have a singer's bias, but I think the voice is at the very core of musical endeavour.
The piece Chris shared with us that he had produced himself, had an actor being coached in delivering a line which included the word "Oratorio", amongst other discussions of pronunciation. I liked the piece, and I enjoyed Chris's work. It was tightly composed. The sounds of the voices worked well together. The actor delivered his line about Oratorio in a pleasingly oratory style - exactly what composers and singers aim for in Oratorio.
Did we need an excerpt of a genuine baroque Oratorio playing along? Perhaps a touch obvious, but beautifully sung Oratorio is always welcome, arranged for my ear.
Chris played us several other works, including the dramatic Monologues from the Apocalypse, where the arrangement stage was undertaken by other composers. I found this piece overblown, musically I didn't like the tone of some of the instruments the piece was scored for. This is personal preference, I believe drama, and especially tragedy are communicated best with understatement. As Peter Barkworth wrote in About Acting (2001)
"For God's sake be monotonous!" said Alan Bridges, when he was rehearsing Greer Garson and me in a scene from Crown Matrimonial. (We were doing the television version.) "You actors, you're all the same: you're all so good at explaining the text...You've got the right inflections, the right emphases. You know exactly what you mean, and you're determined to let us know. Come on you two...For God's sake stop acting! Mumble. Mutter. Anything...Just don't explain it all." 2
That's exactly how I found the acting in Monologues from the Apocalypse - the text was explained by the actors. But perhaps this is veering far from technology and music concerns.
I found it heartening indeed to experience the way Chris has harnessed music technology to bring an extra layer of artistry to his dramatic work. He did hint at being a musician/composer himself. Perhaps he has utilised a composer's approach not only because of the technology available to him, but his own disposition to composing? Interesting times.
An example of Chris's work for the ABC can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/checklist/ .
1. Chris Williams. Lecture presented at University of Adelaide, 30 March 2006.
2. Barkworth, P. 2001 (4th edition) About Acting (pp 46 - 47) London: Methuen Publishing
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