Sweeney Todd Accompaniment*

I was in a production of Sweeney Todd playing Mrs. Lovett, (BEST ROLE EVER! I'd def. do it again.)

...aaand I did some accompaniment tracks for the production.  I did instrumental tracks, and individual section parts (for the ensemble bits).

Here are some of the instrumental versions and some with piano playing all the melodies.  Some of the tracks have metronome additions.   If you want more, contact me.  I didn't do all of them, and obviously more with Lovett than other characters. (I had more uploaded, but 4shared terminated my account, so working to upload everything again... Whomp whomp.)

#01 Prologue (Ballad) - All Voices

#08 - Johanna (Part I - Anthony) Instrumental

#27 Searching (Part I) - Both Voices (Almost the hardest song in the whole damned musical.  Curse those rhythms!)

#29 Final Scene (Part I) - Both Voices (Hardest song in the whole damned musical.)

Concert Accompaniment*

I helped accompany part of a vocal concert put on my my wonderful voice teacher, Jennifer Farmer and her friend Trey on May 9, 2012.

Here are 3 of the 4 songs I accompanied:

"Adolfo" from "The Drowsy Chaperone  (Trey was soooo funny!)

Mozart "La Ci Dorem la Mano" (Don Giovanni)

"Soon it's Gonna Rain" - The Fantastiks  (This one's been stuck in my head for ages!)

Fun concert - I learned a lot, and Trey and Jenn were awesome!  So nice of them to give a free concert for her students!  <3

The Witch*

Exciting news!  The site I was using to upload all my audio files kicked me off, so hardly any of the audio tracks on the blog work any more.  Slowly trying to fix all that.  Anyhow, here's a consolidation of all "The Witch" Project info and music, all in one.



I also did a whole write up about what each of the tracks mean, how I composed them, and what instruments I used, and include the artwork.  HERE'S the link to the first entry.  (I've deleted the audio links in the description-blogs, as they no longer work, so if you want to listen, listen using the music player above.)

And here's a video about the game!

Commercial for Bluebird*

I was asked to write the music for a commercial.

Here's the result:

Garageband loops, Accordion, and Ukelele.

You'll Never Leave Harlen Alive*

I'd forgotten I'd recorded this! Wow... a foray into country music... who wudda thunk?

Brad Paisley's "You'll Never Leave Harlen Alive" - a capella.



I recorded this in my room with the cruddy speaker on my laptop. It's all one take, and with just a wee bit o' reverb thrown in. I first heard this song in the 1st season of Justified, so thank you Brad Paisley. Baring me adding in a little too much of a suthan drawhl to a couple wahrds, It's not a bad a capela cover.

Shakespeare's Richard III Lecture

My best friend's mum, Ianthe Swensen invited me to lecture on Richard III at the Santa Rosa Junior College. I put something together that morning, and here's my mini-lecture!



And then at the end, I took them through this AWESOME website with Ian McKellen:

http://www.stagework.org.uk/mckellen/mckellen_assets/mckellen_standard-tc.htm


Here are the notes I threw together before the fact. I'm putting them up here more for me than anyone else.

NOTES ON RICHARD III

First of all, it's the 2nd longest Shakespeare play next to Hamlet

Secondly, no other character in Shakespeare has as many lines as that of Richard III.

I'm a villain person. I love me a good villain, which is why, even though the play of Richard the III isn't my favorite SKPR play, Richard III himself is my favorite character of all time.

The play begins with a monologue - one of the best known openings in Shakespeare:
"Now is the Winter of Our Discontent made glorious Summer by this sun of York."

Richard is speaking about two things at the same time. Most broadly, he's using a weather metaphor. Winter is made summer by the glorious sun. He is also speaking about the great country of England: England's discontented winter of war and sorrow has given way to a wonderful season of peace and prosperity, brought about by a King from the house of York, and Richard's brother, George, Duke of Clarence. The House of York, along with that of Lancaster, are the two feuding families in the famous War of the Roses, which lasted 117 years, and ended with Richard III's death. All of Shakespeare's history plays except King John are about kings during this feud.

Richard is also speaking directly to the audience, which he does often throughout the course of the play. He has 3 monologues in the first scene, and one at the end of scene ii.

In the first monologue, Richard III does several things:

He is establishing himself as the protagonist, although not the hero, certainly, as he quite clearly tells the audience. "I will prove myself a villain, and hate the idle pleasures of these days."

He serves as an introduction to the events leading up to the play: (England is recently at peace, and is ruled by the house of York, Richard has already spread rumors to spur his two elder brothers: Clarence, and King Edward, to fighting. "Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous, by drunken libels, prophesies and dreams, to set my brother Clarence & the King in deadly hate - the one against the other.), and also, his plans for the first leg of the play: his brother Clarence shall be locked up in the tower of England. (And if King Edward be as true and just as I am subtle, false, and treacherous, this day shall Clarence closely be mewed up.)

Shakespeare didn't write in any stage directions. Also, the actors didn't rehearse nearly as much as they do these days, and sometimes, not at all. Copyright, and the idea of artistic property is relatively new to law, and didn't exist at all in Elizabethan times. So theft was rampant, and within days of a new show going up, it was being performed elsewhere by a different troop of actors. So to protect against this, play authors used something called "cue scripting." Right before the performance, all the actors would be given rolls of manuscript with ONLY their lines and the line right before theirs, their "cue." (That's where the term "role" comes from, to mean the part an actor gets.) The actors might be told a little bit about their character before the show, but they often wouldn't know their entrances and exits. They would be shoved onstage knowing nothing at all about the play. So authors would have to give direction and character descriptions all within the dialogue so that the actors had some inkling as to what to do.

So in Richard's opening monologue, Richard describes himself... for the actor
"I that am rudely stamped...
I that am curtailed of this fair proportion
cheated of feature by dissembling nature
deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
into this breathing world scarce half made-up,
and that, so rudely and unfashionable,
that dogs bark at me as I halt by them."

Furthermore, all throughout the scene, he's cuing the other actors in and out, 1st, so that he knows to whom he is speaking, and 2nd, so that his fellow actors will know when to come in.

"Dive thoughts, down to my soul, here Clarence comes."

And yet is Clarence coming onstage all alone? Let's find out!
"Brother good days! What means this armed guard that waits upon his grace?"
Clarence has guards! (Cue, other actors guarding Clarence run in after him.)

And when Clarence leaves, "How now, the new delivered Hastings!"