SoundGirls: The bulk of my design centered around the opening of the show. My brief was to create an ambient hospital soundscape which built to a climax as the singers entered, changing to a gentler version of the same soundscape which played under the first unaccompanied madrigal. The soundscape then crossfaded into a pre-recorded prologue of the Health Minister addressing modern-day parliament, with raucous “hear hears” merging into the opening chords of the opera.
2 comments:
Knowing virtually nothing about sound design, I thought this was an engaging and captivating article about how to create a very specific environment in a rather limiting situation. I thought it was cool how many layers of sound she put into the design to achieve the atmosphere she was going for : the machines, doors slamming, drones and hums, etc. This article was also interesting to me because she described the differences between opera and other forms of theaters, which I didn't realize. I liked the concept of creating a mood with the sound, without scaring the audience into submission or being too quiet to hear above the music. Being able to evoke a mood is such a powerful tool, and in this show especially with the creepy-looking set and lighting it seems like pinpointing the themes of the opera was masterfully done by the sound design. It sounds like opera specifically would have a lot of problem-solving issues for sound design to work out, because of the overlap between what she is trying to do with her sound and what the singers are doing onstage.
I continue to be consistently blown away by the intricacies of sound design. To be honest, before I came here, I’d never consciously thought about sound design unless it was blatantly obvious (like a live instrument). I’ve always been someone so focused on the visual elements that sound design was never something I made the effort to recognize. However, now that I have met so many sound artists, and had the opportunity to see/hear shows that include masterful soundscapes/ soft, low, barely-there effects that rise and fall and build with the tone of the show, I am so, so appreciative of the wonderful things sound design can create. I was particularly interested in what this sound designer had to say about how she accentuated and added to the visual environment by emphasizing the cold, medical hospital setting while also creating something melodic enough to go with an orchestra. Recently, in Cloud Tectonics, I loved the low, consistent sound in the background of the “suspended music”, as well as the subtle ticks/ scrapes which emphasized the lack of time passing. While sound design has always felt like something incredibly too complicated and intricate for me to even think about doing, I love reading/ hearing about how people who do understand it are able to use it so well to emphasize time and space.
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