Antic Disposition: Music for Shakespeare INTRODUCTION: Music has always been a cornerstone of Antic Disposition's shows. When preparing a Shakespeare play for the stage, our aim has always been to marry his beautiful words with a striking visual picture, and in our first five Shakespeare productions, the glue that held those two elements together was James Burrows’ exceptional music. Whether creating atmosphere, suggesting location or heightening emotion, James‘ music has always struck the perfect tone. So when we began to think of ways in which we could mark the company’s fifth birthday, an album of music seemed like the ideal choice. Even we don’t know for sure how many hundreds of hours James has laboured to produce the overtures, underscores, songs and scene-changes we have asked for. What’s certain, though, is that over the past few months, he has worked harder than ever to turn these often fragmentary musical moments into five new ‘suites’. For us, listening to the tracks emerge has been a wonderful trip down memory lane – from the freezing, derelict St Stephen’s where we staged Richard III, to the sun-drenched fields of southwest France, where this music brought delight to open-air audiences hundreds strong. So, as we celebrate our first five years, we hope that this album takes you on your own musical journey of rediscovery and appreciation – and we look forward to making many new journeys with James in the future. Ben Horslen and John Risebero Directors, Antic Disposition COMPOSER'S NOTES: Richard III – My first musical collaboration with Antic Disposition and ultimately, I think, my favourite. Richard begins with black humour and descends into treachery, deceit and murder. Perfect inspiration! With its juxtaposition of an almost jaunty tuba bass-line with an altogether more sinister violin part, the overture takes a lead from film composer Danny Elfman (Sleepy Hollow, The Nightmare Before Christmas). As the play darkens, so too does the music – from the funeral mass of ‘Vae Victis’ to the chilling, music-box farewell of ‘The Princes in the Tower’. Other notable moments are the regal grandeur of ‘Coronation’, and the epic ‘The Last Battle’. Musically, this suite makes heavy use of choir and strings, with assistance from pipe organ to express the gothic nature of both the play and the setting of our production – the former church St Stephen’s in Hampstead. Since the music was initially produced in 2006, I have been lucky enough to have the assistance of Dr Hazel Fairbairn in adding live violin to not only this suite but also the music for Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing. Romeo and Juliet – An idea from director John Risebero forms the rationale behind this score. The prologue tells us very clearly that Romeo and Juliet are destined for a tragic end. The knowledge that the “star cross’d lovers” are doomed has an enormous impact on the audience’s experience of the whole play. John suggested that the score should have a similar sense of inevitability, and we decided to build the score around a single recurring melody. Musically, the main challenge was using that same simple melody to reflect the myriad of moods and emotions within the play – imperious and macabre in ‘The Capulet Ball’, reaching its most uplifting incarnation in ‘The Wedding’, and coming to a final, tragic resolution in ‘The Tomb’. Orchestration, dynamics and contextual key changes are the basis for this evolution, and helped form the majority of the music in this suite. To convey the eerily inexorable nature of the play, ice bells are heard playing a flowing ostinato at the beginning and end. Twelfth Night – For this, our first collaboration on a comedy and the first production that required actual songs, I enlisted the help of Howard Hudson, who wrote the music for ‘O Mistress Mine’, ‘Come Away Death’ and ‘The Wind and the Rain’. With this considerable head start, I orchestrated and engineered the songs, and then went about writing the pieces that would accompany them. Most of the music uses the themes from the songs, and I have included just two (of many) of the instrumental pieces written for the play. The overture (‘The Food of Love’) takes the melody from ‘Come Away Death’ and puts it into a different context to introduce our play. ‘Storm’, which sees Viola shipwrecked on an unknown shore, appropriately takes its cues from ‘The Wind and the Rain’, but with large orchestration and gongs to represent the violence of the storm and the uneasy aftermath. The songs are performed by Stephen Carlile (Algernon in AD’s The Importance of Being Earnest), who lends his superb tenor to these pieces. A Midsummer Night's Dream – This was a real departure from the shows I had composed for up to this point. The play is magical and mysterious, with both playful elements and more sinister ones. The palette of sounds was hugely important here, with use of many unusual instruments including djembe (an African drum), celesta, ney flute and detuned acoustic guitar. The resulting score is an attempt to reflect through pacing, instrumentation and scale structure, the light and shade of the play. ‘Wild Thyme’ and ‘Seasons Alter’d’, married together in this suite, are personal favourites, using odd time signatures (‘Wild Thyme’ is appropriately wildly timed in 13/8), instrumentation and chordal movements to suggest the mystical atmosphere of the scenes. To balance this, I used light strings and, pivotally, glockenspiel to represent the fairies. Much Ado About Nothing – Having gained some confidence from Twelfth Night, I took on both music- and song-writing duties for Much Ado. Again a comedy, the play’s two songs have very different moods. ‘Sigh No More’ is a light-hearted dedication to the inconsistency and ineptitude of men, beautifully and mischievously sung here by Sophie Cosson, who also sang it as Margaret in the original production. ‘Pardon, Goddess of the Night’, on the other hand, accompanies the apparent death of Hero and the lamentations of the lover who wronged her. This song was composed a cappella, but later harp was added to complete the piece. On the CD, the beautiful dusty strings harp is played by the equally beautiful Jharda, and once again sung by Sophie. The other music in the suite contains various versions of the song themes that accompanied the denials and realisations of love from the play’s central characters. A notable addition is ‘Good Men and True’, a quirky piece representing the comical constable Dogberry, featuring a somewhat unusual combination of upright bass and accordion. The Importance of Being Earnest – Okay, so it’s not Shakespeare, but this extra addition was requested by numerous audience members from the sell-out productions of 2007 and 2010. ‘A Trivial Theme’ represents the frivolous and occasionally chaotic nature of Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy. I hope the music on this CD brings back happy memories for previous audience and cast members alike, and – for those of you coming to the music for the first time – evokes the many and varied emotions of the plays it represents. James Burrows CREDITS: Music composed and arranged by James Burrows O Mistress Mine, Come Away Death and The Wind and the Rain composed by Howard Hudson and arranged by James Burrows Vocals: Stephen Carlile, Sophie Cosson Violin: Hazel Fairbairn Harp: Jharda Recorded, engineered and mixed by James Burrows Produced by James Burrows, Ben Horslen and John Risebero The producers would like to thank Stephen Carlile, Sophie Cosson, Hazel Fairbairn and Jharda, all of whom generously agreed to be a part of this recording and who lifted it to a whole new level. Special thanks also go to the multi-talented Howard Hudson for his beautiful melodies for the Twelfth Night songs. To them, and all others who helped make this album possible, many thanks.