Mark R. Bannister
Orchestral & Instrumental
Composer for Film, TV & Theatre
THE TEMPEST "Be not afeard;
the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about my ears"
An outdoor production of Shakespeare's The Tempest
by the Richmond Shakespeare Society in July 2017. The character of Ariel was split into
three parts, which led to the decision to write many of their songs as three-part
harmonies. It was decided early on in production planning that the magical elements in the play
should have an oriental influence, and so the instrumentation followed suit.
There were no sound effects in this show. Instead, the
hunting dogs, hawks, thunderstorms and rough sea sounds were imitated entirely by music.
These were created by listening carefully to the real sound effects and devising ways
of reproducing the tones and rhythms with orchestral instruments and percussion.
The music for the show fell largely into two categories: songs
with a Chinese feel, and dance where I use orchestral instruments to imitate sound effects.
Traditional Chinese music varies by dynasty and is split by
northern and southern China, and the choice of instrumentation has been influenced by the sounds
available on modern digital pianos used in the show's production. I have reproduced
the sounds of paigu drums (double-sided wooden drums where each side may be tuned separately
and often played in groups of 5), paixiao (Chinese panpipes with mouths cut at an
angle to allow pitch bending), ruan (moon-shaped fretted lute with 4 silk strings) and
erhu (2-stringed fiddle with a horse-hair bow mounted between the strings and a soundbox covered
in python skin) among others in the music.
Grouping notes or rhythms in pairs reflecting the harmony of
yin and yang, having one main tune repeated by two instruments playing slightly out
of time with each other, and the 5-note (pentatonic) scale are other traditional
elements that I have used and are inspired by Chinese culture.
The Tempest (Fighting the Storm)
score
mp3
The Tempest Piano Medley
score
mp3
Full Fathom Five
score
mp3
Yellow Sands
score
mp3
While You Here Do Snoring Lie
score
mp3
Ceres' Blessing
score
mp3
Where The Bee Sucks
score
mp3
Magic Banquet
score
mp3
Freedom Chant
score
mp3
Harpies
score
mp3
The Hunt
score
mp3
Miranda
score
mp3
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