Compositions for theatre

The compositions I realize for the theater are always made in close collaboration with the theatrical team, and more particularly with the Director. The music touches a sensory and emotional dimension. It is essential to be attuned to the Director, to be able to understand clearly his desires whenever he already has a precise idea on the question. Hence a regular communication with the Director is essential, so that successive attempts enrich the initial musical pattern. The music must fit the actors, and the way they move: they must understand it and be able to interact with it. For this purpose it is important for me to attend rehearsals, in to capture the body language of the various actors on stage.

In theater, Sound does not mean necessarily Music, it can also mean scenography, or sound effects. For that purpose, the use of a simple sound file which we would just play and stop at a precise moment raises several problems. The first one is the rigidity of such an approach, as the generation or the synthesis of the sound on stage needs more flexibility. The distribution of several sounds at the same time, for example a sound of atmosphere which will be heard along a whole scene, and a short sound representing an event which the spectators do not see, should be thought and prepared beforehand, as they impact the way sounds will be broadcast.

For these reasons, all my sound files and compositions are embedded into a Max/MSP patch specially designed and optimized for the play.

Compositions for movie

My compositions for movies depend obviously on the type or genre of the movie. For example, the work made on the documentary Grande Armée was composed like a classical music which fits the image, and which emphasized the reconstruction‘s scenes. When it was possible, sounds taken during the shootings, or being a part of the soundtrack of the movie, were integrated into the music. In the same way, songs taken during the shooting were used as a reference to compositions. In this way, the music of this movie contributed to bring coherence to all sequences of the movie.

On the opposite, for a movie such as So is this how they make Candy? which is a cartoon, the use of synthetic sounds, reflecting the texture of the objects represented in the movie, appeared to me a more sensible choice.

It is obviously important to discuss for a long time with the Director, in order to clearly identify his desire. Every Director brings his own musical tastes, and his expectation of the music’s role with respect to his work. It is essential for me to perceive very fast for what he expects from my intervention: a big quantity of proposals, a help to conceive the sound in general, or on the contrary a true execution of the idea he bears with him.