I am excited to announce that I was commissioned by Minnesota Public Radio to compose music with Cody McKinney for a StoryCorps event at the Fitzgerald Theater on Thursday, April 5th at 7:00pm. Tickets are free and can be reserved on the event page.

As we have learned in the last couple of weeks, composing music to be performed live as accompaniment for recorded stories poses a number of interesting challenges that are significantly different from composing music for film, animation, games, and even podcasts. First of all it is important to stay out of the way. The compositions are short and simple vignettes that may simply emphasize a point or enhance an emotional state. More than that might obscure the story or twist its message. Secondly, fewer is better than more parts. Often one instrument is enough, but more than two and you might be starting to interfere with the dialogue. The parts generally need space and atmosphere rather than density and complexity.

Thirdly, sound design is music. Yeah I said it. I believe it shouldn’t be separated from the music in this instance. Treating the sound design as an instrumental layer in the compositions has been a very good way to approach this task. Giving the sound design meter, dynamics, and rests allows it to fit well within the piece. Rests and dynamics might seem obvious, but what about meter? I don’t mean meter in the sense of literal tempo and time signature, but instead a sense of pacing so that the sound design elements enter and exit with purpose.

Fourth, but not last, including an element of theater is a valuable approach. Theatrics in music definitely gets me out of my comfort zone. Generally I am the last to agree to anything that resembles theater. However, because the stories are not being delivered by a performer, it’s helpful for the audience see what the musical performers are doing to illustrate the depth of the narratives. To that end we will be providing “tells” for many of the sound design elements, and performing most of the parts on instruments and noise making devices.