Farewell, Monster

A rainy Monday is the perfect time to make a long-overdue blog entry.  The eight weeks since my last entry seem have passed in a blur.  For at least the last fortnight I have been completely submerged in 'There's a Monster in My Piano' which is the new show from Garlic Theatre.  The title says it all really.  The story features a toy piano from the famous (in toy piano circles at least) Michelsonne factory in Paris which burnt down in 1970.  These pianos are now rare and sort after.  You may laugh but know this: Yann Tiersen, composer of the Amélie soundtrack, plays a Michelsonne piano.

Being a show about a piano, and not being a pianist myself, I enlisted the help of Norwich piano teacher and jazz musician Simon Brown (pictured with Monster).  He covered the Chopin, ragtime and boogie woogie piano elements.  However, I'm rather pleased with this little piece, half of which we used in the show, which shows off the toy piano while simultaneously demonstrating why you won't often hear it national radio.

It's a waltz followed by a march.  The march bears a very close resemblance to a famous classical piece of music which I'll leave you to identify.

The show was a monster in more ways than one.  As well as involving the sampling of the piano, there are three animated sequences that needed music, foley and scripts recorded and applied.  And the show as a whole is almost never silent.  So it was a relief to declare it 'in the can' at the dress rehearsal on Friday afternoon and kick off the weekend on a high.

Cartoons

But now they're called animations of course. And a friend of mine, Matt Reeve, recently asked me to write the music for one he was making to enter into a competition. The competition was organised by a company called Aniboom and called for a Sesame Street style animation.

We opted for a counting song and Matt managed two sequences to go with the same piece of music. One is called Ten Divers and the other is called Ten Cannonistas.

Clicking on either link takes you to the page where you can view that animation. If you can be bothered to vote then please do. It may help us to win, or at least remain in the top 100. Voting is a bit of a faff - you have to register - but it's election year (in the UK anyway) and you'll be glad of the practice.

I found writing a counting song surprisingly difficult, although once I got the hang of it they just kept coming. The problem was that songs move in multiples of 2, 4, 8 etc. whereas we tend to count in tens. I could have written a song that stopped at eight but, in all my years of watching pre-school TV, I didn't see any that didn't make it to ten. And somehow I don't think a composition in 5/4 would cut it with the under fives.

Well, actually I think under fives might go for a counting song in 5/4 but the judges, presumably adults, might disagree. Anyway, I'd love to know what you think of both the song and the sequences.