Music from The Crucible (repost)
Mr. Hammarton reposted his music, in case you clicked while it was reloading. First piece, “Ash.” He tweets as follows:
@ServetusRA Thank you, very kind of you to say so ! If you haven’t seen the show, there’s black ash falling onstage during it.
— Richard Hammarton (@Hammarton) August 15, 2014
@ServetusRA Ah, that's a shame. It's going into Titubas cell in act 4, all very dark, smoke and ash everywhere.
— Richard Hammarton (@Hammarton) August 15, 2014
Me + Richard Armitage 
Schööön. 🙂
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how kind of him! Thank you
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It’s a beautiful piece of music on its own merits, but I might be in a grumpy minority who just doesn’t appreciate having a musical soundtrack to stage performances. It aggressively interferes with my willful suspension of disbelief.
It really is a lovely piece, though.
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hard to say until one has seen how it works in situ, I suppose.
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Well, for me it’s just, real life doesn’t have a soundtrack. So how am I supposed to pretend I’m spying through an invisible wall on these people going about their real life if there’s conveniently atmospheric music playing? It has never worked for me, no matter how wonderful the score.
It’s different in movies because I’m already removed from the players so a different set of mental adjustments are necessary, but when they’re on stage right in front of me, music throws me completely out of the scene.
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huh. I frequently hear music playing in my mind in certain situations, but that may just be me 🙂
I suspect I’d be more bothered by the smells, myself.
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See, I actually like the idea of the smells. That to me would make the whole thing seem more real, closer, more immediate, where the music is an obvious artifice.
And yeah, I hear music in my head often, but it is only in my head. There’s no God Speaker blasting it out into the atmosphere so the entire world can hear, which is what seems to me to be happening when I hear music in live theatre.
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Love this piece…it transported me right back to the moment the ash falls onto the stage. So moving…
Without the music it wouldn’t have created quite the same atmosphere…I think the music was mood setting and didn’t in anyway interfere with the performances.
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I know I’m the odd man out in my preferences. 🙂
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If we all had the same preferences life would be terribly boring! 🙂
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I haven’t seen the play, being stuck in Canada with not enough $ for a flight — the music sounds wonderful to me…atmospheric and haunting and mysterious and makes feel a little tense.
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Hmm. Although this piece is attributed to the opening scene of Act 4- this violin melody (or a close variant) is played throughout The Crucible – from the Opening scene… to transition set-up scenes between Act 1 and Act 2 and beyond. I guess it could almost be dubbed The Crucible ‘Theme Song’. 😀
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The music does help to evoke the suspense and eariness of the scene. The black ash falling in the smoke is very effective. Sat at the front I was showered with some. Belief suspended when on close inspection the ash is plastic bin liner. How inventive and clever as it floats in same way and looks realistic.
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and not as toxic …
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