The Evolution of Sound Design for the Stage

7/30/2019 The Evolution of Sound Design for the Stage

1/13

Development of Background Sound and

Special Effects for a Live Performance

The Evolution ofSound and

Sound Design forthe Stage


2/13

Tribal Gatherings, Rituals and Ceremonies

Use of drum, rattles, and flutes

Sound to add emphasis to the event

Medieval Drama

Use of specialized devices to create an

illusion

Thunder, Rain, Explosions, other natural

effects.

Beginnings


3/13

Sound was a necessary element in theseworks.

Not all sights seen in the course of actionby the characters were (or could be)shown to the audience, but all the soundsheard by the characters could be, and

were, heard by the audience. In otherwords, sights were sometimes imaginedby sounds, never. W.J. Lawrence

SHAKESPEARE


4/13

In Elizabethan Theatre music functioned to

create atmosphere and to effect transitions.

Musical calls to summon characters to the stage. A sennet or a flourish if he was royalty, a tucket if

he be a gentlemen, and perhaps the notes of a post

horn if he brought an urgent dispatch. stage directionsin an early prompt book.

Many scripts had references to off-stage sounds or

noises off: Bells, alarms, clocks, whistles, chimes,

thunder, baying hounds, crash of armor, the clash

of swords, etc.

SHAKESPEARE


5/13

Taste in sound and sound effects followed

the ebb and flow of popular movements of

each period style.

Opera and Ballet flourished during this

period.

The Restoration, Neoclassical, andRomantic Periods


6/13

REALISM

Attention to realistic details highlighted the workof the Moscow Art Theatre

The Seagullwas to become a revolutionary

production Utilized a large number of lighting and sound

effects.

Darkness, an August evening. The dim light of alantern on top of a lamp post, distant sounds of a

drunkards song, distant howling of a dog, thecroaking of frogs, the crake of a landrail, the slowrolling of a distant church-bell

from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov


7/13

Wilder offered an opportunity (in 1938) for

a company of actors to create a completesoundscape with live effects.

First production used no recorded sounds.

Thornton Wilders Our Town


8/13

Grew in popularity from the 20s through the

40s.

Radio Drama even impacted Television

programming.

Use of live sound effects and some pre-recorded

effects.

A Prairie Home Companion:a contemporaryexample of that style of radio show.

Guy Noirmystery drama

Live Radio Theatre


9/13

Limited until the mid-1930s

Sound effects recording became more readilyavailable.

Bertold Brecht (Expressionism and Epic Theatre)one of the innovators with the use of recordedsound and sound effects.

By the 1950s tape recorders began to replace

record players as the main source of sound andsound effects (although often consideredunreliable).

Pre-Recorded Sound


10/13

Directors with Hollywood backgrounds

(Garson Kanin and Arthur Penn) were the

most innovative.

They tried to emulate the sound of cinema.

Tapes and records were unreliable and

the sound quality was often poor.

Often the first time a sound cue was heard

in rehearsal was during the 1st Tech.

Broadway and the 1950s


11/13

Dan Dugan credited as the first designer.

Worked at the American Conservatory Theatre in

San Francisco in the late 1960s

Broadway productions of Hair and Jesus Christ

Superstar also listed sound designers Bob Kernan & Abe Jacob respectively

By the early 1980s reel-to-reel tape recorders,cassette decks, midi sampling keyboards and

the like were common in professional theatres.

The First Theatrical Sound

Designer


12/13

1990s brought CDs, mini-disk players, DATrecorders, samplers, and the ubiquitous desktopcomputer.

As the cost of this equipment came down itsaccessibility for smaller theatre operations wentup.

Advances in software (computer controlled

sound systems) allowed the Sound Designer togain the level of control that the LightingDesigner has enjoyed for almost two decades.

End of the 20th Century


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Once theatre directors and designers realized

the impact of sound and sound effects in the

cinema it was quickly adopted.

Where once pre-recorded music was only used for

pre-show and curtain call; now entire performances

are underscored with music and ambient sound.

Innovations in technology continue to effectsound and sound applications for live

performance. (Show Control MIDI)

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The Evolution of Sound Design for the Stage