This is the final part in a five part series on the similarities in challenges faced by composers of both games and theatre, and the similar evolution of their solutions.
In the first post I talked about those challenges brought about by the live and interactive nature of theatre and games, respectively: timings change, and are never the same from one performance, or gameplay, to the next.
In the second I talked about the techniques of using loops and stings to face those challenges.
In the third, I talked about assembling those loops and stings in QLab, for theatre, by using Mic Pools QLab Cook Book technique of a silent looping bar and a devamp cue to make sure that the assembly of loops and stings, along with fades, was seamless.
In the fourth, I talked about horizontal layering as a way of adding interest and varying musical intensity synchronised to events in long pieces of music.
Horizontal Resequencing
Horizontal resequencing is a commonly used technique for game scoring that I also often use in live shows where I’m also conducting the band.
Obviously, given the respective ages of the art of games vs art of theatre, of course this technique was used in theatre first, but I really like the name given to the technique in games music – with prerecorded or midi-sequenced music – so I’m applying it to theatre too. If there’s a theatrical name for it (beyond ‘vamping’ which doesn’t quite describe the whole technique) do let me know.
Sometimes when composing for a very long section of theatrical script with a continuous underscore, I’ll split the score up into sections – say, 16 bar repeating (looping) sections labelled 1, 2 and 3 (or more if the sequence is longer and has more moments of change).
We’ll repeat section 1 til a certain dialogue cue line, then I’ll conduct a ‘bar in’ and we’re into section 2, etc etc.
The music must change on the beat though or, better, on the bar line, and this is always much easier when conducting live instrumentalists. When using horizontal resequencing with prerecorded music in QLab I’ll use the QLab Cook Book technique of the ‘silent looping bar’ again to make sure changing to the next looping section happens on the beat, along with short stings to cover the moment when changing from one long looping track to another.
I’ve been using this technique for at least 8 years now but I didn’t know it had a name until I read Winifred Phillips’ book ‘A Composer’s Guide to Game Music’. If you’d like to buy the book (I recommend it for composers getting into game music), please try to source it second hand or from an ebook seller other than Amazon (eBooks.com, Kobo), if you can. Sustainabilty and avoiding Amazon at all costs is the way to the future, fellow creatives.
Here’s a section of music from ‘Let Him Eat Cake’, from Slung Low‘s 15 Minutes Live series, that uses this technique. The section numbers are highlighted.
And here’s the full radio play. I think you can just about hear the cue from the score above at around 13.00:
This is the fifth part in a 5 part series on how theatre and games music composition techniques are so very similar – having evolved out of the same challenges. I hope you enjoyed it!