Steampunk Voodoo

And then, on a little island in the middle of the Danube, it hit me: a Steampunk Voodoo song.

This subculture song is not the only song i’ve have to put thought into, but it’s the one i’m documenting here on the blog, and it’s proven to be the one with the longest journey to fruition.

If we recall, i was in a quandary. The last version of this song, a dirge-y, Portisheady-but-heavy and more mechanical track which showcases a youth subculture in the opera who are enamored with the mechanical mannequins in whom reside dead people…. didn’t work. It had two main flaws. One, the song was decent but not exceptional, and two, more importantly, its dirge-y nature, which fit my idea for the subculture, was a bad tempo at bad time in the larger piece. The larger piece wanted a track with a much faster tempo in that spot.

So back to the drawing board. So i thought and came up with a good idea, but there was one piece missing… i was trying to explain my issue to my wife and was telling her how my brain kept throwing the band Rusted Root up whenever i would consider this, which was just plain ridiculous, because something like Rusted Root doesn’t fit this at ALL and what the hell is my brain doing, trying to fuck up the entire show i’ve been working so hard on? (wouldn’t be the first time…)

I don’t even remember what she said, i don’t recall anything other than at some point she facetiously said the word Voodoo and BOOM. House moment. You know, where House just gets up and walks away in the middle of the person’s sentence. I didn’t walk away but it all suddenly fell into place.

The subculture… these kids raised in households all of which have mannequins; mannequins who supposedly contain the soul of some dead relative or another. Who barely move, maybe slowly turn their heads towards you when you speak, never talk themselves, but who are normal fixtures to this new generation. And this generation goes on to form a new subculture, one enamored with the dead, one alien to their parents and scary to the older generation, one featuring its own music yet still within the context of the music for the rest of the show….

Why… Steampunk Voodoo! THAT is an interesting subculture. THAT is a fucking awesome idea for a style of music i can invent. THAT can make a track that will exceptional, add a REALLY interesting element to the 3rd act.

I will use Haitian drum rhythms, the kind used for Vodoun rituals, but instead of organic drums, play them rhythms using the metallic, clanging, industrial percussion i’ve use throughout the entire opera and use a chanting theme throughout the song, backing the lead female’s lead vocal line. The instrumentation on top of the metallic, industrial Hiatian drumming will be cabaret instruments: Piano, accordian, tuba, and grinder-like organ, as well as a drum kit.

The marriage of these will create a vigorous, intense, driving track which will be in a style only describable as Steampunk Voodoo. (I do like the Haitian spelling of Vodou)  It will be the kind of music these kids make when they get together in their clubs, and the staging potential for it is through the roof.

Fits the plot needs and even suggests better ideas for Byron’s motivations. (okay, technically it would be Dieselpunk Voodoo, but we’ll get into the various Dieselpunk, Atompunk, Steampunk derivatives later, not to mention, steampunk is the better all inclusive term)

So there you go. I am going to make a song in the style of steampunk voodoo. This won’t even begin to happen for another week due to prior commitments, but stay tuned. I will post it when finished.

 

The Subculture Song

I’m actually done musically with Act 3 and now working on vocal melodies and lyrics. I, of course, am not actually signing any of the material, but i sing all the lines on the scratch tracks so the vocalists will know what to sing (they also have the option of sheet music).

So i thought since i discussed it earlier i’d post that subculture song i was talking about last week so you can see how it came out.  It’s mean to be sung by a female (who likes to dress up like a dead, mechanical doll), so keep that in mind.

I must mention that there are scratch vocals on it, BUT there are no lyrics. I am literally improvising complete nonsense syllables. Until the lyrics are written they’re there to demonstrate the melody. You must picture it NOT being my voice, and instead a girl’s, with, you know, ideally really cool lyrics.

 

Brecht: He Doesn’t Want You To Like Him. No Hugs.

He wants the two of you to be able to do it, but not get too close. Is he me in my 20s?

No. Bertolt Brecht, for the non thesbian among you,  is a reknowned German theater director from the early 20th century, who reached his zenith during the Weimar years (thought we left that behind, did you? Nah, we got a little bit of mileage left). Far and wide his most famous work is The Threepenny Opera, written with composer Kurt Weill and a “collective of writers” (think big Marxist fanboy), from which comes the song Mac The Knife. (Interestingly, it was not originally in the opera. It was added at the last minute only after one of the stars threw a tizzy and demanded to have an opening song.)

So why is he a big deal?

He wanted to drastically change theater and drama. He wanted to do away with most accepted ideas about entertainment and create a new from of theater that exists primarily as an agent of social and political change. He called this new form Epic Theater.

Sound good so far?

So, the problem is that entertainment sets out to entertain first and foremost. It draws you in and touches your heart. He wanted none of this. Plays should speak first and foremost to the the intellect. Anything which precludes thought, excites emotion and reinforces capitalistic values (did i mention he was a pretty hard core Marxist?) should be done away with.

Still with me? Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. The audience should not be emotionally engaged, as this interferes with the intellect the play should be speaking to. Thus, the audience is to be discouraged from feeling sympathy or identifying with the characters. The audience should not be allowed to be too comfortable in any respect. Dramatic devices should continuously be employed that keep the audience from losing themselves in the play, and in fact they should always feel detached and distant, alienated from the drama in front of  them.

Lighting should be bright and plain. No mood should be created.

Not only should the audience feel distant from the play, but the performers themselves should. They are not to identify with their characters either, as this would only serve to draw the audience in. Often they would speak in 3rd person and read the staging directions. Here’s an example:

“Has your excellency seen the new dancing master?”

becomes:

“He asked whether Madame had seen the new dancing-master. ”

I would pay money to see someone pitch this entire approach to a TV network as the basis for a show. I believe the closest TV ever came to this is Twin Peaks. Come to think of it, Twin Peaks is a rather decent example to show what a modern day version of this type of approach might look like. Hmm… or almost any David Lynch film after Blue Velvet now that i think about this.  I think there’s something here, but perhaps i’ll get to it some other day.

Okay. So as you can see, it’s a pretty radical approach. Brecht doesn’t want you to like his work. He wants it to be a cold, highly political, unempathic anti-experience in detached social commentary. This goes against every artistic virtue i subscribe to as an artist. Every one.

So why don’t i hate him?

First, despite his declared intention, his works were rarely so purely hard core. He would end up making decisions that favored his artistic instinct over his declared manifesto of technique.

More importantly, in seeking to break free of all the conventions of drama, he did, in fact create incredibly creative new ideas in storytelling and pioneered all types of non-linear storytelling ideas. Multiple veiwpoints of an event? Done. Breaking of the 4th wall? Jesus, he did that before eating breakfast. He built an entire career around it.

He suggested an absolutely ridiculous notion in how to create drama,, one that admit it, while reading this you’re saying to yourself is either not possible or flat out insane, and then bloody well did it, putting on performance after performance, work after work in which he innovated absolutely unseen methods of storytelling. And yeah. They’re kind of batshit insane sometimes.

In order to tell more interesting stories, someones’ gotta push the envelope and occasionally someone gotta have the balls to burn the envelope outright.

The following clip is from the opera Rise And Fall OF The City Of Mahagonny. It’s an opera, written once again with Kurt Weill. It’s not as extreme as Brecht’s later plays, but the only examples of the later stuff i could find online are all in German. Mahagonny is… an opera that satirizes operas and gives a stern lesson about the pitfalls of capitalism, but since this is Brecht we can pretty much assume this theme will be readily present at some point.

“It tells the story of Mahagonny (pronounced “Mah-ha-GO-knee”), an imaginary American city founded by three criminals on the run, where everything has been commodified, the only real crime is to be poor, and a lifestyle of over-consumption and never-ending vice is unhindered by ethics or morality. Sound familiar? Two of the city’s denizens, a prostitute named Jenny Smith, and a lumberjack named Jim Macintyre, fall in love; but when Jim runs out of cash and can’t pay his bar bill, the boss and co-founder of the corrupt city, Leocadia Begbick, has him arrested. Tried in a kangaroo court organized by the shady and the crooked, Jim is found guilty of having no money – and then summarily executed.”

Here’s an excerpt:

 

Character Background 3: Jasper, The Dead Guy

As we prepare to begin composition of the 3rd Act (in about 2 weeks) it’s becoming time to address the one character in the entire Opera who is in all 4 Acts, present in all 4 generations the show encompasses. Jasper. Who, ironically, died before the opera even begins.

At the moment i’m leaning towards 3 of the 4 generations being in love with him (Annabel, Byron and Priscilla). In any case, who is he?

Jasper comes from a family with a very respected name who was once extremely well off, but who has, within the past few generations, watched their fortune ebb away. The family name is still worth something, but there is not much behind it anymore.

Because of this, Jasper has been raised with a great deal of pressure to rescue the family name and fortune and restore the once proud line to the status they deserve. Unfortunately, Jasper really doesn’t care about all of this. He is quite content to settle down on the family’s country estate far outside of New Camden and pursue his passion for horticulture. He is interested in creating small scale food forests on limited land which can produce massive amounts and varieties of food which a family or individual can live off of indefinitely.

This is all well and good, but his family still wants their fortune back, while he argues that he can feed them and future generations and  money need not be so great of an issue. These discussions never go well, and despite his convictions, he has been raised from birth to shoulder the family expectations, and so cannot just walk away. His mother uses a potent blend of guilt and pity which Jasper, although aware of and despises, is unable to emotionally resist.

His marriage was carefully arranged while he was still in his early teens, something that he resents.  He met Annabell shortly before the wedding and was quite taken with her, although he only saw her one night. He forgot her soon afterwards.

The marriage is an unhappy one. He sees his wife as vain and shallow. She is actually quite industrious and focused, however she too is from a family with good name but waining fortune and has fully bought into the need to make as much money as possible over the course of her life in order to restore the two families’ greatness. She has less than no interest in Jasper’s interests and is disgusted with him for his reluctuance to go out and make his fortune.

He finds himself able to spend less and less time on his life’s passion, and is pushed into being a stockbroker. Interestingly enough, he has a sharp mind for it, the same logic that makes him a brilliant horticulturalist also makes him capable for being a successful stockbroker, but instead, he is complete failure at it. This is because he subconsciously sabotages himself. His resentment for his mother and wife comes out in his deliberate attempts to fail at the money making business.

The only good aspect of his otherwise miserable life is the birth of his daughter, Fay, who he loves deeply. Alas, while she is still a young child he is involved in the accident that kills him.

He is naturally somewhat surprised and not particularly pleased when he finds himself brought back from the dead by Annabel, and far less so when he is brought back later by Edgar, but the notion of seeing his daughter again calms him somewhat. Thus he remains trapped once again in the mortal coil.

 

Character Background 2: Edgar McAlistair

As we move into the 2nd Act, we arrive at the 2nd generation of McAlistairs, Annabel’s son, Edgar.

Who is he?

At the outset of the 2nd Act he is young, early to mid 20 something, no older than 25.

He is Annabel’s son. After the events of Act 1 she eventually married. Her husband was an intelligent and caring man, not very interesting or charismatic, but he could keep up generally with most of her conversation, was kind in all the small ways that make home life pleasant, and was meak enough and able to get lost in his own bookish interests that he didn’t mind Annabel’s absences when she would lock herself in her lab for days on end.

Edgar loved his father, but his father’s meakishness and boring demeanor prohibited him from being a notable role model for the boy. Edgar was always  much more enamored with his mother, who was loving and doting when it occured to her to be, and so unusual, unpredictable and interesting that he all but worshipped her.

The additional quality that cemented his adoration was the fact that while she was a loving mother, she was distractable, moody, and capable of wandering off to work out a theory or locking herself in her lab for days on end. She was not always available, either mentally or physically. This made her almost like a drug to Edgar, for he never knew when she would disconnect again.

This might have had consequences in Edgar’s teenage years, but sadly, Annabel did not make it that far. She died when he was 11 and he was raised from there on solely by his father. The loss was unbearable to Edgar. His sadness and longing and rage were almost impossible for a 12 year old to deal with.

He hit adolescence immediately afterwards.  While young men typically like to “play the field” and wrack up romantic and sexual experience, Edgar was instead very focused, loyal, and rigidly monogamous. He has abandonment issues with women, and becomes very attached to a woman,  or in his young life, girls. Girls of adolescence naturally are not so focused and like to play the field themselves, and Edgar could be very attractive at first since he has a certain intensity, but his over attachment quickly turned them off.

However, once into his early 20s, this ceased to be an issue with the right woman, and Edgar found her. Fay is an exceptionally bright young woman, well schooled, looking for a professorship in the liberal arts, and interested in security and settling down. Edgar’s attractiveness, intelligence and unswerving loyalty were the right combination for her and they fell in love and remained together for several years, with eventual marriage being a given assumption.

Unfortunately… Edgar is bright and has a little bit of family money, nothing lavish but a modest amount to get by with, but he is absolutely unfocused, with no idea what do with himself. He has an ability for practical and tactical brilliance, but he cannot become interested in a task or career for any length of time. Since he has enough money to get by he can afford to quit whichever career he has recently lost interest in and go back to moping around the house.

This eventually drives Fay crazy. It is a major contention in their relationship.

Edgar is capable of moping around the house for weeks at a time before finally going back out to try his hand at some other pursuit, which he always eventually gives up on, only to plant himself back home and begin the moping process again. As much as Fay loves him, over time this becomes a cancer in her heart towards him.

When Fay eventually meets Sillof (note: see, i told you i’d use his name!), a young, dapper, bright and incredibly industrious man of business, who is building his own series of stores successfully from the ground up with his own vigor and positive focus, he is irresistible to Fay. Fay is the perfect compliment to Sillof, artistic where he is practical, soothing, clever and of course poetic, for Sillof  is not poetic at all, and finds it to be the most wonderful quality he can imagine, one he himself cannot possess. They are drawn together, and despite her love for Edgar, she cannot resist Sillof and leaves Edgar heartbroken and abandoned again.

And thus we begin the 2nd song of Act 2 (the first song of each Act is always a Narrator song, a tango, which brings us up to speed on how the city of New Camden has changed in the passing generation).

 

The Steampunk Opera Overture (demo version)

I sit here in a tine old, village house in the mountains of southern Serbia madly composing away. My wife has taken our beautiful little toddler to Belgrade in order for me to work uninterupted. I rise each morning, eat, chop wood (it’s winter and heat here is OLD school) and sit down in my studio to compose.

And so it’s about time to start sharing. Here is the demo version of the Overture (or Prologue… can’t decide exactly which). As such it will not have vocals.  I don’t know how i’ll tweak it down the road, but for now here’s the first peak at the Steampunk Opera music.

(I should add, this video is just a still image. It’s simply a way to showcase the music. I’ve tried many other methods on other sites and blogs, but i found overwhelmingly, people prefer vids, even if the vid is just a picture. Go figure.)

 

Plots, loops, and coincidence.

After deciding on a steampunk opera,  i had the small issue of coming up with a plot.

A friend was visiting from the states and together we went to Belgrade for a few days. While there i saw a book in a bookstore, which stood out not only because it was one of the only things in English in the entire place, and not only because i was blindingly hung over and could only focus on a narrow slice of the world to being with, but because of it’s title. Escher Loops.

I don’t know the book, have never read it, but i was fascinated by the idea that the plot for the Steampunk Opera could be a narrative escher loop:

Escher stairs

The piece would have 4 Acts, each relating to the other in ironic situations and motifs, and the end of the entire piece ends up in some way back at the beginning.

I was delighted by this idea and tried to think about it further, but good Lord that hangover…

The next day, after seeing my friend off at the airport, i began the 3 hour drive back to Soko Banja, and it was on the car ride that the story unfolded.

It did not quite adhere to the Escher Loop idea so firmly, but it does in some ways loosely hold to it.

Now since i clearly can’t just give the plot away point blank, i will say this: the opera takes place in a fictional city, at the moment, New Camden.  Probably early 20th century. The world it inhabits is one of alternative history. For the sake of the opera, the actual world history is irrelevant, however, i’m building it anyway just for the sake of immersive world building. I’ll post the alt history in a later post. But i do know that the American Revolution was roundly squashed by the British and there is no United States. New Camden may be one of the Northern American industrial cities, which is of course British.

The opera has 4 acts, about 20 minutes apiece.  Each act follows a different generation of a particular family line. The singers/actors in one generation are different characters in the next, although that how their interactions change and switch and situations between them turn, can be quite interesting. There is a narrator and her songs are a mix of dark cabaret and tango music. The opera opens with Annabel McAlastaire, a brilliant but slightly emotionally off kilter scientist, attempting to bring the dead man she was in love with back to the land of the living.

One thing that occured to me while working out the plot: i like irony in my plot. There’ll be a bunch of it (hopefully not too contrived), but in reflecting on coincidences and stories, i realized that if one is told a tale which has all sorts of fortunate coincidences, the audience will dislike it,  more strongly the more synchronicities it has. But tell a tale in which all manner of UNfortunate coincidences occur, ones which serve to screw the protagonist in more and more clever and ironic ways, and the audience will enjoy the hell out of it and find it endlessly amusing.

Go figure.

(My plot is neither of these. I’m just saying.)

 

I am going to make a Steampunk Opera.

I  am starting this blog in order to declare my intention to make a Steampunk Opera and to document the process.

Hi. My name is Paul Shapera and I make music under the name Mocha Lab.  I will be posting many selections of my work to date so that you can get an idea of what kind of composer/music producer I am as well as other great artists whose music falls within range of this project. I’ll post on the process and details of putting a theater show up (in London, although i myself am American currently living in Eastern Europe) from the first intention to create it to the opening performance (and Gd forbid beyond).

A theater director in London, Mark Swetz, asked me about doing an opera or some other show that I might be interesting in composing. Sadly, I can’t stand opera. I like much of the orchestration, and I like the male crescendos, but in general the entire style of singing drives me beserk.

I am thoroughly well versed in musical theater, but about 10 years ago I had the realization that I couldn’t stand it anymore.  Sondheim can still work for me and I have a very soft spot for a few musicals I listened to when I was young, but you know… once again the style of singing and corniness just drives me nuts. (If, however, i had to list my 3 top musicals, they’d be Into The Woods, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Les Miserables. So there you go.) I have made several theater shows, including and especially the multi-media show The Fallen which is also on it’s way to be put up in the states, but we’ll get into that another day.

I whimsically thought about a steampunk opera, in which I would create a new genre, building heavily off of the Dark Cabaret movement (Dresden Dolls, Birdeatsbaby, Jill Tracy, Vermillion Lies… most of which I must confess I only discovered once I decided to write this opera.  Actually all I knew was Dresden Dolls, of which I’ve been a big fan. Discovering and exploring a new genre is half the fun of conceiving this). I decided to make this because after whimsically throwing the idea out, I started finding that more and more of my leisure thoughts were being spent working out ideas for the opera.  When one becomes obsessed with an artistic idea without trying to, it is a clear sign you must make it. So I contacted Mark and told him i must must MUST write a steampunk opera. He gave it a big thumbs up and wait now to hear what i’m actually going to do.

I”ve worked out a plot which i’ll go into at a later date and i’m starting the blog now, because today i will be sitting down to play the first notes of music. We’re starting at the beginning, The Overture (or Prologue, depending). I like to go in order of the story.

We’ll talk later. In the meantime I leave you with a sample of another more lighthearted musical story i’ve made. This is the first track off of Cthulhu: The Funksical, by Mocha Lab of course.