Full of Sound and Fury

I was informed the other day that this project has been accepted by William and Mary as an honors thesis. Awesome.

In addition to having another reason to get my composing done in a timely manner, I also get the privilege of having the music in the show performed as my senior recital. According to what I understand about music theses at William and Mary, 45 minutes of music = no paper writing required. You can bet "Usher" is going to come in with around 46 minutes of music (including lots and lots of underscoring).

So essentially, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is about four musicians who all come together in one house in an anachronistic 1800's:

William Reed: A wanderer from Virginia who ends up in New York with only a guitar to keep him company. He plays a beautifully emotional, progressive form of folk music.

A stretch because: I don't know anything about 1800's folk music OR writing for guitar. Luckily, my sister knows a thing or two, so I'm enlisting her to show me what's what.

Roderick Usher: A wealthy/sickly student in New York who has recently inherited his family's mansion. He is a Romantic composer who has far outstripped his professors, and his end goal is a musical event that will bring the world to bliss. His real-life inspiration, musically, is Alexander Scriabin (a composer in the early 1900's with a very similar idea).

A stretch because: A musical event that will bring the world to bliss? Outstripping professors? I am fairly confident in my ability to get into his Romantic composition style, but this may be TOO epic. We'll see.

Madeline Usher: Roderick's sister. A brilliant composer, mathematician, and scientist. She speaks openly about the theory of relativity a hundred years before Einstein. She has invented her own, "improved," form of music notation. She writes pieces that are extremely progressive and mathematically perfect in her eyes, though they may be abominations to our own ears. Her musical inspiration is the age of Serialism.

A stretch because: Serialism? Why can't she be a hardcore gangster rapper, or something else easy? Serialism in itself is not a difficult concept, but the actual production of something that sounds atonal without seeming like COMPLETE nonsense may be a slight difficulty.

Annabel Lee: Roderick's wife, or so he calls her. They are not "officially" married because Roderick doesn't believe in the church. She is a student training her voice for opera, but she also happens to play the flute.

A stretch because: This one isn't so bad. She's the only character who isn't labeled in some way as "progressive" for her time. That means I can stay in a nice, sweet Romantic mood while fiddling away at notes for her flute.


Overall, the music concept is one of stretched realism: the characters themselves will not burst out into song unless they are holding instruments and there is a good reason that they would actually be playing a song. In a house full of musicians, the excuses are many. From time to time, this sound will be filled in by chorus members playing string instruments on the side of the stage.

For an image of this approach, go out and rent the movie "Once." It also applies this realism-in-musical idea, and it does so quite well.