BUSY from the musical Mrs. Mephistopheles Kitchen

[WPeppercorn]

I have enjoyed using VSL to bring my symphonic works to life. However, I really purchased VSL Special Eds. 1 and 2 to create performance CDs for musicals. Several years ago, I teamed up with a colleague to write several musicals; to date we have written six and have enjoyed 27 performances in the Cincinnati area to many sold out crowds. Our philosophy was and is to provide high quality musicals with all the instrumental music pre-recorded on CDs. The performers just sing along with a cued CD during the live performance. Since most US community theater and high school theater groups are on a very limited budget, the performance CD allows them to save a substantial amount of money that would have to be spent on hiring live musicians.

Here is an example..."Busy" is the opening number to "Mrs. Mephistopheles Kitchen", a two act musical comedy. The opening scene is a hectic newsroom at a television station. Office workers are scurrying about trying to meet imposible deadlines. Everything you hear is VSL Special Eds. 1 and 2 except for an added drum kit plug-in:

"BUSY" (less vocals)

[Jos Wylin]

Fantastic Wayne. I'm sure the performers will have enjoyed it, just like myself (only listening). Glad to see your (not-so-classical) other works.

Max

[WPeppercorn]

Thank you Max. It's fun music to write although it can be challenging too. My colleague writes the scripts and song lyrics then sends them to me. He always gives me a feel of what "mood" he want to create in the scene: my challenge is to capture his ideas in music. Often I will have to slightly modify the lyrics for one reason or another but he always goes along with my suggestions. The key is to read the entire script and have a good handle on what's happening on stage at any given time...then the music seems to almost write itself. The third leg to the stool is the production manager who will always see things a bit differently from the composer and writer when in production. But musically, all I have been asked to do is change a song's pitch up or down a half step to accommodate a local singers range...and that's so easy to do with today's software (just think of having to transpose a song for a live band...lot's of work and sheet music to print and send out... and of course they always want it today for practice).