After our original sound designer stepped down, we needed music for the show. Ryan Sternbaum, who plays Gonzalo, took on the position of composer. Something that kept coming up during the rehearsal process was Caliban's monologue with the phrase "full of noises." This phrase permeated throughout other parts of the show, including a soundscape at the beginning and within the title of a piece composed by Ryan in the last couple weeks before The Tempest opened. Dramaturg Kimberly had the opportunity to interview him to learn more about his composition process see how this title came to life.
Who are you, what is your role in the show, and how did you obtain it?
My name is Ryan Sternbaum. I play Gonzalo in the show and I am currently writing the score for the production.
I auditioned like everybody else and afterwards, we talked a lot about how Gonzalo works as a character. I tend to be very rambly with things and I have a lot that I like to say about stuff and that really transfers over to this character who is very similar.
He has his beliefs and he makes them known and he talks about them pretty actively. And we talked about how that plays into the character that goes with it.
What has the process of composing the show been like?
Matthew asked me in rehearsal one night if I'd be interested in writing two pieces of music for the show. I wrote one song to begin with: it was a very simple guitar melody that I put a drone behind and then added some extra details. Then I asked Matthew if I could write a theme that would play behind certain moments of the show. It's a very simple theme, three notes in an arpeggio, and we tried putting it behind certain moments. Then we decided that we wanted more music for the show. It’s been a process of trying to figure out what moments should have music and where we want to leave silence. For example, Prospero’s “we are the stuff that dreams are made on” monologue is going to be different than the storm itself.
What was the appeal of Gonzalo being a musician?
Matthew and I had a lot of conversations about how magic in the island works and how each character connects to it. And when Matthew decided he wanted Gonzalo to be the fool, but also the prophet, we wanted him to have a way to tap into that magic. for us, we thought that music was the way to do that. I'm a musician, I love music. It is a large part of everything I do, and there is genuine power in music. The fact that sound waves can get us to feel a certain way is magical. Gonzalo mentions music a few times. He mentions hearing humming in the island and we thought we could connect that to the show.
Do you have anything else to say about your personal connection or Gonzalo's connection to the music being composed?
There's a lot of connections to the music and the people in the show. I've talked to people in the cast about what instrument they feel best connects to their character. All of the music is written with that in mind. During the storm, you hear the instruments that represent Prospero, the spirits, Caliban, and Ariel. And when we have moments between Ferdinand and Miranda, it's a flute and a violin, which Molly Kate had given to me as what they feel represents these two characters.
The music of this show is very repetitive. Some of them have their own unique things, but there is a constant theme that Matthew and I talked about. The love theme of when a character gets what they want or when they are reaching out for what they want, you hear the same melody behind them in the instrument that represents their character.
Tell me a little bit more about the musical motifs you came up with and why they are or where they are in the show.
There are a couple of main motifs in the show. There's the love theme, which I just mentioned. I played it on a piano, so there's something simplistic about it and longing in it. When it appears, it doesn't overpower what’s happening onstage. It floats beneath the words.
The other big motif is the storm motif, which appears in the “fair is foul and foul is fair” monologue and during the actual storm sequence when the ship is being sunk. It appears again during Caliban’s “the Isle is loud and full of noises” monologue, where I'm playing it on my dulcimer in a different key to symbolize that the energy that's being harnessed for something destructive can be very positive and beautiful in the eyes of those who live on the island.
Tell me more about "Full of Noises" - is that a title?
The full of noises section is really Caliban's moment. The full of noises motif is the same as the love motif, which is very simple and appears often in the rest of the music. I named it full of noises because it is the island responding to what is happening.
As much as this show is named after the tempest, it only takes up two minutes of our show. The show is the aftermath of what the storm leaves in its wake.
We come to learn throughout the show that it leaves redemption, it leaves love. It leaves the characters a chance to come to terms with what they've done and who they are so they can find something better. The noises that the Isle is full of can’t be something dark. It has to be something beautiful. It can turn dark, but it brings with it opportunity and joy.
Is there anything else you want to say about the music itself or something you really want the audience to know?
This music has come from a lot of different places. I'm a self proclaimed folk musician. It’s what I do. It's the area of study in music that I have a firm grasp of. I have been doing research on sea shanties recently, and how that stems off of traditional American and Irish work music. I found where that style fits into this show with simple motifs that repeat themselves and change, almost opposed to the really huge moments of the storm.
When Matthew asked me to write the storm, my first instinct was Davy Jones's theme from Pirates of the Caribbean. In one of the later scenes in our show, they talk about the dread organ pronouncing the name of Prosper. I thought it would be interesting for the “Fair is foul” monologue as well as the storm itself to have that organ be realized. I listened to that Davy Jones song a bunch, and it turned into something where it starts with this mass and swell that the organ takes over before coming back into the spirits and instruments that are really kind of pulling the strings of the storm itself.
This music is shaped very much by the people in this show and what they felt their characters represented and how they felt their characters acted.
The Full of Noises motif changes a lot depending on which character it is. For Caliban, it's very melancholic and slow and low. It's grounded to the earth. For Ariel, it's really staccato and it bounces as it moves because that character is very inhuman and almost nonsensical. And then for Ferdinand and Miranda's version of the theme, they finish each other's phrases because they finish each other's scansion in the show. The love that connects them is very dependent on the other person so I want their music to represent that. I want Prospero's music to represent the fact that they've really tied this show together and they brought all the characters together. I want the spirits to feel very connected to each other and yet individual in what they were doing.
What has been your favorite part of the show process?
With Gonzalo, exploring moments with the other shipwrecked has been interesting. Finding how those characters interact has been really fun because I love working with Shea and Lynnlee and Luke. They're the only people I do scenes with for the most part and I love working with them even though our characters don't really like each other so much.
My favorite moment with composing the show has been where Matthews said “sit at the piano during the run, and any moment that you feel like you want to underscore, play something. That's a unique experience; to get to write as the show is happening versus seeing a moment, going home, figuring out what it's gonna be. It's very different and it's very fun.