08/05/2019
Sounds geeky - all you probably didn't need to know about our backing sounds!
I'm afraid to say I can't resist a musical joke, even in a play...
The largest section is a set of marches for a parade going on the the background: The Washington Post, Semper Paratus, and Pride of Columbia. Washington Post will probably sound familiar as it's a very popular standard for US military bands, and as such, you will hear snippets of it in films; it is also the basis for a personal Sondheim favourite, "How I Saved Roosevelt" in the musical "Assassins". Semper Paratus is the motto of various regiments, meaning 'Always Ready', thus having a certain ironic appeal in this play, where nobody ever seems to be quite ready for what happened. And of course the Pride of Columbia might be said to have been stolen, as that is where our Professor Kokintz insisted on working, until he was so rudely interrupted...
Other themes used are clips of Guadeamus Igitur which is widely used as an academic theme or graduation procession, both in the US and in Europe. A lyric seems to originate around the Middle Ages, with later tune of similarly unknown origin, though it was tidied up and incorporated by Brahms as part of his Academic Festival Overture. For the US we also use a clip of Hail To The Cheif, composed by James Sanderson, and later adopted as the official Presidential Anthem of the USA.
The national anthem of Grand Fenwick was written by Christopher Sergel and the lyrics appear at the end of the script, set to an arrangement of Men Of Harlech. Our version was recorded live, in one take(!), at Tech rehearsal, by our cast and crew. This is meant to be a band of soldiers singing it, so I didn't want it too pretty - we had a quick sing through and didn't worry about the harmony I'm afraid.
Other sound effects from various sources including FreeSound under creative commons licence.
