Dark/creepy sounding tribal/celtic/classical music

E

EPAC_Matt

Member
Heya

Our fall production this year is going to be Bill Shakespeare's MacBeth :) Our director wants this production to be just about as scary as possible, so sound and lights are going to have a rather large part in this production.

I'm the sound design team lead and the sound board operator, so my task right now is to come up with some music and sounds to aid in creating the spooky atmosphere. Our director specifically would like a very african/tribal percussion mixed with classical st rings, however I'm going to need some suggesitons as to what I should look into :)

Here's a sample clip of what we're using for the beginning of the show. This was taken off the Buffy soundtrack, and the composer is Christophe Beck. Anyone know of any other composers with this style of music?

I've been listening to some Edgen (edgen.com/music) and he has some amazing free music, however his pieces sound a bit too "epic" and not "creepy" enough. Perhaps I should look into the types of music used on those ghost hunting documentaries you see on the travel and discovery channel?

Any suggestions would be greatly appricated! Thank you for your assistance.

Regards,
Matt Carpenter
Eastlake Performing Arts Center
 
puremoods sometimes have gd songs for theatre and look for "Dies Irae" - one really scary track on it
 
Lots of artists to consider...too many to list..truely depends on the style you want...but given the Buffy stuff--try cuts from the soundtrack to the game HALO...some tracks there which could work for ya. Give a listen...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000067UO7/?tag=controlbooth-20

Also look at stuff by John Williams as he has some good creepy music in some movie soundtracks (like Star Trek Wrath of Khan and Empire of the Sun) that I have used occasionally...

Another good artist to check out would be Kitaro...one track "God of Thunder" is a culmination of nothing but drums Japanese and Native American--very cool track..when it gets really kicking its using a dozen of those big japanese drums (tyko?) all mic'ed and mixed together playing at the same time with no compression...so be warned--it WILL blow your subs if you pump it too loud. I've run into a lot of car-kiddies with the bass bins in their cars and lots of attitude like they have the baddest bass rig in the world that can take anything--well to my amusement all their subs blow out with that track kicked up. :lol:


-wolf
 
Check out Mark Mothersbaugh and Maurice Ravel. They're a bit more western American/European styles but they're definitely creative. They're mostly classical, but Mothersbaugh does do other stuff. He did all the music in the rugrats, doug funny show, royal tennenbaums, and many movies. String Quartet in F Major (second movement) by Maurice Ravel would be an excellent peice for this show, not for a too dramatic part. But for something rather happy or just plain mellow.
 
It would probably be nice to get some Celtic music into MacBeth. You might check Afrocelts - celtic instruments with African percussion. May not meet your "creepy" requirement, though. Some old Clannad songs may have the sound you want, too, but many of their songs have a vocal.

Joe
 
I remember this one song on a creepy radio station at an art camp. It just had a one bongo beat beating and a tambourine. Over that, there was a high pitched singer going MEEEEOOOOWWWWW,
GO GO GO. I forget the name and I need to find it again. Does anyone know the song title?
 
I've done Macbeth with a live Cetlic band heavy on pipes (Uilleann) and flute, whistle, bodhran, bass drum, etc. They sufficiently made a very spooky atmosphere (which fits so well with Macbeth for obvious reasons... well except that the Uilleann pipes are Irish not Scottish, but whatever, highland pipes are just too loud).
I am sure you could find some sufficient tracks, there are many movies that used this sort of music in this way... Last of the mocheans for instance.
Personally Id record it myself just for the show (or better; live), but I have a lot of Celtic Music connections to abuse.

Just another idea!
Unfortunately a lot of the stuff you might easily find may fit the "epic" bill better than "creepy", most people don't just LISTEN to the less epic stuff lol.

A few artists Perhaps to search quick and see if you can find anything that fits (might not turn up the style you want at first; faster peppy stuff tends to get more views)...

Archie Fisher
Paddy Keenan
Celtic women
Loreena McKennitt

Oh jeez, I know I had more in my head when I started typing them out but they've left me lol

Cheers.
 
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