Description
Joby Talbot describes his vision for the music for’ Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland’. He describes his overriding desire for it to be extraordinary and magical. Talbot talks about the various compositional challenges of working on the two hour piece. He describes the need for characterisation, motif, variation, through line and excitement. He explains the difference between composing for dance and film and the difficulties of having to compose before any visual design has taken place. We are also given an insight to his background and how he became involved in composing for dance.
Classroom Ideas
This clip could be used to illustrate the role of the professional music composer for a large scale dance production and the difficulties he faces to make sure that the music is designed in line with the style and musicality of the dances.
Following the clip, students could be divided into groups and be provided with a short piece of music, of various styles. Students could listen to the music and consider the ‘story’ behind this music. They could write down their interpretation of the story, and then work together to choreography a dance piece which complements the story-telling to an audience. After the each group performance, the rest of the students could be asked to describe their understanding of the story, based on the music and dance combination.
