Rehearsal four and five

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• Katie and I went to the Shambles in York to record a “typical Saturday night” in hopes that it would be representative of the 1500s, albeit with varying modern technological sounds, and from the resulting video recordings I put together an audio piece to use as an interlude entitled “shambles ramble” (Thank you Richard and Ivanna)

• after the open rehearsal we reviewed our recordings and videos of the work to date, resulting in the need to practise “part 4” – which we did… the use of synth instead of guitar for this contrasts the other pieces as well, the music also developed an “uplifting” feel to it – which tends to be a good thing to end on
• cues, buttons, pictures, hitty things, plucky things, videos, adjectives and nouns all came together in a synchronized conglomeration of so unds and visuals…  what we think anyway, of course the next rehearsal and subsequent performance will have their own versions

Open rehearsal

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• The process up to now: story of Margaret Clitheroe and Recusancy in York came from Izzy Bartley (fireflyheritage.com, @FireflyHeritage) who worked at the Bar Convent on a research placement as part of her MA in Cultural Heritage Management at the University of York. Bartley was inspired by these stories and wanted to raise awareness of them in the community and therefore assisted in the beginnings of this project, by passing them on to us.
• We have used the acoustic properties of the buildings and themes from this story to inspire the music as well as visuals.

                         The open rehearsal:

• It was daunting having an audience in the room while rehearsing, but it was also really useful in prodding us into “performance ready” poise
• After the rehearsal, guests asked about how the improvising was being informed, where the ideas were coming from – which told us that we should revisit how clear we are with aspect
• another guest had been researching Margaret Clitheroe and was interested in how we were going to tell the story, as there are numerous versions of the story

Rehearsal three

• Some sounds from rehearsal 
• we practiced with visuals and stage setup and completed the first three pieces, also have a good idea on how the themes will be performed musically
• the concept of shambles sounds as interlude music has come up

Workshop/Question period – mid show:

• Ben and I found that our Being Human Festival Performance inspired audience members to come up to the stage and inquire about the equipment and tech behind the project
• they wanted to see and “try” the percussion instruments and technology
• This engagement with the audience helped to further their understanding of what we were doing, and in turn, inspired us to delve further into our creations

Rehearsal two

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• Some sounds: https://soundcloud.com/beau-stocker/kings-manor
• Katie joined Ben and I on this rehearsal after having acquired the visuals and rendered them – a very long procedure!
• combining the visuals with the audio in the developmental stage helped to inform the improvisation, which is what we expected, but it also tied it together as an overall performance presentation
• We established piece #1 – “happy/stable” theme – that works with my “Horse” groove
• Piece #1 – Henry 8th visuals of “authoritarianism” gave rise to the “Blade runner unhappiness sounds” and subsequent “demolishing” sounds played on the drums

Rehearsal one

• Ben and I got together to play some ideas and timed them to be “10 min” to fit the story board concept
• we referred to the story board for the themes and basic plan for the visuals and story
• these themes, coupled with our own improvising ideas, gave rise to “drums of death” and “Random Pitch Down”
• we also fused the “harmonium loop” with “MIL” (metal) sounds through improvising
•  we established “stops” or “interruptions” in the music to provide tension in specific parts of the piece

pre-planning stage

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  Ben and I already had some playing experience together as a duo, for eg: Being Human Festival 2014

• all three of us knew we’d bring our own personal research ideas to the project, and this was exciting – if not a daunting task to put it all together – Katie with her 3-D heritage visuals, Ben with his audio manipulation devices and me with my rhythmic concepts
• In order to enable a dialogue and connection between the visuals and sounds I decided to create a story board for the group to work from that would include themes and cues, all of which could be edited in the developmental process