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Attention to Sound The notion of sound design in theatre includes sound effects, ambiences, music and amplification and is used both for the process of crafting sonic events – and thus directing and manipulating an audience’s attention – and for the finished design. The design as a result consist of a mixture of material and immaterial settings (such as speaker positions, microphone choices, mixing board settings, sound files, MIDI cues or live music) and consequently in the unfolding of the designed sonic events over the course of a theatre performance. Unfortunately, sound design tends to be overheard and overlooked. It has long been considered a subsidiary craft, mainly designed to serve a higher purpose, be it the creation of convincing illusions of site, situation or action, be it as a kind of atmospheric ‘glutamate’, enhancing and reinforcing the audience’s senses for a protagonist’s character traits or the general mood. If we take theatre reviews and critical acclaim through awards as an indication, sound design in theatre is indeed quite marginalized, seldomly mentioned and rarely validated through proper recognition. At the same time, sound design and, as part of this, original musical composition for theatrical performances flourish in theatres from London to Paris, from Berlin to New York. The UK Association for Sound Designers, for example, lists more than 230 sound designers and the German annual theatre directory for 2015 lists more than 350 theatre musicians / theatre composers for the major 13 theatres alone (out of 715 theatres in total). Intricate sound design has developed into a ubiquitous phenomenon in theatre productions, and sound cues or live music have become more significant both in quantity and quality. In many cases, sound has shifted from being treated as an afterthought and merely illustrative ‘final touch’ to becoming a major conceptual and dramaturgical tool, both in developing new work or re-interpreting texts from the dramatic canon. As Peter Sellars puts it: “We are beyond the era of sound ‘effects’. Sound is no longer an effect, an extra, a garni supplied from time to time to mask a scene change or ease a transition” (cit. in Kaye & LeBrecht 2009, loc. 70). |
