Recording Music Theatre
Accordion duo TOEAC asked me to record their music theatre production “Stiekem Hooglied” (translated as: Covert Canticle - but the Dutch is better in this case). For this production, accordionists Pieternel Berkers and Renee Bekkers are joined by acclaimed actors Ariane Schluter and Ali Ben Horsting. An intriguing dialoge, between a man and a woman - between two accordions, and between voices and bellows.
I took my studio to the Verkadefabriek in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, where we were received very warmly. Soon things were set up in the atelier upstairs. The plan was to record everyone together, as the music and dialogue are very much intertwined. The downside is that some vocals will end up in the accordion microphones, and vice versa. This limits options for editing and mixing later on. I achieved some separation of the audio by using distance and clever angles of microphones while accordions and actors sat opposite each other so the necessary eye-contact was possible. The comfort in performance always comes first. If the audio separation suffers a little, I gladly take that over struggles on the side of the performers.
Initially we were not going to use any headphones, since the artists would be able to hear each other acoustically. Without headphones they wouldn’t be bothered by the different nature of the sound of the recording. But after I explained to Ariane and Ali Ben that they can play with the distance to the microphone: close to it for a more intimate sound, and further away for louder passages - they asked for headphones. Headphones gave them a reference. A very good point. It did take some getting used to, but then it really became part of the performance - they embraced the difference of the recording to the live experience.
We recorded the production in sections. We quickly found that longer sections were better. However, doing multiple takes of these long pieces soon became too exhausting. We settled on doing a long section, and then revisiting short bits if there were any corrections or improvements we wanted to do.
It was an interesting experience to record music theatre, and to view the performance through the eyes of the combination of musicians and actors.
I’m currently editing and mixing the recordings, with my dear mother as a podcast-expert quality control listening for possible mistakes. Once the result is finished, I will of course share it here! In the meantime, Toeac are working on their next performance. I highly recommend attending a performance, and have accordion-horizon expanded wildly and widely.
