The blog

Pride and Prejudice Music Release 07
Sep

By Open Air Theatre

CD

We are delighted to announce that Lillian Henley’s music from our production of Pride and Prejudice is to be released on CD.

“Writing music in theatre is completely a collaborative process. It’s important to understand that the music you create can change and develop once you share your work with your creative colleagues in rehearsal.”

“As I developed the musical themes, I would then have meetings with Deborah, the director and Siân, the choreographer, to share my ideas and hear any feedback that they had. It was important to collaborate closely with Deborah, to check we were on the same page creatively.”

“As I take a lot of inspiration from visual stimuli, I visited the National Gallery to look at Turner, Constable and Gainsborough’s works of art. I sat there and looked at the brush strokes and tried to imagine a piece of music for each painting that I felt moved by. I wanted the world to be authentic, but also emotive of the characters we meet in the play, for example the long love story between Darcy and Lizzie. I improvise a lot at the piano, before I set on a final composition.”

“Many of the characters in this play were great fun to score. I found Mr Collins hilarious, and loved how he was being portrayed. I thought that he was an awkward soul, whose overconfidence and displeasure at the Bennet girls was a gift from a composer’s point of view. I also really enjoyed the awkward dance between Lizzie and Darcy in the ballroom scene. I love playing the awkward comedic moments and making, what could be very romantic, extremely uncomfortable for both lead characters.”

Ahead of the CD release, track are available to download from iTunes.

Visit the production page for more information.

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