Anton Chekhov's

Three Sisters

The incredibly talented Eli Simon directed this adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, for the UCI Drama department, where I served as both composer, and sound designer for the show.

As the narrative took place in Russia at the turn of the century, right at the dawn of the industrial revolution, research had me looking down a multitude of avenues. For scoring, I studied the works of Mighty Handful. Characters in the play perform piano on stage, so I wanted something that felt like it might be taken from the library of a well-to-do home: a piece capable of being stumbled through by a hobbyist musician as they converse, and drink, to while away the hours.

The score chart up above served as both a diegetic melody, and the principle theme of which most of the rest of the soundtrack derived from.  

As the number three holds prominence in the story, I felt it sensible to write the primary motif as a waltz. The melody established in the treble clef goes through a constant degree of permutation through the various acts, but when approaching writing, I attempted to look at every part in that original theme as a piece that could later be retrofitted into other places in the score. The bass clef segment, for instance, is later reprised and embellished as the main focus for two accordion solos.

The B section, brought in at bar nine, serves as the basis for Andrei's theme: the most utilized secondary motif in the score. The character of Andrei is a prominent violinist, so everything related to him was performed on string instruments, including a moment of underscoring written for a love confession in the end of the first act, which also served to be reprised at the end for the bow music.

Design-wise, there were several things I was tasked with. Three Sisters takes place in a cold, isolated community, much of it in the dead of winter, with listless people, cramped together, and emotions left grating on each other. The chill of the wind played an important part, as sharp gusts penetrated through the set whenever a character or group stumbled in from the cold. In the second act, the sound of a newborn child crying also is utilized to help frustrate our cast's nerves.