Circus Music
Music is emotional ,it has the power to inspire , to make you laugh , to make you cry, it leads armies into battle , accompanies the dead on their last journey , according to Congreve “music hath charms to soothe the savage breast , to soften rocks or bend a knotted oak” Powerful stuff indeed and thats before you add lyrics. Good writing can, and has ,changed the world so when a composer and a lyricist get together their boundaries are endless , Musicals , Operas , Country and Western , Rock ,Pop, Grunge , Grind , Garage , Punk, a million possibilities and with modern technology as many ways to listen .Music is with us 24/7 Every high street , Every store, Every shopping centre , on trains, on buses ,in Taxis, even in a lift we are bombarded with a constant wall of sound .
And then there is CIRCUS !
My earliest experience of music for Circus was around the mid '50's on a circus belonging to some relation of ours , because the previous 'Musician', and I use the term very loosely , had left I ended up sitting on a stool behind a snare drum and Cymbal next to a panatrope , the original name for a record player , The 78rpm discs were in order and before each act I would pick the next one from the pile put it on the player start it and accompany it with the snare drum , even though during my career I managed to master many Instruments, Drums were not among them , luckily the music was either a basic3 /4 waltz or a 4/4 swing . The least problem was getting the discs mixed up , the acts were unfazed by the music, they just performed took their bow and went off , This was , of course , a small family Circus with the sole ambition to survive , the bigger shows had proper bands dressed in military style uniforms , a throwback to earlier times when that style of music was the only choice.
Jumping forward to the '70's After a decade of performing my own musical comedy act in theatres I went back to my Circus roots and slowly I started producing individual acts and a little later full shows ,I knew that in the modern era Music and lighting had taken on a whole new role in Circus , it could enhance or diminish a performer and a wrong choice could affect the atmosphere of the show itself . My first one was for two sisters and their Corde' Lise act , two ropes hanging from the roof of the big top on which they performed a display of acrobatic and aerial skills , we choreographed it to version of Gershwin's ' Rhapsody in Blue edited to 6 minutes with the girls routines being perfectly synchronised to each other and the music which could be played live or from a cassette tape which many shows had started using , The entrance , the act and the exit were performed In one fluid movement , no pauses for applause in between tricks or moves until they reached the curtains at the end ,whereupon they turned ,looked at the audience and just slightly bowed their heads , because we had not let the audience show their appreciation for individual tricks the reaction was tremendous.
Jumping forward to the '70's After a decade of performing my own musical comedy act in theatres I went back to my Circus roots and slowly I started producing individual acts and a little later full shows ,I knew that in the modern era Music and lighting had taken on a whole new role in Circus , it could enhance or diminish a performer and a wrong choice could affect the atmosphere of the show itself . My first one was for two sisters and their Corde' Lise act , two ropes hanging from the roof of the big top on which they performed a display of acrobatic and aerial skills , we choreographed it to version of Gershwin's ' Rhapsody in Blue edited to 6 minutes with the girls routines being perfectly synchronised to each other and the music which could be played live or from a cassette tape which many shows had started using , The entrance , the act and the exit were performed In one fluid movement , no pauses for applause in between tricks or moves until they reached the curtains at the end ,whereupon they turned ,looked at the audience and just slightly bowed their heads , because we had not let the audience show their appreciation for individual tricks the reaction was tremendous.
I then put a more acts together with some success , I was usually given the job of putting the show together on whatever show I was in at the time ,this would be a basic running order with an opening and a finale normally done to some march or other but I had very little control over the music or general production .
The first time I put a complete show together from start to finish was Circus Harlequin in the early '90's ,I then realised that doing an individual act was rewarding but now I wanted the music to do something different, it had to convey a theme and a mood , each act and the comedy had to link together to present a complete package to the audience , We still had live music but there was also more technology , mini discs !!! my scope was bigger and together with the Owner Martin Lacey, the chief Airealist Larry de Wit and our 'Band ' organist Dave and drummer Phil we produced a ground breaking show , I will highlight two acts .
Sue Lacey , Martins wife was small , Blonde and an excellent wild animal trainer , she presented a group of tigers and the lights and the music were used to enhance an already excellent performance , Blue lights and Ravels 'Bolero ' played with a combination of live and recorded music so that it sounded like a full orchestra produced an act of such quality and class that I am still reminded of it many years later by those who saw it .
The second example was the aerial cradle act of Larry De Wit and his partner Georgia , I had the idea of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet so we started with a voiceover of “ But soft, what light through yonder window breaks , 'tis the east and juliet is the sun” during which the spotlight picked up georgia ( Juliet) on the cradle frame in the roof of the big top , her long white dress in the shape of a tube ( the light from yonder window ) flowed to the ground masking a rope ladder which Larry ( Romeo) climbed , I was then presented with a dilemma , there were three music options Prokofiev , Tchaikovsky and Bernstein's 'West Side Story '( the last however would have meant significant changes in presentation`)
In the end I chose Prokofiev as it seemed the perfect combination of the other two with both old and modern themes .
There is another version by Berlioz but it didn't fit the criteria I needed .
In the end I chose Prokofiev as it seemed the perfect combination of the other two with both old and modern themes .
There is another version by Berlioz but it didn't fit the criteria I needed .
I went on to produce other shows in the UK ,and in 2001 I produced a new German Circus show called “Manege “ .
Over the last twenty years I am noticing different trends In Circus music , with the majority of shows having no live music and relying only on digital music players both they and the performer are presented with some problems , for instance if a juggler drops a club or a ball , a flying trapeze artist misses a trick and has to climb back up to retry this changes the timing , a live band can and usually did adapt to the change , nowadays even with the wonderful editing options on your PC media app a digital player can't do that so other solutions have to be found , this sometimes means compromising between the choice of music in the knowledge that the performance has to be perfect every time which is extremely difficult to accomplish , or you pick music that is not your first choice but lets you have a little room to manoeuvre if something goes wrong .
Some artists coming from Circus Schools leave with a finished act , Lighting cues , music, props etc all done and dusted which is fine until they get to a show where someone else has the same music .
Other problems can arise when you make your music choice too personal , you pick a song because you like it without thinking of what is best for your act and the reaction of the audience .
Some artists coming from Circus Schools leave with a finished act , Lighting cues , music, props etc all done and dusted which is fine until they get to a show where someone else has the same music .
Other problems can arise when you make your music choice too personal , you pick a song because you like it without thinking of what is best for your act and the reaction of the audience .
Picking a currently popular song is also a danger as songs go out of fashion as quickly as they come in .
When 'Love is in the air ' came out in '77 nearly every horse act in european circus used it , the Superman theme was taken by a myriad of male aerial acts and Star Wars was used by everyone from jugglers to clowns .
I have used various tunes in my capacity as a Musical Clown but always finished with a March this was and still is a bit traditional even though there are very few Musical Clown acts around any more .
When 'Love is in the air ' came out in '77 nearly every horse act in european circus used it , the Superman theme was taken by a myriad of male aerial acts and Star Wars was used by everyone from jugglers to clowns .
I have used various tunes in my capacity as a Musical Clown but always finished with a March this was and still is a bit traditional even though there are very few Musical Clown acts around any more .
There has never been a great deal of Music written especially for circus , Originally military music was used hence the Band Uniforms , in the 20's 30'and 40's the lack of widespread access to music, relying on radio and phonographs , limited the options for performers . Nowadays Cirque du Soleil use all original music for their shows but the lyrics are in a language of their own composing and are special to each particular performance or show , I can only think of a couple of Soleil tunes that have made it into wider Circus use.
'Salto Mortale ' is a well known circus march used for openings or finales and the Monte Carlo Circus Festival has it's own theme tune , some artists through the years have had their music specially written but again it's a small number .
'Salto Mortale ' is a well known circus march used for openings or finales and the Monte Carlo Circus Festival has it's own theme tune , some artists through the years have had their music specially written but again it's a small number .
Finally What I have noticed throughout my time is that audiences are somehow empathic to the music used in a performance, they instinctively know if it's right or wrong , If, after a show you asked them why, they couldn't tell you, but they know and if the audience is happy you've done your job and thats all that matters.
