I wondered if you knew of some great orchestration companies or tracks to enhance  our production of Elton Johns Aida. We have a small venue and could really use some tracks specifically for transtitions.

Any information is helpful. Thanks!

MY REPLY:

I’m not exactly sure what you mean – do you mean orchestrations of Elton John’s AIDA music, or other music? I supposed you could always use some transition music from the original CD soundtrack. There is a lot you could do with ethnic percussion if you had people double up on percussion during transitions – that’s one way to beef it up, but still keep it legit and live.

When I did the show I let the musicians open up a lot on the transitions and underscore music. Lots of great textures from the percussionists. I do remember the drummer using the edge of his stick to scrape the cymbals during the scenes by the river bank – and also one of the percussionists even blowing on an empty plastic soda bottle to get eerie distant wails. I was quite surprised how effective that plastic bottle was.

Check on your contracts for what is allowed and what is not. There are great opportunities in this score to pull from a lot of different tribal sounds and World percussion elements.

And just so no one overlooks the obvious – since you probably have one or two keyboardists in the pit, they can also do thick synth pads and effects.

Conrad