Music Composition: Pirate’s Dinner Adventure

Music has a way of adding life and energy to any performance, many musicals, commercials, films, live shows, and concerts sweeping people off of their feet by the colorful compositions of the musicians. In adding depth and dimension to characters, music has a way of bringing emotions to surface through the use of sound, meaningful beats and rhythms pulsing audible story tales into the ears and souls of the performers and audience members. Louder and more intense sounds, like deep booming, have the effect of grounding the music, while softer and often higher pitched compositions, like gentle piping, have the effect of lifting the music. Feelings such as anticipation, anger, joy, sorrow, peace, and frustration can be communicated through sound, and people are in tune with the ways in which music arouses them. These various types of sounds are produced by a wide range of unique instruments, including horns, drums, and strings. Each distinct instrument and sound has a part to play in the overall composition of the music, every element bringing a certain kind of meaning and emotionality to the overall performance. In experiencing the performance of the Pirate’s Dinner Adventure, one is thrust into a historical world of swashbuckling action, pirates taking to the stage, in boats and though water, in the battle for the ship of treasures and the princess. Each part of the musical composition has meaning and purpose, the deeper horns and drums creating a sense of anticipation and fear, a mixture of expectation and dread. This booming introduction is followed by the appearance of pirates on the stage, creeping through the water and floating in on their small boats, each one determined to fight to the finish and win the battle for riches and the lovely woman. This slow beating of the drums is threaded through with low to medium pitched horns, such as tubas, leading the skulking pirates closer to their final goal, the wealthy ship full of gold and the fine girl. Some pirates pop up above the water with knives in their mouths, surprising the audience, as the drums beat out in almost perfect synchronicity with their small splashes, and the leisurely gliding boats fill the viewers with dread as the music pipes out the horns, their stealthy movements and whispers carried by each rich tune. When the pirates raid the ship, the music explodes and quickens, higher pitched horns, such as trumpets, pound out the action of the climbing men, rope swinging pirates, firing canons, and sword fighting bandits. The soldiers lose control of their ship, and the music floods with horns, the shrill cries of the instruments sounding out the struggles and screams of a waterborne battlefield. The knives flying through the air and the pieces of the ship falling down onto the deck and into the water are pierced with drumming, and the pushing and falling people, the fighters, are suspended in a torrent of drumming and horns, each instrument pulsing out a rhythm which is busied yet integrated, hectic but blended to suit the frantic interweaving of battle. The music calms and the strings enter into the composition when the soldiers finally take control of their ship once again, having banished the pirates from the area, and having reclaimed their treasure and their princess. With the brash and brazen pirates effectively cast out, the peaceful and gliding sounds of the violins, flutes, and chimes bringing the culmination of the show to a soft and quiet ending. These higher pitched instruments are most effective when played lightly, the soothing tinkling of these sweet instruments resembling the gentle nature of the female, and symbolizing the safety of the princess and the treasure. This performance was extremely rich in musical emotionality, each instrument and sound bringing a certain and unique element of beauty and meaning to the piece. Initiating into the slow, deep beginning of anticipation, moving through the wild and loud rhythmic racket of battle, and culminating with the soft and gentle high sounds of peace was a poignant experience rich with significance. The magnificence of the deep drumbeat and shallow tubas was followed by the excited piping of trumpeters and quicker beats, finally cascading into the chiming flow of the violins and flutes. A story can be effective without the use of music, but telling a tale interwoven with melodies can capture elements of the heart and soul through the use of a comprehensive and engaging harmony of sounds.