"Opening Cue"

From Lorenzaccio, by Alfred de Musset, at the Shakespeare Theatre (Washington, D.C.), 2005. Directed by Michael Kahn.

"Usually, an opening cue has to accomplish several things: to set the time and place, to introduce the musical palette (orchestration, harmonic language, etc.), and to take us into the emotional world of the play's opening scene. In this cue from Lorenzaccio, I tried to introduce the idea of conflicting forces: the purity of the human heart (a Renaissance theme in the solo voice) and the corruption of society in the court and Church (dissonance in an instrumental ensemble). Piano is introduced to allude to the resonance of these themes to contemporary society." —Scott Killian