Interview with the Producer about the Music...

Q. Firstly the big question, why did you chose Schubert's “The Erl-king”?

A. Well, many years ago I was introduced to this piece of music by my mother along with many others from a large varied repertoire of songs ranging from Oratorio, Opera, Masses, Requiems, Classical, Traditional, Folk and Show songs. She introduced me to this particular Lied because of its drama and ability to musically paint a picture of the scene. I must admit on my initial hearing of this piece I was not so moved. In hindsight I blame this on a variety of different factors. I think primarily my fundamental lack of musical training at that age, secondly not being able to see the potential of this piece through the performances with which I was presented and thirdly my inability to identify with genius. Nevertheless for many years after, I continued to hear it being performed either as an incidental or intentional listener.
It was not until many years later however that I decided to learn the piece myself in order to record a revised version. Having listened to several different recordings of Schubert's version I felt that none of them had let the beauty and pure musical genius of Franz Schubert's composition shine within the accompaniment, the pianists seemed to be performing the piece as intended purely as an accompaniment and were quite often overwhelmed by a predominant vocalist. The musical contrasts had been lost and lacked the definition it deserved this may have been due to poor/limited recording techniques or maybe (in my opinion) over eager pace of the piece, and this was my initial incentive to work with this piece.

Q. What was the first thing you thought it needed?

A. Drums and appropriate rhythmic accompaniments.

Q. In the past this approach has cheapened what are normally construed as musically intellectually pieces of work, were you not concerned about this?

A. No, not really, my initial reason for percussion was to give it a contempary feel to appeal to a new and larger audience and although I was aware of the problems this might have with the traditionalists the whole point of the exercise was not to harm the original but promote it. So by keeping all the original score in, and only adding a variety of new elements, I would enhance the piece respectfully. On an intellectual level I programmed the drums utilising a rich tapestry of sounds almost a rhythm orchestra creating little sub-mood changes rhythmically to enhance and support musical changes within the music.

Q. What else did you decide it needed?

A. Orchestrating. Due to the fact the original was written for just a piano I thought by using an appropriate variety of instruments I could hopefully redirect some of the listeners attention to the accompaniment and reinforce the musicality of the piece.

Q. Why not leave it as just a piano, only louder?

A. Because this would not solve the problem and by using the contrasting elements of a variety of different instruments and timbres this would focus more of the listeners' attention to the detail of the accompaniment and distribute the audio burden of the piano amongst a number of exciting, different sounds.

Q. Have you only used real instrument sounds?

A. No, I have also created three sounds using sound synthesis.

Q. What are they?

A. The first is heard very subtly within the introduction as part of the sound effects. It is a very hollow and distant ‘wind in the trees' sound. The second is a little harder to describe although could be portrayed as the tail end of a whipping sound, which is I guess loosely describes what it represents, and the third is the accompaniment alarm bell-like sound heard when the boy talks to his father. This was very much more intentional as I wanted to instil a modern form of panic to the music.

Q. Why did you use three different vocalists?

A. Well originally I was only going to have one, but whom and why? This presented me with many problems. Firstly I wanted to sing it all, but I soon realised I was not really good enough for the work involved to do it any kind of justice; I just didn't have enough time, although I must say my main interest and desire was to sing the part of the Erl-king. Then I was struck by an inspiration. Why not have each part sung by a different person.
At this point I was recommended a male Tenor who would be ideal (Mr Peter Warner) and what a beautiful voice. On hearing it, and on the advice given by the vocal coach (Mrs Joy Reader) it was decided that he would make a perfect Erl-king due to the beauty of his voice in relation to the persuasive nature of the character (the Erl-king's not Mr Warner's). The only down side was that now I would have to sing the Father or Son. That was not really a choice that required much thought because at the moment of deciding to use a number of vocalists, I knew straight away who I wanted the Son to be sung by, a young lady with whom I had worked many times before on other projects (Miss Kate Eades). So I would sing the Father, Peter would be The Erl-king, Kate would sing the Son's part and the narration at the beginning and end would be shared between Peter and me.

Q. Do you think by using three vocalists instead of one has benefited the final product?

A. Well, in comparison to the revised accompaniment, a single vocalist may not have held the interest of the listener as much as the relevant changing of singer from character to character. Also this probably aids the listener's ability to identify with the content and context of the story or poem more readily. Finally I think it makes it more exciting, so yes, I do think this benefits the final product and adds even more variety audibly, creates a new dimension to the pace by switching between voices and hopefully aids understanding in the telling of the story by giving it a new clarity. 

Q. How strictly have you followed the original score?

A. Well, tempo-wise it is probably a little slower than it was originally intended to be played but I have included all the original score, only performed by a variety of different instruments/sounds, and added several minor (no pun intended) musical details of my own including a number of additional bars to emphasise parts of the accompaniment. With regard to the lyrics I have used the English version by Natalia Macfarren as opposed to the original German words by Goethe, because I wanted it to be instantly understood by an English speaking audience, although this is still employing a rather dated form of English.

Q. How long did it take you to create this piece?

A. Well I can't give you a very direct answer to that due to the fact there were a number of stages to the process i.e. learning the piece off by heart (both the score and vocals), respectfully re-arranging it, programming, recording, mastering etc... but I guess all in all over a period of eight months. That was not everyday though; Probably three solid months.

Q. Who has influenced your work?

A. The more direct influences on this particular project stem from many years ago starting with the “Hooked on Classics” series. This really was the introduction for me to the concept of updated Classical pieces, although in reality this concept would not have caught my attention so much had it not been for my prior knowledge/familiarity with the original Classics. Other influences have been the work of Malcolm McLaren, particularly “House Of The Blue Danube,” and the work of Paul Schwartz in the “Café del Mar - Aria” albums. These are all similar concepts to what I have done although my real inspirations are drawn from numerous styles of music from ambient dance, dance, drum and bass through to Opera and film scores.

Q. What equipment did you use?

A. Drum machines, Keyboards, Sound Modules, Synthesisers, Analogue and Digital recording devices, outboard FX units, microphones and the list goes on.

Q. And now a special and shameless plug for the manufacturers. What makes were they?

A. Interestingly or surprisingly the list includes some cheap toys amongst some more expensive. Such as: - Casio, Yamaha, Korg, Boss, Beyerdynamic, Alesis, Digitech, Sony and Technics I think that's the lot.