The task of producing a score for new experiential types of media and transmedia presents a number of exciting possibilities for the composer. Indeed, the musical experience is a profoundly personal one; deeply held and ideologically informed expectations could risk limiting the role of music in exploratory new pervasive drama pieces to a pseudo-filmic Muzak. Just as the traditional modes of story-telling are rethought and exploded across a new and emergent diegetic plane, the role of music should likewise be radically rethought so as to rewrite its immersive potential.
Drawing upon my experience as composer for The Memory Dealer, this article will give critical insight into the collaborative process of both composing and realizing the soundtrack for new emergent, adaptive, and pervasive theatre works. It offers a discussion of my own creative processes and aesthetic concerns as well as an in-depth account of the technological and collaborative realities of this particular project.
