USAR02: Music and Technology

Light, Sound and Music, ACTION!

Teo Lye Hee Benjamin. USAR02 ["Music And Technology"], University Scholars Programme, National University Of Singapore.

The scene of theatre is undoubtedly one that is filled with light, sound, music and action. Regardless of whether it is a drama, an opera, a ballet, or an alternative art performance, the glamour and the wonder generated by technology of light and sound never fails to be present. Light in its many forms, provides impetus for art to exhibit its finest characteristics of form, while the sound of music, in its exuberance adds to the dazzle of art. Theatre too has many other servants in its journey of artistic presentation. Other factors that serve art as a good servant include texture, dimension, and movement. Texture would be the tactile aspect of form. Texture would be the means of providing surface composition in tune with the mood of the performance to furnish it with the harmonious ambiance. Dimension concerns itself with the realm of space and the mass of form. Not only that, dimension also deals with the relationships between one size with another, as to the physical object's relativity. Movement would be the kinetic energy of composition. Movement conveys the very essentials of any art form; for even seeing depends on the movement of light particles that strike the character and reflect upon the observer, and hearing to depend on the movement of vibrating air particles transmitting to our ear-drums. Movement is the essentials of action. For any action to take place, movement must be present. Thus it can be seen that all three qualities of texture, dimension and movement are absolutely essential in theatre. However, the discussions will be limited into three aspects, namely: light, sound and music, and the harmonious combination of their properties and action.

There are many aspects of light. Light in its basic sense, is a form of energy, transmitted as means as particles that move as sinusoidal waves. Light in the theatre however, takes on the main purposes of revealing form. Light reveals form through four variants, namely intensity, colour, distribution and movement. Intensity is the actual or comparative brightness of light . Colour is an element of stimulus that modifies form, through three of its variants: hue, value and chroma. Distribution is the energy path of light, which controls the direction and texture of a design feature. Movement can be described as the visible change of any or all of the other three qualities of light . However that is not all. Light can be viewed or thought of as three different ways. Firstly, light can be viewed as real right, capable of revealing form; secondly, as real light having its own design form; and lastly, as simulated light as it might appear in a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional form. However the mechanics of producing light too is essential in theatre.

The mechanics of producing light in theatre are anything but simple. From considering the right types of instruments, dimmers, plugs and circuit boards, to the placing of the instruments, considering the intensity and distribution of light, producing correct and adequate lighting, all requires precise expertise. The basics of lighting in theatre would firstly be to deal with choosing the correct instrument. And there are many factors are to be considered in the choice of the right instrument, most essentially, the current instrument inventory and the budget, the physical theatre restrictions, the quality of light required, and the beam shaping and control required.

A wide instrument inventory would be an advantage to the lighting designer as it allows a greater range of selection. However should that not be available, the next consideration would undoubtedly be the budget. The reason being that the quality of the equipment ultimately is directly related to the cost of the product. Physical theatre restrictions consist mainly of throw distances (the distance from the lighting instrument to target) and control and circuit limitations. The type and amount of offstage space for sight-lighting, front space limitations, hanging positions front-of-house and over-stage are some other factors of stage physical limitations that must be considered too. The quality of light required affects the choice of lighting instruments as the type of light produced determines the mood to be created. For example, instruments, like the Fresnels and PAR instruments, do not offer the ability of altering the quality of light produced and thus not allow changes of mood. On the other hand lighting instruments like ellipsoidal reflector and spotlights and some automated fixtures offer variable light qualities . Beam shaping and control is an important lighting consideration in the choice of lighting instrumentation. For example, ellipsoidal reflector spotlights extremely flexible in beam shaping and control, while PAR instruments produce oval shaped lighting that cannot be altered.

In order for the correct choice of the instrument to be made, the lighting designer must know clearly the distribution of the lighting involved in the theatre. Distribution, as mentioned before, deals with the lighting up the different subjects by controlling direction and texture. In theatre, primarily there are three essential subjects that deal with lighting distribution, namely the actor or actress, the acting area and lastly the background. Of all three, the main concern of the lighting designer would be lighting the actor or the main character. The next concern would be lighting the acting area, followed by lighting the background.

Lighting the actor (general term for all the stage performers) must be such that a good visibility is provided. The actor must be lit in a manner appropriate to the play and seen in proper relationship to the background . In order that to happen, considerations to the angle and direction of lighting must be made. Angle of light is made reference to the horizon, being 0 degrees, while lighting from directly above being 90 degrees. Direction of lighting concerns itself with three attributes, namely, front lighting, back lighting and side lighting. Front lighting is normally conducted in a 45-degree/ 45-degree system. This means that there will be two front lights, both 45 degrees above, of which one 45 degrees to the right and the other 45 degrees to the left, in front of the actor. Such a lighting system allows a variation in directionality through the variation in colour and intensity of the two spotlights. Back-lighting is used by the lighting designer to create dimensionality, by separating the performer from the background. It colour-tones the stage floor and adds contrast to the scene . The common positions for back-light would be placing two back-lights one on each side, with and angle between 45 to 60 degrees. When back-lighting is kept in proper balance with the front-lights, the actor is etched clearly against the background . Side lighting aids in the revealing of form and gives the designer additional flexibility. Side lighting can also be used to establish a motivational source through colour, angle and intensity. Common positions for side lighting are the low side and the high side. Low side lighting is used commonly in dancing, to sculpt the figures of the dancers, and in stage play to create dramatic effects. While high side lighting is more often used in dramatic productions.

Lighting the area of acting are would be the next concern of the stage lighting designer. With exceptions to stationary theatre performances, most actors move about and thus the need for area lighting. The are two mainstream methods of lighting the acting area. The area lighting method is one such method. In this method of lighting, the acting space is divided into convenient areas and then lighting each area with the same number of spotlights in order to provide a balanced illumination. The other technique, wash lighting, refers to the use of general illumination to cover the entire playing space . Clustering numerous lighting instruments with divergent rays and focusing them to cover an entire playing area does this. The resultant effect produced would be unique, as lighting angles would change as the actor moves from place to place on the set. A special form of area lighting that deviates from the two traditions would be the use of special visibility. This either means that the path of the actor is lit up with a series of spotlights, with variations in dimming as the actor moves, or with the use of follow spots, where the actor's movement is followed by a single, freely mounted spotlight.

Lighting the background is normally a minor affair. The reason being that normally, the effects produced by area lighting would be sufficient enough for the play or performance. However, this does not render the use of background lighting purposeless. Background lighting is essential in covering shadows formed on the wall due to lighting across props, like furniture. Background lighting is also used to light up backings behinds doorways, so as to prevent scenes of actors retiring into dark and ominous areas. Backdrops can be lighted up with background lighting to enhance the three dimensional effects.

Another important consideration to be made by the lighting designer in theatre lighting is intensity control. Intensity control deals with the usage of dimming to adjust the brightness required. In theatre, dimming is essential as through varying intensities of light, numerous effects can be achieved. Time change is one such effect that can be achieved with the help of dimming. Fading the light down on one scene and up on another can gently shift an audience's attention. Though cross fading, the mood of a scene can be altered accordingly. Currently with advancements in modern technology, the use of resistance dimmers, autotransformer dimmers and preset systems have all been outdated and replaced with electronic control. Electronic control is advantages as it allows for remote control, computerized control, lower dimmer cost and smaller lighter dimmers. Silicon controlled rectifiers (SCR dimmers) of which are the most basic form of dimmers employed in electronic control. For all practical purposes, only two types of electronic control exist: the manual system and the memory system . A comparison would be that manual control systems require at least one controlled per dimmer and a master controller, while memory control systems would require only one master controller. Memory control systems allow for a greater control over a wider variety of cues but require a highly competent operator; otherwise, being extremely complex in nature, the possibility of major fault occurring would be tremendous.

Colour would undoubtedly be another essential factor in the consideration of theatre lighting. Colour, composes of three factors, hue, chroma, and value. Hue refers to the quality that allows the perceiver to differentiate one colour from another with equal brightness. Six common hues are, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Chroma refers to the saturation or the amount of pure spectral hue present in a colour. A difference in saturation would result from a mixing of a pure spectral hue. Value refers to the amount of white or black added to the colour hue, or the brilliance or brightness of a colour. Lighting designers choose coloured light for mainly four reasons. Firstly coloured light helps in conveying the motivation by a specific light source. For example a fireplace can be conveyed through the use of specially coloured light. Secondly coloured light heightens the effect of a particular mood of a scene. For example the colour red can be used to typify an angry scene, blue a cooling scene and green a restful scene. Thirdly, colour increases the visual contrast between different light sources. Lastly, the use of colour can demonstrate a change or a dramatic effect in a performance.

Colour though lighting can be achieved through two main means. Firstly through the used of filters. As the name implies, a filter is placed in front of light source causes selected colours to be filtered or blocked from passing through . For example, when white light is shone through a red filter, the blue and green wavelengths are blocked and only the red wavelengths are allowed to pass. The other method of achieving coloured light is through the use of colour interaction. Through mixing primary colours, secondary colours can be created. An example would be mixing red and blue light to create violet light. However mixing the three primary colours of red, green and blue would only result in white. Another method of achieving colour variation would be through colour temperature. A source with a high Kelvin temperature would give a cooler coloured source - a colour higher in blue content. While a source with a lower Kelvin temperature would give a richer, warmer colour such as red or amber.

Sound and music is the other essential factor in theatre productions. Sound and music can be likened to what the soul is to the body. A form without the essential feeling, would nonetheless be nothing but a black and white object, or a silent movie portrayal. Sound and music is what brings live and emotion to form. The basic form of sound and music actually comprises of compressions and rarefractions of waves within a particular medium, which normally constitutes air. As the sound waves travel through the medium, they diminish in amplitude or loudness, but not in frequency or wavelength, until either it is totally diminished through absorption or picked up by a receptor, like our ears. In theatre productions, there are many music and technological aspects of sound waves to be found. The mechanics of sound recording, mixing and amplification constitutes the electronic hardware aspect, while the theatre acoustics present the other aspect of sound waves in music and technology.

The entire overview of the sound system can be known as the signal chain. The signal chain has four major links, and every sound system has all of them . They are a source, routing, amplification, and output. The source can be the microphones which captures an external sound, or a tape deck that is playing sound. The mixer allows for routing, or the sending of a source signal to a proper place with a proper volume. Amplification is basically done through the amplifiers, which enlarges the sound signal till a loud sound volume can be produced. The output is a means whereby sound is produced from the system such that it is audible, and the output comprises of the speakers. But basically I shall touch on only the bare essentials of microphones, mixers, amplifiers and speakers.

Microphone types are numerous and thus the proper choice for one in the use of theatre is difficult. One type of microphones is the dynamic mics. These mics are simple, robust and have a lightweight, suspended diaphragm that vibrates when sound hits it . Common uses for them include performances in live music shows and in virtually all of rock-and -roll shows. Another type of mics available would be the condenser mics, which are more sensitive and reproduce sound more accurately, but are less durable and convenient . Wireless mics are to be used in instances where the microphones are to be concealed, like in musicals where actors have the mics and the belt packs connected and hidden within the costumes. Another type of microphone used in theatre is a PZM microphone. Pressure zone modulation (PZM) microphones, are microphones that are specifically designed to sit on the floor, where it picks up not only the sound coming directly from the source, but also the sound that bounces off the floor right in front of it, making the microphone more sensitive . Lavaliere mics are microphones that are clipped on people's lapels as they talk. Shotgun mics are to be used only when a microphone cannot be placed close to the sound source.

Another consideration in the choosing of microphones would be the impedance of the mics. A microphone with a low impedance would pick up less "electrical noise" as compared to a microphone with a high impedance level. A balanced line is used in order to have a low impedance microphone. A balanced line is a microphone cable that sends the signal out on two wires at once , with each signal running in counter-current directions from the mics to the mixer (i.e. in opposite directions). Any "electrical noise" picked up, would be sent in both directions at once, effectively cancelling it out. A method of identifying low impedance mics from high impedance ones would be to see the type of plug used. A low impedance microphone uses a three-pin XLR plug while a high impedance microphone uses the common ¾" plug. The bottom line is, the best type of microphones to choose in any theatre production would be one with the correct type, low impedance, (that is to say, to have a balanced line and a XLR plug) and low cost. Unfortunately such mics do not exist. (Since low impedance mics are costly to thousands of dollars.)

Mixers are the machinery that reorganises the input sound and that tell where that sound is supposed to go. Most mixers comprise of four parts: input modules, equalization, auxiliary sends and returns, and output channels . The input modules refer to the number of places to plug in the source. For example a "sixteen channel" mixer would have sixteen places to plug sources in. Equalization controls are present in mixers to shape the colour of a sound, boosting it or cutting it wherever necessary . Mixers can have two controls, one for the high end (treble) and the other for the low end (bass), or three or four. Auxiliary sends are first exits that allow a sound engineer to pass some sound somewhere else, without interrupting the flow of the signal down the input module. And output channels are final exits that tells the sound signal where is the way out of the input module.

Amplification is a means to blow up the sound signal at line level to an audible level for the listeners to hear it. There are mainly two types of amplifiers: mono and stereo. The mono-amplifier has only one input and one output while the stereo-amplifier has two separate inputs and two separate outputs. However in theatre sound and music, only mono-amplification is applicable as stereo-amplification depends on sound leaving the speakers and reaching the observer in the same amount of time. This would not be possible in the theatre unless the observer is situated right in the middle of the theatre. Thus, unless the theatre happens to be an extremely small theatre, mono-amplification would be the most sensible choice.

Loudspeakers are perhaps the most essential part of the signal chain. This is because, the quality of the sound system is most dependent on the loudspeakers than anything else. The choice of the correct quality of loudspeakers in theatre is dependent on two factors. Firstly the resistance of the speaker should match the amplifier used. Secondly, the sound frequency that the speaker is to project. Currently there are two general types of speakers: the cone speaker and the compression drive speaker. Cone speakers are larger and are made of plastic or paper diaphragms, while compression drive speakers are smaller and have diaphragms made of stiff materials, like aluminium and titanium. A metal diaphragm has the advantage of being more able to produce more sounds in the higher frequencies . Low frequency sounds are produced by special loudspeakers called woofers. A woofer is a speaker that has a large cone, whose size is determined by the sound volume that it is required to generate.

Theatre acoustics play an important role in music and sound management too apart from the electronic hardware required. Distances of sound length travel, correct placement of loudspeakers, and surfaces of the walls of the theatre, are just some considerations to be made in the field of theatre acoustics. A major element of consideration in theatre acoustics would be reverberation. For rich sound to be heard in any performance, a careful balance in reverberation is required. Too little reverberation would result in a "dead sounding" performance, one lacking in richness and fullness. Too much reverberation would create a complete lack of intelligibility in the sound or music produced. In order to control reverberation, acousticians treat walls and ceilings with absorptive materials, paying careful attention to the shape and interrelationship of walls, the ceiling and the rake (slope) of the audience seating. Speakers in theatres are to be placed carefully above audiences, away from the microphones, and strategically to allow the best reverberations.

Every performance in the theatre, be it the play, the dance, the rock-and-roll jig, all show a fusion of light, sound, music, through action. When action takes place, light, sound and music all complement and merge through technology to produce a wonderful performance. In plays, the focus of light would be on the actors, the sound and music on the mood of the scene. In dances, the primary concern is movement, revealed and emphasised by light , and amplified by the tempo and beat of the music. In the rock-and-roll performance, light and colour takes on the effect of creating the environmental mood according to the music played and amplified. Thus through action, all aspects of light, sound, music, and technology merge, like the brilliant colours of painting, to give a delightful and artistic performance.

Bibliography

• Parker, W. Oren; Wolf, R. Craig. Scene Design and Stage Lighting, seventh edition. Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.
• Campbell, Drew. Technical Theater for Nontechnical People. Allworth Press, 1998.