‘Arcadia’ at the Lowry

I’ve just finished composing / sound designing for Tom Stoppard’s fantastic ‘Arcadia’ at the Lowry in Manchester. It’s a dizzying yet hilarious play that whizzes around between 1809 and the present day, taking in chaos theory, Lord Byron, numerous small animals being shot and inappropriate sex along the way. And waltzes. Lots of waltzes.
The score’s very violin-based (maybe some idea about ‘superstrings’ rattling around in my mind somewhere); I spent a lot of time playing around with some of the mathematical ideas in the play to see what I could do with them musically, and so have ended up with music that’s full of reflections, canons, symmetries, golden sections, the fibbonacci series etc. I’m sure nobody in the audience noticed but notes often seem to come much easier once I’ve worked out some sort of system, however simple.

I’ve been working with a fabulous Bristol-based violinist and multi-instrumentalist, Fiona Barrow, for a few years now – one of those amazing people who can play anything in any style at the drop of a hat – and brought her in to play some of it. Audio clips coming soon…

Music for drama – new 10-minute showreel

New showreel: music from recent short films scored by Jon (10 mins)

Music for factual tv – new 4-minute showreel

New 4-minute showreel; montage of clips from recent documentaries I’ve scored for Channel 4, BBC, ITV and Sky 1:

composing for docs – a couple of thoughts…

I’ve just finished the music for a Cutting Edge special for Channel 4 on the recent Cumbrian shootings, which goes out at 9pm on Channel 4 on Monday 21st June. It’s a Mentorn (with whom I’ve done several films) production, produced by Steve Anderson. I’ve composed for quite a few current affairs documentaries over the past few years; they’re always a particular challenge, and I find myself thinking very differently from how I approach scoring drama projects.

With drama the music’s usually very much part of the narrative, or another voice commenting on the narrative; in documentary (especially current affairs), the music’s more often than not about creating an atmosphere or environment in which the story can tell itself most clearly. Music also unobtrusively helps to blend together a lot of disparate elements – interviews, location shots, reconstructions etc – into a cohesive whole.

The trick is to strike the right tone; stories like this one have enough tragedy and horror without the music trying to make big statements or emotive gestures. I often find myself creating quite neutral kind of soundscapes,  but with just enough warmth / emotion to reflect the emotions in the pictures; holding back like this means that any moments you do get to make a more directly emotional gesture with music can have a very powerful impact.

If you’d be interested in finding out about other documentaries I’ve composed for, do visit my website www.jonnicholls.com

Spring Storm / Beyond the Horizon – National Theatre, Cottesloe

I’ve recently composed for a couple of shows at the National Theatre – the European premieres of ‘Spring Storm’ by Tennessee Williams and ‘Beyond the Horizon’ by Eugene O’Neill. They’re both the first full-length plays to have been written by these two giants of American drama, and have been packing in audiences every night of their run, which has just been extended to the end of July. More info and tickets etc here: Spring Storm / Beyond the Horizon; ’…a triumph on so many levels I would need at least twice the space to do them justice…’ (Independent). Here’s a brief 3-minute mix of music from the two shows:

Young America by Jon Nicholls

hello…

and thanks very much for stopping by. I’m a UK-based composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, and my  main activity is composing music and sound scores for television, film, radio drama and theatre productions, and technical theatre sound design. I’ve worked with most UK national broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV, and with leading theatre companies including the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

I’ll be updating this blog regularly, but in the meantime please visit my main website www.jonnicholls.com if you’d like to find out  more about me and my work. Before you go, here’s a 3-minute montage mix of music form some recent projects:

Jon Nicholls 3-minute showreel by Jon Nicholls

Hope you’ll visit again soon.

Jon