Award-winning Film & Theatre
MUSIC
International award-winning Composer Ivan Capillas explains his music created for “Freedom.”
“It was clear from my conversations with the director that he wanted the music to follow the journey of the character Fariad, so we decided to have different versions of the same tune, beginning with a very traditional Tajikistan style, but becoming more westernised as the play progresses.
I did a lot of research into the instruments and purpose of music in Tajikistan and I discovered that the classical music, as it is an Islamic country, is very different to what we are used to in the West. Traditional Islamic music has no counter-points or harmonies, but rather all the instruments play the same tune together, so as not to distract from the message or tune.
The second piece I composed for the play was the same tune, again using traditional Tajik instruments, but as this music was for when Fariad was preparing to go to England, I wanted it to be a little more western, so this is in the style of modern Tajik Pop music!
Here they use counter-point, so there is some call and answer between the instruments, and they also use a strong drumbeat, so by adding these elements we were able to transform the same tune into a very different (but still not western) style.
Finally once Fariad arrived in the UK, we needed to repeat the tune but using western instruments (we start with an acoustic guitar and later move to an electric guitar as the tension in the story builds) and western style. This reflects Fariad’s growing interest in Western music and his building appreciation for England in general.
Towards the end of the play the music becomes a rock style to reflect the circumstances, but we still introduce the tajik wind instruments at certain points to remind us of the roots of the journey Fariad has taken.
For me it was a real challenge to write such a different type of music to what we are used to in Europe, and it is rare in film and theatre to have such an opportunity, so I enjoyed it very much.”
