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Hi

Im looking for a soundscape for a theatre production of Dr Faustus. The soundscape is at the end of the play where Hell is unleashed. What im trying to create is the following :

Faustus is dragged off stage and swallowed up by Hell. I need a soundscape tht sounds like everything onstage has been swallowed up as if going down a narrow opening, then coming to an abrupt ending.

Can anyone suggest anything ?

I’d be interested in having a go at sound design for this. I make a lot of dark ambient music, often with judgment/end times/other vaguely Abrahamic eschatological themes (yes, I’m a jolly soul) so I reckon this would be right up my alley.

I’m not familiar with the play though. From the description it sounds like the duration of the soundtrack should be relatively short, maybe 20 seconds or so? Is that right? Let me know and I’ll see if I can rustle up something hellish.

Hi James.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. If you have the time I'd be delighted to hear your soundscape for this moment.

I've pretty much finished the sound design for the rest of the play but this one i'm struggling with.

this is the link to Dr Faustus on wikipedia :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Faustus_%28play%29

the section of the script is as follows, the soundscape is at the end, and I've indicated it in Brackets :

EVIL ANGEL 2 And so we leave thee, Faustus, till anon.
Then wilt thou tumble in confusion.
EXIT. Cue: Angel soundscape out Light state snap to one light on F – no sound at all

FAUSTUS. Ah, Faustus,
Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,
And then thou must be damn'd perpetually!
Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come;
Fair Nature's eye, rise, rise again, and make
Perpetual day; or let this hour be but
A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
That Faustus may repent and save his soul!
O lente, lente currite, noctis equi!
The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The devil will come, and Faustus must be damn'd.
O, I'll leap up to my God!--Who pulls me down?--
See, see, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul, half a drop: ah, my Christ!--
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!
Yet will I call on him: O, spare me, Lucifer!--
Where is it now? 'tis gone: and see, where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!
Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!
No, no!
Then will I headlong run into the earth:
Earth, gape! O, no, it will not harbour me!
You stars that reign'd at my nativity,
Whose influence hath allotted death and hell,
Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist.
Into the entrails of yon labouring cloud[s],
That, when you vomit forth into the air,
My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths,
So that my soul may but ascend to heaven!
THE CLOCK STRIKES THE HALF-HOUR.
Ah, half the hour is past! 'twill all be past anon
O God,
If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul,
Yet for Christ's sake, whose blood hath ransom'd me,
Impose some end to my incessant pain;
Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years,
A hundred thousand, and at last be sav'd!
O, no end is limited to damned souls!
Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul?
Or why is this immortal that thou hast?
Ah, Pythagoras' metempsychosis, were that true,
This soul should fly from me, and I be chang'd
Unto some brutish beast! all beasts are happy,
For, when they die,
Their souls are soon dissolv'd in elements;
But mine must live still to be plagu'd in hell.
Curs'd be the parents that engender'd me!
No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer
That hath depriv'd thee of the joys of heaven.
THE CLOCK STRIKES TWELVE
O, it strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,
Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell!
O soul, be chang'd into little water-drops,
And fall into the ocean, ne'er be found!

ENTER DEVILS.

My God, my god, look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly hell, gape not! come not, Lucifer!
I'll burn my books!--Ah, Mephistophilis!
EXEUNT DEVILS WITH FAUSTUS

(as he is dragged off id like it to be like a great swallowing effect – everything receding as if going down a narrow opening - how? )

Lights slowly fade up to a normal state – like water running clear

ENTER CHORUS.

CHORUS. Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel-bough,
That sometime grew within this learned man.
Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall,
Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise,
Only to wonder at unlawful things,
Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits
To practice more than heavenly power permits.
EXIT (Blackout)

Thanks Neil. I’ve got an idea of the sort of soundtrack I would create for that moment — in my head I’m hearing a kind of swirling, discordant noisy howl which collapses into mono at almost the same time as the frequency range shrinks into a notch and then squelches into nothing.

Er... that sounded more descriptive in my head, typed it looks like gibberish! Anyway, I’ll give this a shot tomorrow.

Hi James

How did you get on with that soundscape, would be intrigued to hear it.

Cheers

Neil

Hi Neil. Still tweaking, unfortunately I ran head first into a bug in Ardour while working on it, which led to me having to try to reproduce it so I could inform the developers and get it fixed. I’m getting there though, you will hear from me soon.

Hello again Neil.

Well, I got stuck into this project and finished it ahead of schedule. When it has been moderated, you can grab it here.

http://freesound.org/people/jamesabdulrahman/sounds/263803/

If there is anything you would like me to add/change, let me know.