Dr Wilfried Bechtolsheimer smiled amicably at me and said the historic words: "There's only one problem Cees, Alf doesn't like music very much...............!" With these words echoing in my mind I left Amsterdam in January this year, where I had my first meetings with Laura and Dr B. Spooky horses, I know all about them. With one of our most famous productions in the past we even made mixes where the total audio level was reduced at certain moments, we just had too, because the horse didn't like 'brass' highlights in the music. It's not a thing we like doing; it feels as if someone is touching the faders without our permission. But the good thing is that we've learned from it; not only trying to avoid these kind of highlights but also to do some more research beforehand.
We made a special CD for Alf, with some tracks on it with all sorts of 'crowd and audience' noises at indoor and outdoor venues; all mixed a little differently, with highlights at certain frequencies. There was at least one track Alf didn't like and it gave us some information about the overall sound we had to look for. I know, for riders, trainers, coaches it's kind of strange to start this way; but with a spooky horse, scared of music you have to start somewhere, don't you?
The idea behind Alf's Freestyle
The idea for this new freestyle had already been in my head for a while, but Laura and her team had to like it first. Fortunately they did and we could start investigating whether there was enough material to make a complete production out of it. This might sound silly, but even if the idea is there from the start, if the client doesn't like it, you just have to forget the research! Doing prior research is not worth it; it costs a lot of time (and money) and if the client doesn't like the idea, there is no point!
As well as this part there's another important thing; can the choice of music be told and translated as a story? In Alf's case, the story of the music was going to be current, topical news at the premier of the Kur, in August 2009. Sir Cliff Richard and the Shadows start touring in September - it's 'Cliff and the Shadows' 50th Anniversary Tour 2009 - and all the concerts are nearly sold out already. Most members of the band are nearly in their seventies! I have seen Hank B Marvin (the lead guitarist of the Shadows, who wears the huge glasses) on many UK TV and radio shows already talking about it; so have a look at: http://www.cliffrichard.org/news/exclusive.htm)
Our music choice for Laura and Alf was to make a complete 'Shadows' Kur. It represents this trainer - rider combination; old and young, father and daughter. It's the music that was popular when Dr Bechtolsheimer was in his teens and the music is still very popular, more than 50 years later, now with Laura in her twenties. Young meets old, old meets young…………
Designing the choreography
I like to be involved very closely when the choreography is designed; it's the 'blueprint' for the music and if you can't translate this into musical lines just forget it! This was really a team-built choreography. Everybody was involved. In February I travelled to the UK with a series of drawings in my briefcase. I came back with even more drawings plus the first video capturing initial run throughs of the test. In this video the trees are winter-naked, in the most recent test video we have done the trees are in full glory and everything is green.
In February we had our logistics focused on premiering and testing at Hartpury (end of July '09) with a fully tested version ready for the Windsor Europeans in August. Currently version number 7 is being tested as I write, so Laura is going to ride it at Hickstead now instead of Hartpury and it will continue to evolve past the European Championships too! (Horse Hero will be filming the Kur at Hickstead.)
Alf is the most steady moving horse I've ever worked with; his tempo in passage is exactly the same as in piaffe and that's really exceptional. Every horse changes his tempo when going into piaffe, and most of the time the tempo goes up. But not with Alf, he's got an unbelievable kind of balance and it seems that the piaffe costs him no effort at all. I also like his very natural lift and rhythm in passage and piaffe movements. (I don't use the word cadence because this means something totally different for me.) The choreography is well balanced, symmetrical, easy to understand with a high enough degree of difficulty. Once you have seen one part it's not hard to predict the following part, and the music helps in this. Like a good tune on the radio, you know when the chorus comes.
Recording
For us it's easy to follow Alf's test videos and adjust, we only had to do this a couple of hundred times. Playing around with the tempo is not a problem until you record 'live' instruments; then you will meet the limits of composing with the help of some big computers. The next stage is mixing. I think we will end up with a couple of mixes before the end of the year.
My colleague Franck did a great job playing and imitating all the Hank B Marvin guitar sounds, including the acoustic guitars in this Freestyle. We had a lot of fun doing this! I did some filming when Franck recorded one of the final lead guitars at his studio. He's using a special pre-amp and pedal board to get the right 'live' sound and reverb and you can hear that we regularly checked with the original Shadow tracks to get the sound right. We even copied the musical 'irregularities' of Hank Marvin's original recordings and added some extra guitar-licks here and there. (I will add a short video of us recording in the next few days.)
The music for walk, the canter-work and flying changes was changed halfway through the production (this included walk, canter zig-zag and two-time flying changes ending in the pirouette); click on the link below to listen to how one of the first versions sounded. It was nice and smooth, but it didn't express the athletic energy of Alf enough, basically it did not give enough power and support in the rhythm of the canter. As you can hear the music for flying changes is 'friendly' and orchestrated with strings and fine chimes, but the 'Shadows guitar-sound' got lost too much. (Link to Alf's rejected music)
A bigger problem was to find music that really fitted the rhythm of this part in the original rhythm of the Shadows tunes. There's a huge library of Shadow material but believe me, it was hard to find the one that really expressed and supported the canter work and the flying changes. The pirouettes are newly composed parts, in the style of the orchestration we've chosen, and we’ve made it a highlight of the Kur, between the melody of the tunes. In fact, since 2007 it's been our style to highlight the 'special movements' like pirouettes and passage.
Mixing sound and using 'live' instruments
With my mixing engineer Hans, we're making the gimmicks work and sound good and we place (mix) every instrument into the right spot. This process normally takes two or three days but every version is stored on computer so we can 'call back' the last mix and continue from there; all the sound and special effects are saved as well and when we have to set up a new mix it's all there in a couple of minutes. We do this at my studio in Leersum.
Some of my friends often come over at this stage, mostly at the end of the day when we listen to the tune in its full glory. The mixing process is boring for a lot of people, some parts you hear a thousand times and a lot of people don't hear the difference in what were doing at that moment. But believe me, there's a huge difference between the first rough mixes and the final mix. I also record some snapshots of the music for the rider here to help them in listening to certain musical 'cues' that are 'hidden' in the music. If you take some instruments out you will hear a lot of other instruments that you've not been aware of before. When this freestyle is totally ready and well known, I will make some outtakes for you to listen too and compare.
At this stage we do not add live instruments because there is a risk that we have to cut out or add a bar here and there after the first rides to this new production. To re-record the live instruments again would be expensive and time-consuming but we like to use live instruments because they add more dynamics and work them in later on. Theo, the principal oboe and cor anglais player of the Dutch Residentie Orchestra, is coming over to play the 16 bars of walk music (the Theme for Young Lovers - which will fit Laura's current state of mind exactly I'm sure!). Other instruments we will add are strings, trumpets, trombones and French Horns.
Click on the player below to watch how the music was made in Cees's studio in Holland:
The Freestyle story
With the invention of the transistor radio (beginning of the 1950s powered by batteries) it became possible to manufacture portable radios - the iPod of the fifties, if you like! This accelerated the revolution in popular music during the sixties and one of the artists and bands that became very successful because of this was, of course, Cliff Richard and the Shadows. Popular music in that time really sounded all the same when you heard on a transistor radio, nothing was very hi-fi during that time and if it sounded good on small speakers, it was good. (Dressage events still have not improved much sound-wise, which is a problem but another story!)
Alf's Freestyle introduction is the sound of switching on a transistor radio, followed by turning the tuner to find the right station. We hear famous DJ Bob Harris (BBC, Old grey Whistle Test) talking about a new tune of a successful UK band; and finally he introduces it with: It's The Shadows! Here the freestyle starts; with the famous Apache theme, (half-pass zigzag, followed by extended trot, half-pass zigzag again) followed by Shindig (passage-piaffe tour with quarter turn in piaffe), Theme for Young Lovers (extended & collected walk) and Man of Mystery (canter, flying changes and extended canter, highlighting the middle passage/piaffe tour with a huge orchestral sound, though the piaffe at the final passage/piaffe tour are in transistor-radio sound again, just to make the circle complete.
About Alf
One last thing about Alf not liking music - so far, so good! With all the tests we did, and we did many, it seems more and more that Alf likes the smooth and mellow sound of the Shadows. He also didn't react on the bigger orchestral parts of the tune. Not spooky at all, so we think that Alf's forefathers were 'rockers' in the fifties.........
What did Laura think?
Making the freestyle for Alf has been really exciting but the journey has not even really begun as I haven’t competed with it yet! Cees, my parents and I met in February this year and discussed working together. Cees was incredibly passionate about his work and this impressed me because I wanted to work with someone who could feel the same way about my horse as I do. I needed someone who could understand Alf, as well as having the ability to put this into music.
We had many discussions about Alf and me as a combination and Cees came and watched us in training a few times before we started working on the Freestyle, just to get to know us. We then began working on the choreography, which was interesting and fun. My father and I had specific ideas about what we wanted to do and not do, and in what order. I knew how I wanted it to begin so that I would have the best chance of letting Alf settle into it, before the things happen that can wind him up! I wanted to be clever with it so that I could finally ride a Freestyle with him that would not just involve me holding on and steering!
At the same time Cees was very involved in the choreography to make sure that what we did would also work musically. When we finally all agreed, we filmed it several times. Once work began on the music we kept filming and of course, we kept changing bits! We all agreed that the Shadows theme was fantastic as soon as we heard the first few bits. The music mirrors Alf’s power without being too dramatic or pretentious. It is relaxed but swings just like Alf at his best.
I wanted something that Alf would be comfortable with but that was not classical or boring. I grew up listening to the music of my parent’s youth and I love it, it makes me feel at home and I think this seems to be getting across to Alf too because, touch wood, he has been very cool with it every time I have played it at home! The last couple of weeks have involved lots of trying, editing and retrying but we are pretty close to having the perfect "1st version," and after Hickstead we will know more…! Of course it takes time to grow into a fully formed Freestyle and really get to know it, but that is why the work should be fun for horse and rider and Alf and I are enjoying working on it! When the music comes on it makes me smile and I hope people who watch it will feel the same!