Here's three cues written for a production of Don Nigro's 'Scarecrow' in the Victorian College of the Arts Directors' Series.
They're all pretty similar. 'Scarecrow' depicts an isolated family going through a series of events which might be repeating endlessly, as though under the influence of a curse. I wanted to use the same sequence of notes over and over, like in the classic horror films of the 1980s, where the endless repetition of the theme reinforces the sense of hopelessness and inevitability.
Each cue is built around cello, played by William Heuzenroder. I played all the other instruments. The ambiguous sounds are all guitars or wineglasses.
The other sounds are clocks and cicadas - 'Scarecrow' is set in a farmhouse full of clocks, sitting in a cornfield. The text contains no stage directions and all changes of location are merely implied. At first the director and I experimented with reinforcing this absence of direction, but it made the play seem structurally weak; we changed direction and I started using quiet birds, cicadas and clocks to separate out the various moments and implied spaces of the play.
I'm a musician, composer and sound designer in Melbourne, Australia.