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Musicians in tradition African dress jam during They Drink It In The Congo

Interview: Composer Michael Henry

After studying composition and clarinet at the Royal College of Music and performing in a 15 piece acapella band, Michael Henry’s career took a turn to the more theatrical side of live performance. Having previously worked as Musical Director for productions at the National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe to name a few, we sat down to talk about his career so far and most recent work for They Drink It In The Congo.

Could you tell us a little about your background?

I went to college in the early to mid-80s, to the Royal College of Music as a composer and clarinettist. Always been doing music, even up to that point. I knew I didn’t want a career as a clarinettist but knew I’d have a career in music. I sang in many bands at the time, was in a band at school, was in a band in college, and basically when I finished at college I joined a 9 piece R&B band. So whilst waiting for a career in composition to happen, I cut my teeth as a performer, as a front man of a band, which meant automatically involving choreography and being on the move –to be a physical performer as well as a musician. And that led to session vocals with various artists.

In the late 80s/early 90s the kind of zeitgeist for contemporary opera was to have singers who could hold down a theatrical part, but not necessarily have an operatically trained voice. So that actually led to a lot of opportunities with the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, Donmar Warehouse, with various composers like Mark-Anthony Turnage, Jocelyne Pook and Orlando Gough. Which actually just led to becoming involved in the more theatrical side of live performance.

A guitarist, a bassist and a drummer in rehearsals for They Drink It In The Congo
The band in rehearsal for They Drink It In The Congo. Photo: Miles Aldridge

Which then went on to – with Orlando Gough particularly – I struck a quite long standing relationship with a 15 piece acapella band called The Shout, of which I was one of the members. And I was I in a couple of his operas as well. One of those shows was directed by Rufus Norris, who was then working at the National [Theatre], and about 10 years ago they were looking for a vocal arranger for a couple songs for Death and the King’s Horseman. So Rufus got me in and that was the beginning of my career as a theatrical Musical Director.

What do you see the role of a composer and musical director for theatre being?

It really depends from job to job. Sometimes you’re just called and [the director] is very clear on where they want the music to be: whether it’s diegetic, whether it involves the cast performing in some way, singing or playing. Or whether it is incidental music provided in advance. Sometimes it is very clear and it is quite a formulaic job in a way. Still rewarding, but quite formulaic.  Other times it’s far more devised. You find out people’s abilities – people aren’t necessarily taken on board as singers, they’re primarily taken on board for their acting. Hopefully they’ve got an ear, and then it’s kind of my job to get as much as possible out of that. And more often than not, the main thing to get out of people that aren’t used to singing primarily – even though they have the ability – is feeling like an ensemble. So that’s always a priority. It’s to get them feeling as an ensemble so they can really contribute to the sound and feel like they are sharing something. That’s usually my starting point.

When you’re composing for a new production, for example They Drink It In The Congo, what sort of themes and elements in the script do you look for initially?

I think this particular one is quite unusual in that it started out as a research and development project, a two day project a good few years ago. At the time I was working at the National again on The Amen Corner, and it was Rufus Norris again who was taking care of this particular R&D development on this play. And he asked me overnight to come up with an arrangement for the finale song, which is a UK/indies/ 90s cover but in a Congolese style. And we had a show that evening as well! So did the show, went home, and thought ‘don’t really know anything about Congolese music what am I gonna do!’ And fortunately I found this track by Miriam Makeba – albeit South African – this song called Congolese Lament, or Liwa Wechi. And it was ideal because not only did it have a really lovely lamenting, non-worded, sound riff at the beginning, which was a really useful little motif which she improvises in several ways. So I found I could formalise it and teach it, something that the cast could learn. But also the translation of the words, there were lots of correlations with the 90s/indies cover so it was just ideal for a mash-up. So I did that overnight, we did it in the R&D, it seemed to go down well. I didn’t realise that a couple of years later I’d be asked to come on board for the full project.

An actress in reporter gear looks shocked, as she sees another man in shorts lying on the floor. Behind is a palm tree and a camera.
Fiona Button as Stef in They Drink It In The Congo. Photo: Marc Brenner

So that was already a starting point, this little haunting motif, which is a very nice starting point. I think in the context of this play I thought it would represent Stef’s – the lead character who is trying to put the festival on – what’s going on in her head. She has these haunting images of a traumatic memory, and this kind of sound could represent that haunting in whatever way it works its way into the play.

Another one I wanted to include was a song for the Oudry character which is another main protagonist. The first time we meet him I wanted to make sure that he had a little song that he plays to his daughter. Simply because then there would be some raw material that whenever he appears later on and has to give a quick segment of something in Stef’s head, he’d have a batch of raw material to fall back on. Or if I laced it into other bits of music subliminally the audience might tie it in with when they first met that character.

The way this play has turned out through rehearsals is that most of the music that leads you or informs you emotionally or moves the narrative on takes place in the world of sound design. Whereas the live music tends to be far more incidental and for ‘events’ – so it’s worked out differently on this one but I still started by finding those themes.

What do you see the relationship being between live music and theatre?

Again that really does vary on the project. For instance on this particular show you’ve got a three-piece live band that are in vision all the time, but aren’t always there. At the start of Act 2 they’re playing a song full pelt, then you find out the main character’s actually watching it on her iPad, so it’s scenes like that. And the later on they play stings as Oudry introduced various people to come on for the auditions. So it’s obviously very live, but it fudges the idea between diegetic and non-diegetic in that it’s quite back and forth the whole time.

Sule Rimi, in a pink suit with a blue tie and a walking cane, celebrates and dances in front of a band in traditional African dress.
Sule Rimi as Oudry in They Drink It In The Congo. Photo: Marc Brenner

Other times you can have live music which makes a difference to the play in that it’s a more visceral experience for the audience but they’re not involved in the play at all – if they’re in vision it’s just because they’re at the front of the stage, up to the sides, and that does lend itself to a richer experience but it’s live music used in a different way. And other times it’s working with the cast to try and get stuff out of them to suit whatever the directorial leads need are.

Something that is always fun is, you can write a theme, you can take a snippet of that theme and just stretch it around to create vocal collages – an individual who doesn’t call themselves a singer might think it’s just a bit weird holding this long note, but when 12 people are doing it you have this rich effect. That kind of stuff is always a lot of fun.

And what sort of work excites you?

I think now, like I say I’ve cut my teeth as a performer for quite a long time… I always prefer when I have some kind of creative input, like writing input. But I think these days more importantly is when there are different elements that are woven together to make something else. Bigger than the sum of its parts.

You have a vision of what it’s going to be, you know what your intention is, but when then the reality is always something else. Not better or worse, but it’s always nice to witness what that turns out to be. I always find that quite exciting.

Michael Henry is Composer and Musical Director for They Drink It In The Congo.

Spring Awakening Tech 177 - Credit Marc Brenner