Ansh Shukla

Bianural Mixdown

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Arcadia Final Scene

Motivation

In the final scene of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, two time periods appear on the stage simultaneously. Thomasina and Septimus and Gus (speech impairment) and Hannah both share moments of love together and dance on stage to the same music. I wanted to recreate this final scene as if the listener was sitting on the center of the stage and listening to the couples dance around.

I recorded myself badly reading slightly superimposed versions of the final lines. Then, I used ChucK to pan Thomasina and Septeimus's conversation to show them pacing. When focusing on this couple, the waltz plays mostly from one channel. When switching to Gus and Hannah, the piano pans as well. Finally, when both couples are dancing on stage, the piano music starts playing from both channels.

Source

Thomasina and Septimus

Old Piano

Gus and Hannah

New Piano