Magnetic North Blog

‘Clap Your Hands’ by The Manhattan Transfer - a song familiar to no one involved with the project except me - was an essential part of the piece that I had written as a Scene for Survival. It didn’t matter that at over three minutes in length, to play any significant part of it would encroach significantly on the five minutes running time limit, nor that the cost of sampling it would be prohibitive. The song title was written into the play, including as part of a fantasy sequence central to the piece that also was the play: of a piece of music that once connected two people so that one might find a way to reach the other again - a moment of hope and denial simultaneously. It was essential.