Setting the Trap: Listening for Mouse-Filled Stories
To tell you how we developed the story for Mouse Trap inspired by Katie Jenkin’s flute and piano duo, Constructions, we are going to start at the end – of the music that is. What we usually do for most musical stories is write multiple ideas for the first ten to fifteen seconds of the opening melody; however, for this musical story the ending was possibly more important than the beginning. This exciting, energetic duo ended with what I can only describe as this emoji face: 😑.
A mysterious and tiptoeing dialogue between the flute and piano comes to a close with a short, low chord, leaving the story with either a lasting question mark or a silly punchline of a joke. This ending would greatly impact the beginning of our story because now we know that whatever happens at the start must not be too serious to end on such a flippant finale. We then returned to the opening and made our list of story ideas, keeping the ending at the forefront of our mind.
A still taken from the film
The flute melody sounded a bit frantic with the high register of both instruments and the accented, staccato articulation. There was also a bit of uncertainty – something had happened, but it wasn’t anything major just yet. Could it be someone who had lost their keys? Their wallet? Their wedding band? Or maybe…our main character saw something in their home that didn’t belong there. A mouse perhaps?
As we kept listening, we held on to the image of a pesky mouse scurrying around the floor of our main character’s kitchen.
Flutist Ji Young Kim in the studio recording Constructions
The uncertain melody begins to build until a strong piano chord launches the music into a panic with a louder, more aggressive flute melody, which the piano responds to with low, banging chords. The mouse has definitely been spotted, and the main character is terrified!
It would only be fair to share my personal bias in crafting this musical story: I, too like our main character, have an irrational fear of creepy crawlers, especially bugs. After getting home from work one night, I entered my apartment to find a roach on my living room floor. After staring at it crying, I called my husband (then-boyfriend) asking him what I should do. His response was perfectly calm, “Just kill it.” What he didn’t understand was that the thought of touching something (like a shoe, for example) that was simultaneously touching the bug was enough for me to start sobbing again. Then, my doorbell rang – I had ordered food delivery. I ran to the door, while of course keeping an eye on the bug. I was not excited to eat, but rather thrilled that there was another human who could come kill this bug for me. I answered the door, explained the situation, and begged him to come inside my apartment to help me. He reluctantly agreed.
“Where is it?” he asked.
“Right there!” I exclaimed. How could he not see it? It’s huge, I thought.
“This?” he asked incredulously. He bent down, picked it up and showed me not a bug, but a fuzz. Just a dark blue fuzz from the rug that had wandered onto the wood floor. A fuzz.
We tell our students this all of the time: our personal experiences and backgrounds uniquely affect how we hear musical stories. You might hear something completely disconnected from your real life, like imaginary aliens that love to eat purple tofu. Or, a piece of music may put a mirror up to yourself, and the story you hear is your face looking back at you. For Mouse Trap, it’s pretty obvious how this one went…
What do you think happens to the mouse in our story? Listen to the end of the piece again and put in your guesses. Then, go watch the film to see what we heard.
Mouse Trap premiering at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in NYC
Quick Links:
Watch Mouse Trap for free through our YouTube Channel
Interested in expressing your musical story? Check out some art medium ideas.
Listen for more musical stories with our curated Spotify playlist.
Read how we came up with the stories for our films Unbreakable and Find Me in the Clouds.
Curious for more tips on how you can practice musical storytelling? Check out our blog post about it.
Are you an educator interested in bringing musical storytelling to your students? Reach out to us! We would love to work with you and create a custom program that best fits your students’ needs.
