West Side Story is a 1950s musical based on Romeo and Juliet, about rival New York City gangs, the Jets and Sharks. Tony, a Jet, falls for Maria from the Sharks. The song "Something's Coming" uses a musical technique called a triton to ominously foreshadow trouble for Tony, clearly communicating this to the audience. Bill Fontana recorded pigeon sounds in church ruins and played them back through speakers in the same spot, now a museum, creating a time displacement illusion of pigeons still present. While both use found sounds, the musical aims to entertain without requiring thought, whereas Fontana's installation means to evoke self-guided interpretation.

1. Musical Theatre & Sound Installation
By, Andrew Mullarkey
Sound analysis
Unit 70, Stage Sound Design

2. Something's Coming
West Side Story is an American musical (biased on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet)
set in the New York City in the mid 1950s. The musical is about the rivalry between the
Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds, the
Sharks and the Jets. Tony, one of the Jets, falls in love with Maria of the Sharks family.

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj1
9mkLIkkA
The lyrics of “Something's Coming” are extremely
obvious and spoon feed the audience. This mean
they can sit back, be entertained and not think.
The song is in a major key but uses a musical
technique called a triton which is known to represent
the devil in music so it is used to indicate that
something bad is going to happen to Tony. This
continues with the idea of spoon feeding the
audience.
Many of the longer notes that Tony sings have a long
attack and a long sustain. Accents are also added to
create excitement.
A jazz orchestra play live through out the whole
musical.
Each instrument will have the appropriate microphone

4. Bill Fontana: Pigeon Soundings
Bill Fontana recorded the sounds of pigeons in the ruins of the church of
St. Kolumbo and played the soundscape in the exact same spot where a
museum now stands.

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W
OQvK6cqwfI
Bill Fontana captured the pigeons with 8 different
recordings over the ruins and play them back by
placing 8 speakers in the exact same place. This
gives the impression that the pigeons are still
flying above the ruins where the museum now is.
This is called time displacement.
Bill Fontana's work is meant to evoke thought
from the listeners so they are free to make their
own interpretations.

6. Compare and Contrast
Similarities
Both include found sound that in some cases are
sampled epically for the piece.
Both are to evoke a reaction from the audience but
they are for different reasons.
Differences
The role of a sound designer in musical is purely to
entertain the audience and spoon feed them so they don’t
have to think for themselves. Whereas, the role of a sound
instillator is to let the listeners to make decisions for their
selfs.