In February 2005, Racoco Productions presented If The Shoe Fits - director/choreographer Rachel Cohen's unique take on the story of Cinderella. If The Shoe Fits ran for ten performances at the Walkerspace. John Rockwell of the New York Times called the production "...a beguiling puzzlement...lavish and fully realized..."

My score for If The Shoe Fits consisted of sixteen separate pieces of music that I cued in using a laptop, an audio interface, headphones, and the theater's mixing board. I truly enjoyed DJing my own score. The show was an organic morphing entity.

Below are five numbers from the show posted in high quality mp3 format. Feel free to download them, load them up on those ubiquitous iPods - and enjoy them in your own favorite mixes. I've also included some notes on the individual tracks.

All the material is copyright 2005 Beckeresque Music (ASCAP). So don't score a commercial or another dance without getting in touch with me :) .

Fairy Godmother's Song
This is a wordless song composed for Cinderella's fairy godmother who first appears gliding across the water on a vacuum cleaner. Katie Brack who played the fairy godmother did a great job lip syncing the vocal in this number, as did Michelle Vargo (Cinderella) who joined in at the end of the number.

This extended version includes a truly "out" piano coda that was faded down in performances.

Lainie Diamond - Vocals/ Daniel Kelly - Piano/ Lynn Wright - Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Electric Bass/ Becker - Bells

Doo Wop #2
This music accompanied a sensual duet danced by one of the shoe salesmen (there are three shoe salesmen in the show) and the fairy godmother. I wanted all of the music in the show to evoke a longing or ache for another world or another life - and doo-wop is a style of music that does that beautifully. Thanks to Lynn who did a beautiful job orchestrating my tune and Jose who sings beautifully throughout.

Jose Ramos - Vocals/ Chris Michael - Drums/ Lynn Wright - Electric Guitars, Electric Bass

Reptilian Ball
After a journey and transformation - the various characters in If The Shoe Fits get their freak on at "the ball" dressed in beautifully bizarre costumes by Agata Olek. This is the music that accompanies their dance. Chris Michael provides some truly inspired berimbau throught.

Daniel Kelly - Piano/ Chris Michael - Berimbau/ Becker - Vibratone, Finger Cymbals, Sifters, Synth, Percussion Loops

Baking Music
This music accompanied the now infamous "sifter dance." The second half of the music cued a section where the dancers - after sifting an enormous amount of flour on the floor (and on each other) proceeded to knead flour and eggs into dough on each others stomachs.

To achieve some compositional unity, there are recurring "concrete" sounds throughout the score that I associated with Cinderella, baking, and domestic life (i.e. kitchen pots, silverware, oven timers, etc). In Baking Music's "versioned" or "dub" section, you'll hear these sorts of sounds time stretched and sent through lots of reverb. Thank you Johann Pachelbel.

And no - they did not have a shower at the Walkerspace...

Becker - Samples, Oven Door, Sifters, Skillet, Salad Spinner

Nightmare
This is a traditional Colombian rhythm performed by Chris Michael that I weaved into a texture of clocks, bells, and a short vocal loop.

Chris Michael - Palmitas, Guasa/ Lainie Diamond - Vocal Loop/ Becker - Clock Samples, Bells

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