Brandon Valley senior composes music for One-Act Play

BRANDON, S.D. (KELO) —Brandon Valley High School is putting on a rendition of Macbeth, one that the director wanted to add music to. Instead of outsourcing that job, they gave it to a high school senior– Isaac Fode.

“So I made the 4 (songs) first and then I made some interludes and like some transitions and some singing backgrounds,” Isaac Fode, composer for Macbeth said.

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However, adding music to a Shakespearian play is not an easy task.

“He was not familiar at all with Macbeth, and he had to do a lot of research to figure out even what the story was and where the songs might go and what he might be writing,” Isaac’s mom, Rachael Fode said.

“My aunt over at Lincoln High School, she teaches Macbeth at a college level. So a lot of late nights are like 10:00 and be like, hey, I have a question for you,” Isaac said.

Those late nights paid off. However, it wasn’t easy being both the composer and the lead in the play.

“Watching him like, make the music and then having to go do his own part. Not only was he trying to get his own character down, he was trying to add dimension to other characters as well,” Lady Macbeth, Zariah Sittig said.

At the end of the day, it was all worth it.

“You hear it live for the first time, like the three witches, they have a really cool song together with like some really cool harmonies. I’m really bad at singing their part, so hearing them for the first time, and especially helping them learn that part was like actually really, really cool,” Isaac said.

Isaac says he had a lot of help from his friends while working on the songs.