a dream, a dance, a story, second chance
Feb. 4th, 2013 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenswordI finally saw Les Mis, and then spent part of Sunday finally watching the ending 3 episodes of season 1 of Smash in prep for Season 2 beginning soon.
This results in my brain think in song lyrics. Some of you may not know this, but I used to dabble in song writing, and gave thought to writing a musical once upon a time. I never got very far, because I don't write actual music and didn't have a writing partner who did.
The centerpiece of the story is a song I wrote called "The Candle and the Rose" which is a sad, sad piece of work about a homeless young man who is known as Candle by his friends and an amnesiac woman he calls Rose, because he finds her beside a trampled bouquet of roses. I don't remember it all by heart anymore, but the chorus was something like:
Just a Candle and a Rose,
silently to say goodbye
the rose is softly wilting
as slowly now the candle cries
the Rose's color bleeds away
and the Candle's burning low
sweet, my love, the sad farewell
between the Candle and the Rose
The back story has changed over the years, who these two are and how and why they meet. My current thoughts are that Candle was a runaway, lives on the streets, kind of looks after a ragamuffin group of younger kids (that hasn't changed much). Rose is actually a young woman named Emily, who once lived on the streets, but married a man who promised her the world, but abuses her and keeps her locked in his house. The story begins on a day when she finally escapes, and she sustains a head injury that leaves her with amnesia.
Of course, over the course of the story, she falls in love with Candle, and slowly remembers who she is. I have a partially written song that follows her reading fairy tales to the younger children to help them sleep.
Once upon a time, so very long ago
I had a dream, a life I'd lead, a place I'd know
Once upon a time, in the dreams I dreamed
I danced the night away, how happy it all seemed
Once upon a time, once upon a time
but now I understand...it was all a lie
Once upon a time, he promised me forever
A castle on a hill, a life of ease and pleasure
Once upon a time, I sold my life away
Left behind the gutters for a better day
Once upon a time, once upon a time
I should have known...should have known...it was all a lie
I have vague ideas about other songs; a big ensemble piece for when Candle introduces Rose to "his kids" and possibly something dark and a little jazzy for her husband as he's searching for her. There's a vague idea for a song called "I Know the Score" but I haven't worked out how it would work with the new backstory, involving Candle getting the kids into a warm shelter on a night that's going to be cold, though he knows they'll turn him away. Maybe because he's too old? Maybe a piece for a young woman lamenting how she wishes she could forget her life before finding Candle and his little family.
It was always going to end with the two of the leads dying. In the original thought, he had AIDs and she had a brain tumor. I'm thinking now the husband kills them both.
Anyway....there you have it...where my head is circulating at the moment. So...If I bust out in random lyrics, I apologize.
How's Monday going for you?
Are you into musicals?
Got a favorite?
Is my very sketchy sketch of a story something you might go see? Should I try to flesh it out? Or let it sit in the back of my brain?
This results in my brain think in song lyrics. Some of you may not know this, but I used to dabble in song writing, and gave thought to writing a musical once upon a time. I never got very far, because I don't write actual music and didn't have a writing partner who did.
The centerpiece of the story is a song I wrote called "The Candle and the Rose" which is a sad, sad piece of work about a homeless young man who is known as Candle by his friends and an amnesiac woman he calls Rose, because he finds her beside a trampled bouquet of roses. I don't remember it all by heart anymore, but the chorus was something like:
Just a Candle and a Rose,
silently to say goodbye
the rose is softly wilting
as slowly now the candle cries
the Rose's color bleeds away
and the Candle's burning low
sweet, my love, the sad farewell
between the Candle and the Rose
The back story has changed over the years, who these two are and how and why they meet. My current thoughts are that Candle was a runaway, lives on the streets, kind of looks after a ragamuffin group of younger kids (that hasn't changed much). Rose is actually a young woman named Emily, who once lived on the streets, but married a man who promised her the world, but abuses her and keeps her locked in his house. The story begins on a day when she finally escapes, and she sustains a head injury that leaves her with amnesia.
Of course, over the course of the story, she falls in love with Candle, and slowly remembers who she is. I have a partially written song that follows her reading fairy tales to the younger children to help them sleep.
Once upon a time, so very long ago
I had a dream, a life I'd lead, a place I'd know
Once upon a time, in the dreams I dreamed
I danced the night away, how happy it all seemed
Once upon a time, once upon a time
but now I understand...it was all a lie
Once upon a time, he promised me forever
A castle on a hill, a life of ease and pleasure
Once upon a time, I sold my life away
Left behind the gutters for a better day
Once upon a time, once upon a time
I should have known...should have known...it was all a lie
I have vague ideas about other songs; a big ensemble piece for when Candle introduces Rose to "his kids" and possibly something dark and a little jazzy for her husband as he's searching for her. There's a vague idea for a song called "I Know the Score" but I haven't worked out how it would work with the new backstory, involving Candle getting the kids into a warm shelter on a night that's going to be cold, though he knows they'll turn him away. Maybe because he's too old? Maybe a piece for a young woman lamenting how she wishes she could forget her life before finding Candle and his little family.
It was always going to end with the two of the leads dying. In the original thought, he had AIDs and she had a brain tumor. I'm thinking now the husband kills them both.
Anyway....there you have it...where my head is circulating at the moment. So...If I bust out in random lyrics, I apologize.
How's Monday going for you?
Are you into musicals?
Got a favorite?
Is my very sketchy sketch of a story something you might go see? Should I try to flesh it out? Or let it sit in the back of my brain?
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no subject
Date: 2013-02-04 06:14 pm (UTC)2) Yesssssssss.
3) Miss Saigon or The Secret Garden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBzPse88Ivk
This song is perfection, okay.
4) Yes. Yes.
I wish I were more musically inclined. I mean, I AM musically inclined, but writing music is not really a thing I can do.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-04 07:37 pm (UTC)I tend to like happy stories, but your writing is always so lovely I would be into your musical anyway.
As I said on Twitter, I loved the first season of Smash and I'm looking forward to S2. I've been watching Nashville too, which is more soapy but just as good, IMHO.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-04 07:47 pm (UTC)Angst whore that I am, I love sad musicals, not that there area whole lot of them, but I do adore them when I find them.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-04 07:58 pm (UTC)I am almost 100% a happy endings girl. I mean, I read angsty stuff and I even really like some of it a lot. But in my heart of hearts, I need the happily ever after.
That said, I often don't agree when other people say it is "happily ever after". The animated Little Mermaid comes to mind--the first time I saw it, I asked why no one told me the end was SO SAD and everyone was like, 'da fuck, it's not sad'. But to me, Ariel giving up her family and friends and all she's ever known, for Eric and land? Is SAD. (yes, I'm a big sap)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-05 11:35 am (UTC)Musicals. I love them! My favorite is Les Miz, which is kinda funny because usually I'm all for happy endings... *stares at Blood Brothers and Miss Saigon* um... yeah. Happy. Definitely.
I'd go see it if the music would be up to par with the writing! And maybe you could add a little hope to a dark ending:-)