A familiar tune

I always read the paper during lunch, and yesterday an ad caught my eye, one for a new musical called “Take the Mountain Down” that was playing this week in the HFAC for Education Week. A bluegrass musical. So, impulsive as usual, I trotted over to the ticket office and bought me a ticket for last night. And went. (Of course.)

And was thoroughly impressed. It was really, really good. I love bluegrass to begin with, and then add in the fact that it was a musical, and add in good tunes and sharp lyrics, and you’ve got a recipe for success. The show is a retelling of the parable of the prodigal son, written by Steven Kapp Perry and Marvin Payne.

I walked out of that theater wanting to write musicals. I did start writing a song on my walk home, singing and recording it into my phone when nobody was around, and this morning I even wrote some more. But I’m running into a problem that I realize has vexed my mostly nonexistent songwriting for the last while: when I write, I keep feeling like I’m subconsciously regurgitating other tunes. Melodies bounce around in my head and I can’t tell if the ones I’m pulling out are my original work or if I’m just misremembering some other song without realizing it. Case in point: there’s a line I wrote this morning, and I think it’s decently good, which makes me wonder if it’s actually part of last night’s musical.

Now, my second thought was that the important thing is to get something down, a first draft, and then revise it afterward (when I’ll have better judgment as to whether it’s too derivative, one would hope). That’s how it is for writing, and often for art, and it seems like it should work equally well for music. I guess I’m not used to revising songs. :) (But then again, this revision thing is something I’m growing into across the artistic board.)

Anyway, with luck (and perseverance and all of that good stuff), before too long I’ll have a song for y’all to give a listen to. I’ll probably just record it with my microphone and GarageBand and my roommate’s guitar. (No more MIDI.)

Keep in mind, Ben, that most compositions are full of motifs and melody fragments lifted from other songs. Mozart did it all the time.

That’s a really good point. My conscience has been appeased. :)

Ben, as an undergrad in the music program at the Y, I heard it said all the time “well stolen is half-composed.” If I could add a few others to the list, off the top of my head I can think of Beethoven, Berlioz, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, among others who all “borrowed” from other composers. Just to further appease your conscience. :)

I’m so glad to hear that. Really. Now I just need to go back and finish this song, which has languished for so long. (My play, Candle in the Darkness, took center stage right after I wrote this post and has swallowed up all of my attention lately.) I miss composing…