The Big Picture

No big update today. I've spent the past few days learning some insurance stuff for my part-time job, so I haven't been able to do much composing. I have, however, reviewed the things that I've already written and started doing some redrafts.

Redrafts are tough because I believe, as a general rule, that I should have just gotten it right the first go around. I know that's unrealistic, but it's how I work. Things change, though, and musical-writing is a much more dynamic process than I wanted to believe as I wrote my first show. The lessons learned from "Tragedy!" are helping me immensely this time. The biggest advancement in my own thinking has been the acceptance of the idea of "theme" in music. What I mean by that is basically what I talked about in the last post- that there's a puzzle and it all has to make sense at the end. The best way for a musical to make sense is to give it some sense of cohesion, so that's my big challenge right now.

There have been some requests, by people who are not familiar with the poem, to post "Annabel Lee." So here it is. I'll let you use your imaginations to figure out what kind of melody I put to it. I went through about ten drafts, so whatever you think of is probably at least related so something I wrote.

The "Ballad of Annabel Lee" is divided into multiple parts- some sections repeat. Overall, though, what is written below is what we're using as lyrics.

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me -
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud one night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we -
Of many far wiser than we -
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling -my darling -my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea -
In her tomb by the sounding sea.