stuff we ought to learn more about

Elissa emailed me these articles on Pinter and Busby Berkeley - just linking to them here for future reference.

Sussing out the sound world of the show

Been thinking about what the music of these creatures should sound like. Probably otherworldly in some way - but since our intention is to write a show performable by high schoolers, it also needs to be relatively simple. Maybe based on some kind of pentatonic scale?

Also: the kind of music we make is influenced by the kind of environment we're in - so what kind of music do cave dwellers make? I'm reminded of Renaissance era church music - how the acoustic environment of those cavernous churches encouraged harmonically static music (because in that kind of space, sound reverberates for a long time, so if you change chords too frequently, the harmonies pile on top of each other and it sounds all geschmuggled [which might be fine if you're Charles Ives, but not so much if you're Palestrina]). So maybe these creatures' music is harmonically static?

Nixon at the North Pole

When Elissa emailed me the first few pages she'd written, I commented that the repetition of the lyrics made me think of John Adams' Nixon in China -- specifically what came to mind was Nixon's first aria where he sings "News/news/news/news/news/news/news/news/news/news/news/news/has a/has a/has a/has a/kind of mystery..."

Talking with Rob about it later, I realized that Elissa's opening scene has more in common with Nixon in China than just lyrical repetition: kind of like Nixon, fresh off the plane in a country that until then had been completely closed off from the West, Elissa's creatures have just emerged from the cave they've been living in for centuries (or millennia?) and are trying to make sense of the new world they've found themselves in. Maybe I was making that connection subconsciously?

Rachel and Elissa write a musical!

Rachel and I are going to write a musical, ideally one that we can bring back to our high school for them to perform. We've been talking a lot about it, and she had the idea that we start a blog to keep track of our ideas as they come up. So this is mostly for us, at this point at least, but anyone who wants to can read along and follow our process/progress, and comment if you feel like it.

Right, Rachel?