Blog Entry #6: Rent's "Will I?"

One of my favorite songs is from the Broadway musical Rent. I enjoy many songs from this musical, including the popular “Seasons of Love,” but I particularly like one of Rent’s less famous musical pieces called “Will I?” The main structure of the song is the repetition of its chorus, comprising the only words in the whole song. This chorus is sung through five times, so I suppose you could say the song is broken down into five stanzas. Each stanza is lyrically identical with the words:
Will I lose my dignity?
Will someone care?
Will I wake tomorrow
From this nightmare?

Although the lyrics never change, several harmonies are employed besides just the base melody. Interestingly, the song is performed in a round. Rent character Steve begins the song by himself and sings the chorus through once (with conviction) at a medium volume. While he holds out the last note of the word “nightmare”, group 1 (consisting of a few chorus members) joins in and starts to sing the chorus. After they have sung the chorus through alone one time, they repeat it. Just a few notes after they start, the next group (who we can call group 3) begins singing it. The rest of the song continues in this fashion creating what sounds like an “echo effect.” The song is built on the musical element parallelism because of the repeating chorus. It has a solid tempo with an A-B-C-B rhyme scheme. The vocals are strong and tend to overpower the background music-a light, repeating guitar sequence and occasional symbol tap.

All of this repetition doesn’t make the song static though. In fact, I would consider it to be quite dynamic. Every stanza builds on the stanza before and the song gradually becomes louder and more aggressive. It ends with each “round group” on a different note and different word from the chorus. The lyrics themselves are intriguing because Rent focuses on a group of friends (from different lifestyles) who reside in New York City. Many of them are infected with HIV or AIDS. This back story obviously makes the lyrics highly appropriate to the musical. I also believe the lyrics can be directly connected to the specific daily struggles in many people’s lives.

Blog Entry #5: He Writes the Songs

I have always considered myself to have a very broad taste in music and I certainly have many favorite musicians and music groups, among them, James Taylor, Johnny Cash, Gavin DeGraw, and Simon & Garfunkel. I would have to say though, that my favorite artist is Barry Manilow. Lots of people my age can’t understand why I have such a fascination with the music of Manilow. Many of my friends admit they have never even heard of him. The main reason I began to love 70’s star Barry Manilow is less based on his talent as a musician and more because he was the first to ever grace my ears-before I was even born. My mother and grandmother were big fans, and when my mom was pregnant with me, she used to play her Barry Manilow cassette tape against her stomach on daily basis. Obviously, I can’t remember what kind of affect this practice had on me, but according to my mom, I often began kicking rapidly whenever she would play Manilow’s “I Write the Songs.” After I was born, Manilow music filled my early years and was my mom’s soothing solution to my frequent crying fits. It was one of the only things that calmed me down; I was what one might call a “difficult child.” It wasn’t until I was a bit older though that Barry Manilow became something deeper for me than just a household name or snapshot of my infancy. I found myself listening to him by choice when my mom and grandmother were not around. I already knew his most famous songs, but I took the time to research and download some of his not so familiar albums during my first few years of internet access. I guess it was then, at about age 11, that I became somewhat of a Manilow-phile. I had been taking singing lessons since age 8, with the support of my grandmother, and was starting to outgrow performing Disney songs at my monthly recitals. I decided it might be time to give Manilow’s music a try on my own. This is when I really started to understand why I loved his music so much. For one, all of Manilow’s songs are easy listening. In other words, his music can play in the background of whatever activity I may be doing and not distract me from it. In comparison, Metallica or Guns and Roses-both good bands- are not very helpful when I am trying to study. Along these same lines, the quality of his voice (his tone, pitch, and singing style) is like a lullaby to me-so crispy and clear with just the right amount of vibrato. If I ever have a hard time falling asleep, listening to a few of his songs always does the trick. Another important quality of his music is relatability. All of my favorite movies and TV shows are ones that I can somehow connect to my own life. So, not surprisingly, the same goes for music. Manilow sings a lot of love ballads, but even those often include morals, lessons, or advice on life. His “Somewhere Down the Road” song perfectly describes my relationship with a close friend- although we grew up together, he and I have never seemed to be able to get our timing right and become more than just friends despite attempts to do so. Manilow is a great performer, and I would have to say that seeing him in concert (just a few years ago) made me further adore him. I guess, above all, the greatest quality of his music is the way he performs it. He sings with such conviction and confidence it is obvious he truly enjoys what he does. He loves his music, and that in turn causes me to love his music as well. Barry Manilow of today is definitely not the Barry Manilow of the 1970’s. Though he may no longer write the songs that make the whole world sing, he still writes the songs that make me sing.