If I Lived for a Moment - Tenor Solo

a la-Morivou "WELL, HELLO!!!!!"

Anyway, upon very slight peer pressure from the panda, I'm posting something I finished a few months ago. It's musical theater style tenor solo. The impetus to this work was a poem a showmate of mine had written. I liked it, and asked him if I could make it into a show-style song. He said fine, and gave me permission to rip it apart, to make it fit. This is the finished product, with words and lines added. I realize the accompaniment is pretty repetitive all the way across. Looking back, I would give much more action/variation to the bass and cello and slightly more variation to the 2 high strings, to break the monotony for the players, but I'll get around to that when I do. I'm please with the whole, but it could be much more interesting/fun for the performers.

I do have myself recorded singing this, with minimal (reverb) digital mastering (cause I don't know anything about that), but I am not nearly satisfied with my performance to showcase myself. Another thing I didn't feel like fixing for now. Alas...

Hope you like it!

PDF

MP3

YES!!!!!!! I WILL RECORD IT!!!! Thanks for asking! (not that you did...) Can I please have the mp4 without vocals. I love it. It's actually VERY musical theatre. it needs some direction, but I feel as though it would make a GREAT song live.

The Panda has Spoken.

M4A? Which program should I use to open that?

M4A is one of my default itunes formats. it should be openable by whichever program can open mp3s.

Windows Medea player wouldn't open it, but itunes plays it! I'll listen as soon as my brother stops practicing the drums >_

For Morivou

thanks! I will get to work!!!!

I liked the main melody at most points, especially leading to the whole notes, where it got really dramatic. I would love to hear this performed, because it would be so much more beautiful and stunning. Great job!

Morivou's already working on a recording. And thanks for the comments.

Morivou's already working on a recording. And thanks for the comments.

It'll be ready in about 3 days... it's got some voice leading parts that scare me about as much as a Sondheim song... so I am working on getting all the notes down... OH, and one rhythmic part, closer to the end is HELL. I feel like a retarded child trying to beat the rhythm and singing it. haha. :whistling:

I tried to make it as close to conversational rhythm patterns as possible. So there are breaths in the phrase where I think there would be breaths, or commas, in normal speech. Other than that, everything is bunched together, to embody the singers excitement and inability to contain himself by this point in the song. Don't know if any of that helps.

Yeah, the rhythms aren't that bad

lolz. Trust me. There are broadway singers out there that can't sing this. But, I am close. You know it cause you WROTE it. There is a difference.

lolz. Trust me. There are broadway singers out there that can't sing this. But, I am close. You know it cause you WROTE it. There is a difference.

Agreed. Hopefully though, with the profusion of Sondheim and Guettel and Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael John LaChiusa, more difficult repertoire like this will start to show up in musical theater - and then singers will be forced to get better!

Nice job on this. I like the lack of rhyme - unrhymed showtunes always seem to make really compelling material, if you can get them to fit into a regular structure - which you have done really well.

Any plans of adding this to a full show?

Agreed. Hopefully though, with the profusion of Sondheim and Guettel and Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael John LaChiusa, more difficult repertoire like this will start to show up in musical theater - and then singers will be forced to get better!

Nice job on this. I like the lack of rhyme - unrhymed showtunes always seem to make really compelling material, if you can get them to fit into a regular structure - which you have done really well.

Any plans of adding this to a full show?

I LOVE THEM ALL!!! This is why I am trying to understand the music more. It was easier with Sondheim because I had recordings to give me a general idea, but counting this stuff out...

I have to say though, musical theatre NEEDS to get harder. Otherwise it will become the next pop idiom... "High School Musical" anyone? *shudders*

I am planning on recording today, btw.

Agreed. Hopefully though, with the profusion of Sondheim and Guettel and Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael John LaChiusa, more difficult repertoire like this will start to show up in musical theater - and then singers will be forced to get better!

Nice job on this. I like the lack of rhyme - unrhymed showtunes always seem to make really compelling material, if you can get them to fit into a regular structure - which you have done really well.

Any plans of adding this to a full show?

Yes...Musical theater needs to get more challenging. I think it's always 1 thing at a time, like the arrival of belters onto the scene, first it was odd, and made you stick out, now it's expected of everyone who walks in the door. Broadway in general needs to be more challenging musically to make better musicians. People focus on what will sell so much, and they get to that point by taking the easiest route possible. Not to say there's not good stuff, but like Morv said...Broadway is being taken over by Disney onstage. Mind you, all that, along with some of the non-disney stuff that falls into the pop category (hairspray, dreamgirls, footloose, phantom, wicked, etc) I appreciate immensely, because of the surge of a younger crowd showing up to theaters. The 'movie' musical along with disney, is taking over right now, but that will and has brought new audiences in. Now that they love going to shows, it's time for another revolution. (Red, the blood of angry men...?)

Anyways. Thanks for the positive feedback chris. I currently have no show in mind that this song works with naturally, but everything I write is fair game at some point down the line.

Yes...Musical theater needs to get more challenging. I think it's always 1 thing at a time, like the arrival of belters onto the scene, first it was odd, and made you stick out, now it's expected of everyone who walks in the door. Broadway in general needs to be more challenging musically to make better musicians. People focus on what will sell so much, and they get to that point by taking the easiest route possible. Not to say there's not good stuff, but like Morv said...Broadway is being taken over by Disney onstage. Mind you, all that, along with some of the non-disney stuff that falls into the pop category (hairspray, dreamgirls, footloose, phantom, wicked, etc) I appreciate immensely, because of the surge of a younger crowd showing up to theaters. The 'movie' musical along with disney, is taking over right now, but that will and has brought new audiences in. Now that they love going to shows, it's time for another revolution. (Red, the blood of angry men...?)

Anyways. Thanks for the positive feedback chris. I currently have no show in mind that this song works with naturally, but everything I write is fair game at some point down the line.

Re: Belters...

I think belting needs to either stop, or be used strategically. Because of its commonality these days, it's no longer special! It's just expected.

Sadly though, it's not going anywhere. And.. I think it's most appropriate to convey emotions in the general sense. Which is sad, because the expected belt ability is constant show after show is shortening the longevity of the careers of anyone who can play those parts. Some have voices of steel and keep getting lead roles well into their 70s, but most just get nodes and ruin themselves far too soon. Yelling is the product of sadness, anger, loathing, fear, hapiness, etc. Sure, there's space for the characters that don't belt, since people can show happiness with tears...anger with laughter...and loathing with absolute flattery and praise, but stereotype emotions involve lots of yelling(belting). Which is fine...cause that means Patti Lupone isn't going anywhere, and that makes me happy.

I was hoping that there would have been a recording by now, but alas there is none.

I know little about this style of music but I do like the pacing and the harmonies involved in it.

I have a friend who writes musicals and one thing I have noticed about his works is that he changes keys alot. You did once (?) here and then back to the original key. In a piece of this length, he would have changed keys a bit more (if I remember right anyway).

He wrote the musical called Dorian Gray.

I added the link just to let you know that he is accomplished. This one only took him 20 years to get to this point, but all of the music and words are his and the music being played was supplied by him using GPO rendered thru Sonar.

Ron

Musical theatre is not dictated by the number of key changes in it...

I gave up on recording... My computer just doesn't want to behave right now, so I apologize to all who've been waiting. These things can be tricky.

Lol. Ok Morv. Thanks for the attempt. Sucks about your computer. Time for an upgrade?!?!?

This is me in the original recording I did. There's one note where I'm horrendously flat, but oh well. It's also a bit schmolzy, now that I listen to again, but oh well. I don't feel like re-recording it right now. SO, at least you can hear it and follow along. Perhaps someone can give me a few pointers as to how I could make this sound better. It was recorded in garage band, with the built-in mic on my computer, so my hopes for it aren't very high for now, but it's always great to learn something new for future reference.

If I Lived for a Moment w/voice...

i very much like it - i think it is okay that hte accompaniment is mostly the same - it gives the vocal line room to breathe melodically.

Thanks Peregrin....I am a strong believer in that accompaniments should be pretty monotonous until attention needs to be payed attention to them. If there's always something happening in the accompaniment, then there is always an invitation for the listener to focus on something other than the singer and thus, the story. Thanks again.