Travis Conrad

A couple days ago I had a meeting with Canadian Playwright Dave Carley, he’s also the writer in residence for the London Public Library. He answered a great deal of questions I had concerning the process of getting Dysfunction put up at a theatre. As a result of his encouraging and thoroughly helpful advice, I have renewed vigor with finishing up these last couple songs. I feel like I could fucking climb Olympus. Drunk with inspiration. It’s awesome.

I’m currently waist deep in the closest thing Dysfunction has to love song, called So Much. I’m very happy with the direction this song is taking. The opening/transition from Charlotte’s Inner Monologue is going to take some work, but the rest of it is coming along beautifully. I’m pulled to the edge of tears as I’m working on it, though I must be careful; it’s all too easy to let the music over-power the lyrics, and that’s an amateur mistake that as an amateur I’m likely to make. BUT as a self-aware amateur I think I’ve nipped it in the bud.

So since I don’t have anything of my own to readily put on display, I’m making a post about my favourite Sondheim songs, categorized by musical.

A Little Night Music

Favourite song: The Glamorous Life

The lyrics are absolutely brilliant. Flawless and creative rhymes. The music is a thing of beauty, and the song has a deep sub-textual element. If you listen you’ll pick up on her jealousy of the children with ordinary mothers. It’s a nearly perfect piece.

Second favourite song: Now/Soon/Later

Now is definitely my favourite song out of the three here, it has some intense rhymes that are boggling in complexity (the song starts 2:30 into the video). I’m not overly fond of Soon, but Later is right up there again in awesomeness. It was a close call between this song and Weekend in the Country, but I just couldn’t not put this song up here.

Sweeney Todd

Favourite song: God That’s Good

It’s catchy as hell and I love the rhyme scheme used (eat pies/meat pies/treat pies, also one for the gentleman/none for the gentleman/run for the gentleman). I also love the chorus of customers, you just don’t get stuff like this very often, so when you do you should cherish it and grip it so hard they have to pry it out of your cold dead hands. Lastly, THROW THE OLD WOMAN OUT!
(Also, mmmm Neil Patrick Harris)

Second favourite song: Kiss Me

This song make good use of counterpoint. I hope to be able to write like this someday. For those who don’t know, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony (Johanna’s frantic worried melody, and Anthony’s calmer melody). Also, Johanna’s lyric “I’m a silly little ninnydoodle.” and Anthony’s lyric “It’s not a gate, there’s no gate, you don’t have a gate!” are amazing in every sense of the word.

Into the Woods

Favourite song: Children Will Listen

This is my second favourite finale out of any show I’ve ever seen. Frankly, most finales aren’t very good. A show has to leave a good final impression, if it leaves audiences feeling robbed of proper closure, they’re not going to spread a good word. What I like about Children Will Listen is that it covers the lessons learned throughout the show, it has a warm opening, a hasty middle and an excited ending. The staging is a little messy but admittedly it’s a difficult song to stage.

Second favourite song: Ever After

Ever After has an undescribeable quality to it. It has great lyrics, a swift melody, but it’s so much more. I couldn’t find a good version of just it on youtube, so the link is the preview from the 2002 Tony Awards. Ever After is the song 1:50 in.

Company

Favourite song: Being Alive

Ugh. Perrrrrrrfeection. Sweet perfection. Ugh. This is by far the most brilliant closing to any show I’ve ever seen. This song has it all. And when sung by someone as powerful as Raul Esparza it’s simply uncompareable in it’s brilliance.

Second favourite song: (Not) Getting Married Today

The song starts of dry for the first couple lines, but once Amy opens her mouth it’s pure gold. Finally when she loses it and goes on her big long rant, it’s awesome. So awesome. Company is just awesome. Are you starting to see why I like Sondheim so much?

Sunday in the Park with George

Favourite song: Colour and Light

Sunday in the Park with George is so often over-looked. Sure it’s not the most conventional of musicals, but that’s why we love Sondheim. Colour and Light (well, Color and Light I guess technically, but that just looks so wrong), won my heart instantly. The catchy background refrain that seems never ending simulating George’s painting process, it’s perfect, especially if you’ve ever actually done pointillism. The other part of this song that really speaks to me (sings to me?) is George’s dedication to his art, it’s something I admire and wish I could emulate.

Second favourite song: Putting it Together

For starters, Mandy Patinkin is one crazy mofo. I admire his quirkiness as an actor. He really outdid himself in this role and really does this song justice. Sondheim’s longer rhymes in this one (configuration, foundation) roll off the tongue crisply. It made a nice theme for the song to have those fuller rhymes.

-Travis Conrad

Before tossing up the latest Dysfunction song to your collective, judging, unworthy ears, it’s important to understand the scenario surrounding the song.

1. It’s sung by a girl, Charlotte. Relatively quiet, passive, scholarly Charlotte.
2. She’s just been asked on out a real date from a guy, Cameron, whom she’s met twice now: once in his office, once at a business meeting over dinner.
3. She doesn’t have a wide account of experience in the world of dating. And nearly not as much as, say, Kim (in fact I doubt there are many people alive that have as much experience as Kim, porn stars omitted).
4. This is song takes place in her head. It’s an internal debate.

Below the song I’ve posted the first couple lines so you can read along with the synth vocal notes if you like (also will help give you an idea of the rhyme scheme). The lyrics are broken up into syl-ab-les to aid in following the vocals correctly if’n you so choose. I’d include all the lyrics but I really don’t want to give it all away like your girlfriend on the first date OH BURN!

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Damn-it Came-ron why would you,
ask me that,
for-cing me to pick an an-swer, when there are few op-tions on de-mand.

Things were go-ing pret-ty well.
Now this chat
has gone to hell. It’s a can-cer when you can’t dwell on the stakes at hand.

Peo-ple can’t leave things a-lone,
when they’re fine.
If I had known this was com-ing, I’d have post-poned walk-ing home with him.

But it’s too late to go back,
so de-cline,
or stay on track with this hum-ming train down tar-mac. Both op-tions seem dim.

On the one hand we have yes.
Rush-ing in’s
not bad I guess if you’re cau-tious and you a-ssess the sit-u-a-tion.

On the o-ther we have no.
It be-gins,
when I say so, and this nau-seous feel-ing is grow- ing. I want to run.

</lyrics>
<continue reading without lyrics for the remaining 55 seconds of the song :] >

I know what you’re about to say. “But Travis, that last chord sounds all wrong. What kind of second rate Vaudeville composer are you?” Fear not! There is reason. That chord was Charlotte’s clarity. She’s made her decision, her thoughts are clear. That final chord is meant to up-lift and remove the gloom and disorder that’s been building up over the course of the song. It ushers the way into the song following immediately after. hu-ZAH!

Next up I am pleased to announce a new, much more realistic rendering of the Festal Waltz that I posted just over a month ago. I convert it from midi to mp3 using a site called HamieNET. It gets the job done but it’s certainly nothing near commercial quality. Using a friend’s copy of Garageband, I converted my sheet music to mp3 once again. The results are unparalleled. UN-FREAKING-PARALELLED. It’s fantastic, I’m so pleased. I can’t wait to acquire my own mac so I’ll have this incredibly tool at my disposal 24/7/365/152 (I think 152 more years is pretty reasonable when you take into consideration the advances that are going on with stem cell research).

Feast upon the new and improved rendition. I cannot wait til I’m in a position to hear it being played for realsies.

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*note: the celesta’s been replaced by a glockenspiel as was the original intention. I apologize for any sleep you might lose/any grief this decision has caused you.

*also note: just a reminder that all mp3 files and images are on this website are Copyright © 2008-2009 Travis Conrad Reichstein

-Travis Conrad PEACIN’ OUT!

I randomly stumbled across this blog from a science news website. I feel as tho I should have been exposed to something as awesome as this sooner. Much much sooner. It’s a got a fucking fractal teddy-bear! How cute is that?! Possibly even cuter than this. Cuteness levels are approaching critical mass here people.

Mandelbrot, the fractal teddybear

In other news, I finished up Charlotte’s Inner Monologue today. Very pleased with the music for it, I’ll post it up once I’m done polishing it (everything needs a good polish). I still need to fiddle around with the key it’s in so it flows well from After Dinner with Cam right before it. Which reminds me, I recently stumbled upon GarageBand and I’ve gotta say, it’s an incredibly useful program that I wish was available on PC. But since it’s not, my next big purchase evidently is gonna be a Mac Mini. The left hemisphere of my brain salivates in sweet, untangible, anticipation.

-Travis Conrad

Holy crap, the year is 1.6% over already! Mannn does time fly.

Today I’m gonna share the Christmas painting I did for one of my closest friends, Smuck (aka Sean Kelly). The subject of the painting is the one and only Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, the San Francisco opera rival of Sweeney Todd, many of my late night fantasies), specifically it’s him as Dr. Horrible from the incredibly popular web musical. The painting is oil on a deep 16 x 20 inch canvas.

The first background layer.

The second background layer.

Dr. Horrible’s foundation.

The finished Dr. Horrible.

This painting  was a dream to paint. I’m not entirely sure the mechanics behind it, but it was one of the smoothest pieces I’ve ever done. It also came remarkably close to what I envisioned/used as a guideline. Everything just came together perfectly, and it was as tho I wasn’t applying the paint, but the paint was apply itself.….   -cues X-files music-

I apologize for the fuzziness of the camera, it hasn’t been focusing properly. Also, the colour’s a little off. It’s not as royal blue as it looks there, it’s more of a dirty grey-blue. Steel-blue. Cloudy midnight-blue. Mercurious sludge seeping into the river delta-blue.

My second order of business that I wanted to share was what I’ve been doing with the musical now that the holidays are wrapped up for another year THANK GOD. I’m full scale back in business working on the last couple songs, and Dysfunction should be close to done by the end of the month. The part I’m working on now is the first real solo song in the show. After Charlotte and Cameron’s business dinner, Cam asks her on a real date. The scene pauses and Charlotte takes a moment to reflect and sort out the situation. We decided to do it this way because A) Charlotte becomes more important as the show progresses and she doesn’t really get a chance to reveal who she is, and B) This is a rather large decision, accepting/denying a date so soon. Having her just answer yes or no would probably leave audiences unclear on her reasoning. This working towards a decision in her head should really make clear her route to the answer she decides upon.

Every so often I listen to the work I’ve already finished on the musical, and it reminds slash inspires me that I can accomplish something of value. It’s not rare that I forget that I’ve actually written songs, impressive songs (IMHO) for someone who hasn’t had any formal training . As I listened I realized I didn’t have many rhymes I was proud of yet. Not that there’s anything wrong with them, but they lacked the complexity I know I’m capable of. With Charlotte’s inner dialogue I aim to work-out my metaphorical rhyme muscle. The rhymecep brachii if you will. Internal rhymes that’ll make your head spin….. Ok maybe not quite. Here’s a look:

On the one hand we have yes.
Rushing in’s not bad I guess
if you’re cautious and you assess the situation.

On the other we have no.
It begins, when I say so,
and this nauseous feeling is growing. I need to run.

The melody for this song is inspired by Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King. I’ll share that another day tho.

Lastly, I stumbled across a website that transcends modern vernacular, and thusly, must be shown rather than told about. Go there, and learn.

-TCR

Happy 2009! I hope your new years was better than mine. Monday night I felt the stirrings of a cold, so I drank some tea and avoided sugar as a precaution.

Tuesday morning rolls around and my throat ached with a pain no mortal should be made to face. I think I read about a similar infection somewhere between Exodus 7-11. If there was a molten lava spring nearby I would have drank from it greedily to sooth the pain. I examined it in the mirror to make sure a porcupine hadn’t taken up residence while I was sleeping.

Fear not! I didn’t despair and went straight into action with my 4-Step Bacterial Infection Response Strategy:

• Step One: I remove all instances of sugar from my diet. No chocolate. No jam. No candy. No sugary cereal. Sugar has been shown to depress the immune system, look it up.
  • Note: If drinking orange or other fruit juice, I dilute it 50/50 with water.

• Step Two: Always have a drink of either water or tea on hand. If I have it next to me, I will drink it, keeping precious fluid reserves high.

• Step Three: I add oregano and garlic to everything I can. For lunch I lightly toasted up some naan bread, lightly buttered it, then covered it with some chopped garlic, oregano , crushed, dried cayenne peppers and a little salt. It’s quite tasty. I also drink a basic oregano tea (oregano + boiling water), it’s incredibly soothing. Garlic, oregano and cayenne peppers have all exhibited superb anti-bacterial properties. I encourage you to research it

• Step Four: Sleep. And lots of it if you can. I got 10 hours last night and plan on going to bed right after I finish posting this. Sleep has been shown to speed healing in essentially every study done.

Unfortunately on New Years I had two glasses of champagne (high in sugar and alcohol) which was probably the worst thing I could have done. Nothing is worse for your immune system than alcohol, other than, I dunno, sucking on pocket change.

On that note, I leave you and pray for either A) a swift death, or B) recovery.

-TCR