Tower of Babble
I don't know why, but for some reason "Tower of Babble" from Godspell popped into my head this evening.
My high school performed Godspell my junior year, and I was in the pit orchestra. People who know the musical might find that strange, since Godspell was scored for a small rock band. Participation in our annual musical meant just as much to the instrumentalists as it did to the singers/actors, so when word got out that the directors decided to do a musical that did not involve a pit orchestra, there was some outrage. It turned out later that the conductor of the pit was to score the entire musical (well, most of it) for full orchestra so that we band/orchestra geeks could participate. He ended up scoring all but "Tower of Babble", "Save the People", "Alas for You", "By My Side", "On the Willows", and "Beautiful City" (which wasn't in the original score). All of those (except "Beautiful City" which we did not perform) were left with the original scoring.
While most of the songs we didn't play didn't really stay with us, my friends and I loved "Tower of Babble". In this song, eight philosophers from various periods in history sing their thoughts about god. They each sing their piece alone (with piano accompaniment) one at a time (except for Leonardo Da Vinci and Edward Gibbon, who do a duet, and Jean Paul Sartre, whose testimony is interrupted twice by Buckminster Fuller's), and then all sing a chorus together, following which--and this is my favorite part--they all since their individual themes together one on top of the other in a delicious, polyphonic orgasm of philosophy!
The first time I heard it, the pianist wasn't there, so they did the whole song a cappella, which is the version of the song that I'll always remember (which, of course, isn't how it was ever supposed to sound). It sounded so mysterious, and then everything was united in the composite song at the end. I'm not sure how the song is intended to be staged, but my school's production had the house lights out and the eight philosophers behind a scrim, each with a flashlight that they pointed at their face and flicked on when they sang and off when they weren't. It was a very cool effect.
I was very disappointed to discover that Tower of Babble wasn't on the original cast recording. There were other songs in the musical I enjoyed, but Tower of Babble was groundbreaking to me. I'd never heard anything like it, and I was sad that I might never hear it again.
So today, while I was on the can, Tower of Babble landed in my head. I have no idea where it came from, but it occurred to me that I have more capability to find music than I did in 1996, and as soon as I left the bathroom I sat down at my computer and set myself to the task. I first searched iTunes for "Tower of Babble", and found this weird rendition of it with electronic beats and other unsavory distracting sounds. It was from the 2001 National Touring Cast Recording, and it was indeed the song, and I figured it was the best I was going to find, so I bought it (I still had a $15 credit, so I figured what the hell). In addition to the annoying synthesized sounds, some of the words were different, and some of the words were spoken instead of sung (such as Thomas Aquinas's part). It then occurred to me to search for "Godspell", and then I found a version of the song called "Prologue" on an "Original Studio Cast" that was released in 1997. That one was much more similar to the song I remembered and I bought it too. There is no trace of the original original recording (or any recordings other than the 2001 or the 1997 for that matter) on iTunes. Which is fine, actually, because it's really the worst collection of singers I've ever heard. My high school's production was better.
I decided to try and learn why Tower of Babble was left of the original recording. In my quest for this information, I found out a few interesting things. Having achieved acclaim off-Broadway in 1971, the musical opened in Toronto, and ended up setting a record there for longest-running musical. According to the Wikipedia article, Godspell's success in Toronto established the city, which was previously barely a blip on the international theater radar, as a major theater center. The Toronto production was also the first regular acting gig for Gilda Radner and Martin Short, and was also the beginning of Paul Schaffer's career.
I also found out (from this hideously ugly Geocities page) that the reason the words to Tower of Babble are different on the 2001 touring cast recording is that four of the philosophers were replaced. Martin Luther, Edward Gibbon, Frederic Nietzsche, and Buckminster Fuller were removed and Galileo, Jonathan Edwards, L. Ron Hubbard, and Marianne Williamson took their place.
But I still haven't uncovered the mystery of Tower of Babble. Was it simply not written until later?
My high school performed Godspell my junior year, and I was in the pit orchestra. People who know the musical might find that strange, since Godspell was scored for a small rock band. Participation in our annual musical meant just as much to the instrumentalists as it did to the singers/actors, so when word got out that the directors decided to do a musical that did not involve a pit orchestra, there was some outrage. It turned out later that the conductor of the pit was to score the entire musical (well, most of it) for full orchestra so that we band/orchestra geeks could participate. He ended up scoring all but "Tower of Babble", "Save the People", "Alas for You", "By My Side", "On the Willows", and "Beautiful City" (which wasn't in the original score). All of those (except "Beautiful City" which we did not perform) were left with the original scoring.
While most of the songs we didn't play didn't really stay with us, my friends and I loved "Tower of Babble". In this song, eight philosophers from various periods in history sing their thoughts about god. They each sing their piece alone (with piano accompaniment) one at a time (except for Leonardo Da Vinci and Edward Gibbon, who do a duet, and Jean Paul Sartre, whose testimony is interrupted twice by Buckminster Fuller's), and then all sing a chorus together, following which--and this is my favorite part--they all since their individual themes together one on top of the other in a delicious, polyphonic orgasm of philosophy!
The first time I heard it, the pianist wasn't there, so they did the whole song a cappella, which is the version of the song that I'll always remember (which, of course, isn't how it was ever supposed to sound). It sounded so mysterious, and then everything was united in the composite song at the end. I'm not sure how the song is intended to be staged, but my school's production had the house lights out and the eight philosophers behind a scrim, each with a flashlight that they pointed at their face and flicked on when they sang and off when they weren't. It was a very cool effect.
I was very disappointed to discover that Tower of Babble wasn't on the original cast recording. There were other songs in the musical I enjoyed, but Tower of Babble was groundbreaking to me. I'd never heard anything like it, and I was sad that I might never hear it again.
So today, while I was on the can, Tower of Babble landed in my head. I have no idea where it came from, but it occurred to me that I have more capability to find music than I did in 1996, and as soon as I left the bathroom I sat down at my computer and set myself to the task. I first searched iTunes for "Tower of Babble", and found this weird rendition of it with electronic beats and other unsavory distracting sounds. It was from the 2001 National Touring Cast Recording, and it was indeed the song, and I figured it was the best I was going to find, so I bought it (I still had a $15 credit, so I figured what the hell). In addition to the annoying synthesized sounds, some of the words were different, and some of the words were spoken instead of sung (such as Thomas Aquinas's part). It then occurred to me to search for "Godspell", and then I found a version of the song called "Prologue" on an "Original Studio Cast" that was released in 1997. That one was much more similar to the song I remembered and I bought it too. There is no trace of the original original recording (or any recordings other than the 2001 or the 1997 for that matter) on iTunes. Which is fine, actually, because it's really the worst collection of singers I've ever heard. My high school's production was better.
I decided to try and learn why Tower of Babble was left of the original recording. In my quest for this information, I found out a few interesting things. Having achieved acclaim off-Broadway in 1971, the musical opened in Toronto, and ended up setting a record there for longest-running musical. According to the Wikipedia article, Godspell's success in Toronto established the city, which was previously barely a blip on the international theater radar, as a major theater center. The Toronto production was also the first regular acting gig for Gilda Radner and Martin Short, and was also the beginning of Paul Schaffer's career.
I also found out (from this hideously ugly Geocities page) that the reason the words to Tower of Babble are different on the 2001 touring cast recording is that four of the philosophers were replaced. Martin Luther, Edward Gibbon, Frederic Nietzsche, and Buckminster Fuller were removed and Galileo, Jonathan Edwards, L. Ron Hubbard, and Marianne Williamson took their place.
But I still haven't uncovered the mystery of Tower of Babble. Was it simply not written until later?