Some of the people on this board amaze me sometimes.... — Page 2

The producers who will reject your work will probably be thinking the same thing as those "rude" posters.

Grow a spine and learn to take criticism. All criticism.

And stop being such a little whiner because people don't like your work.

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When a member of Pink Floyd was asked about Phantom's overture, he said, "Yeah, the beginning of that bloody Phantom song is from Echoes. *DAAAA-da-da-da-da-da*. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. It's the same time signature—-it's 12/8—-and it's the same structure and it's the same notes and it's the same everything. Bastard. It probably is actionable. It really is! But I think that life's too long to bother with suing Andrew f---ing Lloyd Webber."

Any new composer or playwright could benefit from researching copyright law. Webber could/should have been sued. Why spend a decade working on something that could/will be stopped in court? It would be one thing if you had a strikingly similar overture for a completely different story, but this one is about the same book. An easy target.
Pink Floyd vs. Phantom Overture

You've been working on this for 10 years? Your profile says you were born in '88, so you have been writing this show since you were 14?

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I indulged in snark in some of your previous eleventy threads, but, as someone with a degree in music, I'm afraid any constructive criticism I could give you would be even more withering. Here are two free (and heavily edited) pieces of advice:

Pick up a book on music theory. Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony is easy, informative and readily available. Your music lacks rhythmic and harmonic cadence, often sounding like over-extended recitative with this weird counter-melody doodling around in the background. It makes your music very hard to listen to, especially for prolonged periods of time (just ask anyone who has sat through The Adding Machine). Remember music usually has a foreground, midground and background--you need to fill those spaces. Ditch the synthesizer and focus on making good, satisfying music with 10 fingers and 88 keys. If you were writing a different kind of musical, I'd really suggest finding a guitar, since basic guitar playing is all about harmony and rhythm and those are your weak spots.

Your lyrics are not good. You rhymed "loneliNESS/emptiNESS/darkNESS/hatefulNESS". Ignoring the laziNESS of rhyming suffixes like that (and doing it four times in a row!), the lyrics themselves are this weird Hot Topic shade of purple, more worthy of Livejournal or Myspace angst poetry than musical theatre--it's more "pity party" than "pitiable". The real problem is that the Phantom is telling and not showing his emotional impairment. Yes, he is wounded and brooding, but would he ever actually admit that he is wounded and brooding? The answer should be "no"; look at wounded and brooding characters that have been successfully musicalized: Sweeney Todd or Caroline from Caroline, or Change. These characters never (or rarely) exposit their emotional baggage, instead letting it exhibit itself in the ways they react to other people and situations. This makes what could be a dark, cartoonish character into something grim, deep and complex. Or, to put it another way: don't write a song about the broken leg, find a way to musicalize the limp.

But really: please please please ditch the synthesizer.

Hey guys...I'm about to blow your mind.

What if air is poisonous and it just takes 80 years to kill us?

/thread

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Hyperbole, I thought - and so did many others - that ADDING MACHINE was brilliant. Not to change the subject... Tcompare it to this in such a negative way is a bit ridiculous. It's fine to not like it, but to compare it to THIS? C'mon... Apples and oranges.

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Updated On: 7/4/12 at 03:34 PM

Pink Floyd is shameless. Those same descending notes with almost identical harmonic structure can be heard in the first movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' London Symphony -- which premiered in 1914. 100% exactly the same? No, not quite, but much too similar for Pink Floyd to claim it as original. ALW's version is as close to the one as to the other.

Very sharp analysis, hyperbole!

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"Angel Of Music" - The Untold Musical Prequel To "The Phantom Of The Opera"
Monday via mobile
FYI, Angel of Music is a prequel to the STORY of The Phantom Of The Opera, NOT the ALW musical. We want to make that clear to everyone, especially all you guys on Broadwayworld.com who continue to bash us without having read the script or heard more than one of our songs. Thanks.

-AWN

Why on Earth would I continue listening to more than one song after the one I listened to was clearly plagiarized? The writers need to write something original, then come back and let us hear it. In the mean time, they are thieves.

I'm unable to find the Libretto, Could someone post the link.

Angel Of Music: The Untold Musical Prequel To "The Phantom Of The Opera"

This "untold" prequel is, perhaps, a tale better left untold.

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Updated On: 7/5/12 at 04:38 AM