Titanic Lyric? and Cool Site

[EugLoven]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 8:38pm

I found a pretty cool website that breaks down the action of the Broadway musical TITANIC scene-by-scene with dialogue and song lyrics. Plus accompany screen-caps from the press video reels.
Visit here: http://www.amazing-journey.com/titanic.htm

I adore this score and show and yet something has always been unclear to me. What famous monument are they referring to in the lyric: "From flying buttresses alone, a wall of light"...?

At first I thought the Eiffel Tower but that wasn't built yet and isn't a "wall"... neither is Notre Dame (which has flying buttresses)... Any idea?

PEACE

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 8:42pm

From Wiki:
the flying buttress' design provides for an equal and opposite force to be imposed on the wall, thus keeping the wall in balance. This, firstly, enables the vaulted roof and, secondly, by externalising some of the structural elements of the wall, allows the wall so supported to be thinner, which in turn enables the development of large arched window sections to let in light and be filled by stained glass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttress

[EugLoven]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 8:49pm

Thank you, Yankee.
I know what a flying buttress is.

What I'm curious about is to what monument in specific the lyric is referring to, because of the reference to "light." The Notre Dame? Westminister Abbey?

We've got the Great Pyramid, Great Wall of China, Duomo, Aqueducts of Rome, Sistine Chapel, Stonehenge, the Parthenon...

So what is "flying buttresses to make a wall of light" referring to? I wonder if it's just a blanket-verse for all architectural wonders of that design. Updated On: 4/7/07 at 08:49 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 8:55pm

Oh...well I just figured that the

"which in turn enables the development of large arched window sections to let in light and be filled by stained glass"

part was what you're referring to.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 12:13am

I believe Yankee is right. Flying buttresses are most notably used in Notre Dame and Chartres, but on the whole, their contribution to architecture was the fact that they opened up the possibility of enormous cathedrals that didn't have to have ridiculously thick load-bearing walls. In other words, because of the advent of flying buttress, the dark, cold cathedrals of the Romanesque period were able to be replaced by the light, ornamental cathedrals of the Gothic period, which is when cathedrals became a work of art as well as a piece of architecture.

[brainpolice23]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 12:24am

that's michael cerveris' website i believe. although i'm not positive.

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 1:46am

yes it is.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 2:15am

Hmmm. Funny, I'd always assumed that since the other references were so specific, that this one was, too. And I'd always assumed, for no particular reason, that it referred to Chartres. Now I don't know.

But thanks, EugLoven, for giving me a reason to revisit one of my favorite musicals, and for the link to Cerveris' site.
Updated On: 4/8/07 at 02:15 AM

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 3:00am

You know, I never considered that the other lyrics were so specific. If I had to name one particular cathedral whose flying buttresses created a "wall of light," it would probably be Chartres.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 3:19am

I'd meant these specific lyrics, which are pretty damn specific:

"Miracles them all!
China's endless wall...
Stonehenge, the Parthenon, the Duomo...
The aqueducts of Rome..."

[StageManager2]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 3:53am

"At first I thought the Eiffel Tower but that wasn't built yet and isn't a 'wall'..."

Uh, the Eiffel Tower was already more than twenty years old at the time of Titanic's disaster. Its structure was completed in 1889.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 5:49am

SM2, you so smart!!

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 4/8/07 at 8:10am

Ooh wah wah wee wah!!!!