Revisiting the Trunk: “You Must Learn”
- October 5, 2007
- By Michael Kaulkin
- Musical Theater, Past Work
- 0 comments
Throughout the year I’ve been occasionally posting recordings of songs from my earlier musical The Ghost of Wu. Today’s installment is the song “You Must Learn”, in which an ambitious mother lectures her naïve daughter, a concubine, in the ways of the Emperor’s court.
This song is probably the most Sondheim-derivative thing I’ve ever written. When I was a student, all of my music was completely derivative, and over the years I learned how to avoid that to some degree. This is a rare case where I was not only being openly derivative, but I actually knew what I was doing. If you know your Sondheim, you will surely recognize the influence.
The lyrics are mine too, by the way. You can follow them and the score if you’d like on this dedicated page.
By the way, there’s a running index of all the songs I’ve posted so far on this page.
