Friday 15 February 2013

Sons and fathers

We are left with many questions after the previous scene where Hugo met Tyler. Why did Hugo leave his country? Why was he not aware of the existence of his child? Why did he not return to his country after democratic elections?

Even though we have heard many talk about him in scenes like Talk about democracy, I recall and Into exile, we do not really know very much about him.

In the scene that follows, we finally hear the story from Hugo's viewpoint. Here Hugo give us answers to those questions.

 

Track: Sons and fathers

(Click on song name to listen on soundcloud)

Album: The Exile, concept album recording

Artist: Eric Swardt

(1ta)

I was just a teenage boy

not much younger than you are now

when I fell in love with her,

a love doomed from the start

In those days when I was still at school

our love was against the law

my parents would not accept

for a white boy to date a maid

 

(2ta)

When I told her about the plan

She did not want to join

She told me that she expect a child

and she said the child belonged to another man

I guess I was furious and confused

I did not know what to do

so I did what I thought best

I took off and made my escaped

 

(3tb)

That place was heading for disaster

where the government told you who to love

Apartheid was an evil

and those who were against it

would be locked away

I don't know how could they not see the light

with sanctions from all around

I knew it was time to unite

I joined the fight against them

I made it my only goal

to get the world to join the fight

 

In the first verse, Hugo fills us in about his love affair with Pamela. They were from difference worlds. She was a poor worker and he was a richman's son. However, that is not the reason why he left. He makes a revelation. He had some plans to stand up against the regime at the time, but Pamela did not want to join. According to Hugo, Pamela told him that she was pregnant, but she told him that it was not his child.

 

Now we understand his actions a little bit better, but this raises many new questions about Pamela's motives. Why did she tell Tyler a completely different version of events? With all these questions in their minds, Tyler and Melissa will have to confront Pamela again when they return.

 

In the third verse, Hugo tells us about his fight for freedom. The country was n a bad shape as everybody was turning against the government. Hugo felt personally hurt by the class differences that was forced down upon him. He wanted to join the fight.

 

You hear a familiar melody in the third verse. As Hugo tells us about his fight against the regime, we use the same theme as when Pamela told us about Hugo's flight in into exile.

 

Don't forget, you can follow the whole musical scene by scene, in chronological order, from this page (see menu bar at top)

 

Finally, some comments about the song form. As you may have noticed by now, I do not like everything to be the same. I do not stick to a single song form. Yes, I do follow the trends and rules, but only to some extend. In musicals, my objective is not to write pop songs which has top 40 hit potential only. I do not mind getting to the top of any charts, but only if that suits my purpose of advancing my story. A sing-a-long chorus would have been totally put of context for this song. Verse 1 and verse 2 shares the same harmonic structure, with verse 3 introducing the familiar melody from another song. This makes it a AAB song form, composed in two parts, i.e. the A part, reapeating again, but with some variation in lyrics and melody, and then the B part that repeat some themes within itself. This is a form not very commonly heard on hit parades, but not completely unknown.

 

Take a listen to the beautifull instrumental song, Europa by Carlos Santana, which employs a very similar song structure.

 

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