kottke.org: Lin-Manuel Miranda recently released the early drafts of eight Hamilton songs on Soundcloud. Miranda sings all the parts himself and they’re a lot less showtuney and more hip-hoppy than the finished product. Worth a listen for fans of process.
3 comments:
Listening to these is interesting. For the most part, it sounds pretty similar to the final songs, but there are moments where it is just different enough that it sounds wrong. It think it is cool that Lin-Manuel Miranda is showing some of his process. Especially with the ones marked as the first draft, they are really much more similar to the final version that I expected. I listened to the draft of Your Obedient Servant compared to the actual song, and the final song definitely has more of a show tune quality to it. I also noticed that the final song has much more variation in terms of how the words are sung/spoken and the pacing of the lyrics. I’d be interested in hearing some intermediate drafts as well, just because I’m curious how Lin-Manuel Miranda goes through the process of revising and what changes he made in what order.
I listened to these as they came out over the week and as Lin Manual Miranda released them. I have always stood by my claim that Lin is one of the artistic geniuses of our time, and even though he will be copied and people will talk about it as a cliche in the coming years as we look back on it through history we are going to see that it sparked a revolution for new ways to tell stories, he created a new form a whole new language. And it's a big deal to compare someone to Shakespeare but I think he's the closest thing we have had to him in a long time. Not because there weren't other talent people but because they didn't innovate like Lin has. This article and these drafts I feel like just confirm my theory. Art especially amazing art isn't made in 2 days or one draft and is important for people to see that. That everyone struggles and goes through iterations that aren't as good, but it's the people that keep going and keep pushing their ideas that end up with the most success.
I loved the early drafts of hamilton article. Many of the songs sound familiar like Julian said, Congratulations in particular. It is the song that was later replaced with The Reynolds Pamphlet. I love hearing and reading Lin Manuel Miranda's original words and seeing the organic evolution that became the show. I love that he kept elements of the initial song and composed them into the new ones. In interviews, Miranda defends his choice of replacing Congratulations because of its relation to Burn (the song that happens next in the show). He states that they were too similar and he needed to create a harsh contrast for that transition between songs to be effective. When I heard this, it shocked me; it forced me to look at the piece as a holistic composition, rather than just a few singles. Listening to early Hamilton evokes similar melodies that are present in In The Heights. Needless to say, Lin Manuel Miranda has found his style in Musical Theatre- this style is one that continuously redefining the rules of contemporary theatre.
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