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solo_saxophone  Fresh Face Joined: 04 Aug 2006 Total posts: 19 |
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Hey everyone,
So I've had a copy of the "Miss Saigon" vocal score for a number of
years that I got from a friend who had been in the show - it's about 340 pages and has all of the music from the show for piano reduction and all of the various parts for the different characters on seperate staves. It's set like a traditional operatic score, I suppose.
Some weirdness, though. For those of us here who are
familliar with the score, we will be well aware of the fact that the
"Finale" has undergone a considerable amount of revision since the show
opened on Broadway and in London. The Finale first was called "The
Sacred Bird" and was partly new music and partly a reprise of "I'd Give
My Life For You", before the familiar falling "I have had my fill of
pain" whole-tone motif and "American Dream" reprise and gunshot stuff.
It went:
From this picture I keep
You, my parents, look out
And your smiles show no scorn
I am happy today
For my heart is not torn
Spirits know when to fly when it's time;
There's no reason to mourn
For the great sacred bird is reborn
etc etc etc.
Then we got a "new" version in time for the Complete Symphonic
Recording in 1995 or so, that incorporated more music and then a
reprise of "This is the Hour" before a similar ending to the OLC. This
one is my personal favorite:
Now, Tam, my brave boy
Our long wait has ended
Smile, Tam, for you have
A father at last
He will come to take you home
All I dreamed for you he'll do
You're still mine, but I can't go along
Don't be sad; though I seem far away, I'll be watching you!
So anyway, having just gotten the German cast recording of MS, I was
looking in the vocal score and saw something interesting. Directly
after "The American Dream", the vocal score has two seperate endings -
"The Sacred Bird", which is a PV reduction to the end, basically, and
an entirely seperate "draft" of an ending, I guess - something entirely
new, called "Little God of My Heart". "Little God of My Heart" contains
musical portions of the second Finale version seen on the CSR (the
"You're still mine, but I can't go along/Don't be sad; though I seem
far away, I'll be watching you!" part), but is otherwise entirely new
material for the most part until the gunshot. It's pretty, too, from
what I see, but very different and mostly in 12/8, with a triplet feel.
So what's with this "Little God of My Heart" stuff? Was it ever used in
the show? Is there anywhere it's been recorded? Given its apparent
relative obscurity, how did it make it into the vocal score?
Also, a "bonus" query: why, in some vocal scores in various parts (such
as MS, during most of "The Heat is On in Saigon" and "If You Want to
Die in Bed"), does the piano accompaniment dissapear and get replaced
with "x-ed out" note symbols and just chord names as opposed to actual
accompaniment? It's strange.
Any insight? I would LOVE to know more. My e-mail address is joe.bardsley@gmail.com
Thanks, guys!
Take care,
Joseph |
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cellodude06 Young Hoofer Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Total posts: 42 |
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| well... i played in the pit for miss saigon and the notes with x's and chord symbols are because those parts are "ad lib" or improvised... they'll just give you the chords and the beat pattern |
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o.0Fresh Face Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Total posts: 2 |
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From what I've heard, Little God of My Heart was used for a few months on Broadway, because The Sacred Bird gave away the ending too easily. But after a few months LGoMH was also changed into what is now the Finale.
I don't believe it was ever recorded (legally, anyway...) |
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medicmanYoung Hoofer
Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Total posts: 31 Location: Littleton, NH Primary role: Performer Current obsession: Getting cast in RENT at the Weathervane Theatre.... |
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I was in Miss Saigon at a Summer Stock theater in New Hampshire this year.
We used the Symphonic version. After listening to both, I'm glad we did, it is much better.
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Recent shows: Weathervane Rep Theatre Summer 2007
Upcoming shows: Little Shop of Horrors: Seymour (Lancaster, NH)
Titanic: TBD (Lisbon, NH) |
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The Very Angry Woman Broadway Legend / MdN Veteran
Location: a place where evil cannot touch me |
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| o.0 wrote: | From what I've heard, Little God of My Heart was used for a few months on Broadway, because The Sacred Bird gave away the ending too easily. But after a few months LGoMH was also changed into what is now the Finale.
I don't believe it was ever recorded (legally, anyway...) |
Little God of My Heart was written for the OBC and was phased out sometime in mid-1995.
The only legal recording of it is on the original Japanese cast recording, and in the "making of" documentary about the Toronto production.
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The Very Angry Woman
The Very Angry Man has retired from musicals.net.
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Welcome to the internet.: No one here likes you. |
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Eponine93Broadway Legend / MdN Veteran
Joined: 19 Nov 2006 Total posts: 2792 Current obsession: Gone with the Wind |
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| Quote: | | From what I've heard, Little God of My Heart was used for a few months on Broadway, because The Sacred Bird gave away the ending too easily. But after a few months LGoMH was also changed into what is now the Finale |
I think "The Sacred Bird" was cut because if you think through it, it has a theme of suicide. Apparantly people were coming out of the theatre or listening to that song and murdering themselves, and their loved ones said it was the song's fault. Its a pretty song though. |
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bbuyleFresh Face Joined: 09 Dec 2008 Total posts: 2 |
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Does anyone has the complete vocal score of Miss Saigon?
I mean the one that is used during rehearsels.
Willing to pay for it.
Thx. |
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alcockell Chorus Member Joined: 15 May 2009 Total posts: 83 Location: Reading, UK Primary role: Other... |
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IMHO - I saw the original production, and that original lyric matched more closely..
Kim was dealing with a massive shame cycle; she'd had to rationalise a lot... and also death is dealt with differently in Buddhist cultures... |
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jackrussell Tony Winner Joined: 12 Nov 2008 Total posts: 401 |
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| Eponine93 wrote: | | I think "The Sacred Bird" was cut because if you think through it, it has a theme of suicide. Apparantly people were coming out of the theatre or listening to that song and murdering themselves, and their loved ones said it was the song's fault. Its a pretty song though. |
Really? If true that seems like an overreaction (both by the audience and the producers). Emo music would be banned if we were to follow that example 
The finale on the CSR is the one that's been used whenever I've seen the show so I don't think Little God of My Heart can have been around for long, as the above poster said. The CSR ending is very powerful so they'd be foolish to change it again.
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Blessed are those who go in circles, for they shall be called "wheels". |
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Vanessa20Tony Winner Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Total posts: 375 |
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| jackrussell wrote: | | Eponine93 wrote: | | I think "The Sacred Bird" was cut because if you think through it, it has a theme of suicide. Apparantly people were coming out of the theatre or listening to that song and murdering themselves, and their loved ones said it was the song's fault. Its a pretty song though. |
Really? If true that seems like an overreaction (both by the audience and the producers). Emo music would be banned if we were to follow that example |
Fortunately, I've never heard of anyone responding the same way to the corresponding aria in Madame Butterfly, even though its text is equally suicide-oriented, no hiding her intentions from either the child or the audience:
Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu! Tu!
Piccolo iddio! Amore, amore mio!
Fior di giglio e di rosa!
Non saperlo mai per te, per tuoi puri occhi, muor Butterfly!
Perche tu possa andar di la dal mare,
Senza che ti rimorda ai di maturi, il materno abbandono.
O a me, sceso dal trono dell'alto Paradiso,
Guarda ben fiso, fiso di tua madre la faccia,
Che ten resti una traccia.
Guarda ben! Amore, addio!
Addio, piccolo amor! Va, gioca, gioca!
You! You! You! You! You! You! You!
My little god! My dearest, dearest love!
Flower of lilies and roses!
May you never know that for you, for your innocent eyes, Butterfly died!
So that you may go away over the sea,
And when you are older, may feel no pain at your mother's renunciation.
My son, sent from the throne of Paradise,
Look carefully at your mother's face,
So that a trace of it will remain with you.
Look carefully! My love, farewell!
Farewell, my little love! Go, play, play! |
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