Before we begin this presentation, I have to say that I do not believe the iCarly RPG is a wholly collage project. It has elements of parody, elements of adaptation, and elements of collage. However, according to my interpretation of the presentation instructions, the work doesn’t need to be a completely collaged deity in order to be presented on. It just needs to have elements that I can discuss and debate, which I fully plan on doing.
The iCarly RPG is a choose-your-own-adventure style game (created by StamblerRambler using Twine software) in which you, the player, control Carly as she navigates through high school, spaghetti tacos, and the undying grief that comes with tragedy.
It sounds insane to explain only out loud, so I thought in the spirit of CYOA, we’d all speedrun play the beginning of the game together, to get a sense of the tone and humor being used.
The game opens with this obviously fake, or at the very least doctored, Dan Schneider quote. I searched the web far and wide to try and find a quote from him that could be the basis for this one, but there were none that showed up.
What I want you to focus on in this quote however isn’t the contents of it: look at the date this is said. November 23rd, 2012. Why that date? What’s so special about it that the author attributed this surrealist fake quote to that day?
November 23rd, 2012, the episode ‘iGoodbye’ premiered on Nickelodeon, the series finale of iCarly as a show.
I didn’t include this date as one of my official collage elements of the RPG, since it’s not obviously taken from other material, and the ‘meaning’ of it primarily comes from independently seeking out said meaning. I do firmly believe, though, that if this project were made physically, pasted together different text snippets on paper, that this date would be a cutout with the Wikipedia font on it, or something similar. While it’s not an official collage element, I wanted to draw attention to it as I believe it’s a very telling way to start the game.
As a class: play through the game up to ‘I miss Sam’ and leaving for school.
From this, you can gather an idea of what the plot is going to be like, so I’ll lend my focus for the rest of the presentation on the collage elements of the game.
When traveling through the netherworld with Gibby/Guppy, Carly comes across a group of teenagers in food costumes. The teenagers we recognize as the kids from Victorious! A picture of them is shown, and the ‘Favorite Food’ song plays when they appear. There are two options you can take from there: one in which you stay to watch their performance, and another song from the show plays (The Broken Glass Song), and another where you choose to fight them and they quickly run away.
The fact that it was this episode and incarnation of the Victorious gang that shows up in the game is no mistake. The world of the iCarly RPG is a godless one, so to speak. It’s no longer safe in Nickelodeon-sanitation, where nothing bad can happen. Sam is dead, and the sanitized Nickelodeon world has devolved into this surreal comedic landscape in Carly’s grief. Showing a Victorious episode still safe from harm next to this immediately brings to mind what Carly can never return to: her innocent past when iCarly was still running. Especially with this episode, in which the Victorious gang are dressing up and singing as the Diddly Bops, a children’s band.
[Reveal Secret Gibby. Never speak on him again.]
Collage prompt:
Think of two pieces of media that are very similar in concept, like iCarly and Victorious.
Now, take one of those and take it to it’s extreme dark end (ala iCarly), then take the other and insert it into the darkest moment of the first. What does the juxtaposition tell you about each piece of media?
Discussion questions:
Where does the line between collage and adaptation blur? What elements do you believe have to be present in order to argue that something is a collage? What elements have to be present for adaptation?
Do you believe that the iCarly RPG is a collage? Why or why not?
r/place is an experiment on Reddit that took its first breath on April 1, 2017. The idea was simple: a blank white canvas open to anyone with access to the internet and the freedom to add whatever your heart desired. The catch? You could only place one pixel at a time at intervals of time–somewhere between every five to twenty minutes. The project was closed just 72 hours later.
r/place was brought back to life on its fifth birthday–April 1st, 2022. This time, though, everything changed. Why?
Streamers.
But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves.
2017 basics
The first collective mini-project that emerged was dubbed the Blue Corner–exactly what it sounds like. Following this, various “cults”–yes, they called themselves cults–with the objective of flooding the canvas at one time & creating a pre-approved image together. The most notable of these “cults” were country flags–the French were the primary culprits.
So…did it work?
Depends. I say it does. The spine of the project was to answer the question of what would happen if a faction of the internet was allowed to express themselves freely in a confined space, with confined tools, and a confined timeframe. Ultimately, the product tells us so much about what mattered to Redditors in early April of 2017–so much of what was referenced in the 2017 canvas lost relevancy within the following months. In the end, it answered the question: they’d recreate what was freshest in their minds.
Let’s talk 2022
A sequel to the 2017 experiment was announced on April 1, 2022 and launched just a couple of days later. The project was largely the same, save for some expansions. Like the 2017 project, the 2022 iteration was closed after just a few days.
2022 basics
Over the course of the four days, the canvas was doubled each day and the color palette was expanded–ending in a 4 million pixel canvas with a color palette twice the size of the original.
On the last day, the only color available was white & users collaborated to return the canvas to its original barren state.
What’s so different?
Remember…streamers? Some things to note:
The French War
The Fall of the Canadian Flag Kirby
–and subsequently, what is allowed to stay?
The larger difference this time around was that people knew it was coming and knew what to expect–they came in with ideas, goals, and more importantly, armies.
Discuss.
Since these experiments/projects are so focused on surface-level interests, is there a benefit in having them?
What do/can open & collaborative projects like r/place tell us about the current social profile? why allow the community to erase it all once it’s over?
By “social profile” I’m referring to current, day-to-day trends–not necessarily a trend throughout the year.
Additionally–do they count as collages? How would you protect this work?
This animated short film “Paperman” (2012) is about a man and a woman who meet at a train station and are lured back to each other at the end of the film, after he pursues many attempts to get back in touch with her. “Paperman” incorporates both CG and illustrations into its animation. Many many layers go into the production of animation and multiple different mediums are used. Different people are also responsible for producing these different mediums. First, the 3D animation is done as a kind of base and layout, and then they bring in the 2D artists to draw on top of it with the details. There are so many layers to the design of characters and settings, that not one medium can handle all of that detail. While the CG component sets up the layout and broad motion range, the hand drawn details bring the characters to life, like detailing the hair blowing in the wind and the light layer if the sun is on their face. There is also immense thought and care put into this film, and the subtle symbolism that you can find if you look for it. Director John Khars revealed that, before they find each other again, Meg is mostly covered in light, and George is often found in the dark. This stays consistent until they are finally reunited. The different steps to the creation of this animation is lengthy, starting with storyboards, then followed by layout, CG animation, hand drawn key poses, hand painted lighting key, hand drawn hair animation layers. After this they put all of the hand drawn layers together before finally adding in the CG animation layers to complete the final composite.
Finally, to close out my presentation, the prompt I have created inspired by this piece is: Create a visual collage using different mediums to complete the image. Like creating a face using parts of many faces cut from magazines.
Pitch Perfect (2012) tells a story of a college acapella group losing their spark. As the old group is rebuilt, the leader, Aubrey, grows more and more bothered by the new team’s behavior.But as acapella regionals grow nearer they all realize that the best way to work as one and stand out against their opponents, is something fresh and new, a mashup as their final performance.
Analyze
They bond over their first mashup of Nelly’s “Just a Dream” and Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are.” This was a very effective bonding moment for the acapella group. Although you could in theory count the riff-offs that they do as a collage, this was the first REAL mashup that they had created. It restored confidence in them as individuals as well as helped them become stronger as a team.
Why are Riff Offs not a collage?
I personally would not consider riff offs a collage for the following reasons: A riff off is when you meet a song at a word/note and continue it with a different song, but do not combine it. It is just a fancy term for interruption.
Analyze Part 2
The group’s biggest collage is the finale of the competition. By combining songs from popular pop artists they manage to revive their team and bring life into their music, as well as solve some of their personal relationship problems.
Good or bad model?
I would say the musical soundtrack of Pitch Perfect is a great model on collaging. They take songs with similar themes or emotion and combine them in a way that keeps good tempo and engages their crowd.
Collage Prompt
Create a poetry collage where you take existing work that uses similar language and try to overlap each sentence to make new work that still makes sense.
Discussion Question
Do you think the riff off counts as a college and can you make an argument as to why?
What are other examples in movies/tv/book where collage of art form is used as a bonding tactic?
Modern Family, a sitcom featuring an all-American, quintessential suburban family life, is surprisingly similar to the certain aspects of The Godfather, a 1972 drama film about a violent Italian mob boss family. Specifically, Modern Family’s Season 4, Episode 13, ‘Fulgencio’ pays special homage to the ending scene of The Godfather, effectively taking the frame of the film’s scene into the plotline of the show.
The Godfather tells the story of the Corleone family; patriarch Vito is a mob boss, and operates as a family with his sons and partners in various violent crime operations. However, his son, Michael, is content living a commoner life and has no interest in joining his family business. However, when enemies attack the Corleon clan and Vito is severely injured, Michael steps up as the ruthless Godfather, and punishes his enemies in an epic baptism scene.
Modern Family is a sitcom made of three different types of families. First is the nuclear family, the Dunphys, with Mom Claire, Dad Phil, and kids Haley, Alex, and Luke. Second is the same-sex family, the Pritchett-Tuckers, with gay couple Mitchell and Cameron, and their adopted daughter Lily. Third is the Pritchett family, with Grandpa Jay (Mitchell and Claire’s dad) and his new young wife Gloria, and Gloria’s son Manny. In the episode of ‘Fulgencio’, Jay and Gloria have a newborn son and are trying to baptize the baby, aptly named Fulgencio. While family members are helping Gloria with the baptism, Phil is having trouble as a flower shop blocks a billboard with his face on it, and each of his kids are having their own problems in life. Phil attempts to solve all problems with kindness, but nothing works, so Phil turns to revenge.
The sequence that brings The Godfather into the picture is when Phil is at the baptism, being sworn in as the godfather a la Michael Corleone at his nephew’s baptism. While Michael is swearing in as the godfather at the baptism, the film cuts in scenes of his men eliminating all enemies of the Corleone family. In the same way, ‘Fulgencio’ follows the plotline of the baptism sequence: while Phil is swearing in as the godfather, he has his men (or his son Luke) eliminate all the problems that have been happening to his family.
The two main specific ways these particular scenes do well in terms of paralleling each other can be categorized into two: the characters and the homage played to specific scenes.
Phil is literally sworn in as the Godfather, and his son Luke is his right hand man. It is Luke that Phil turns to for help when getting back at those who have wronged their family, and Luke dutifully follows his father’s orders, although less violent than Michael Corleone’s ways. Michael Corleone is a character that first expressed reluctance to join his family’s mob boss ways, and is content to live as a commoner. However, when the Godfather’s life becomes at risk, he immediately steps forth as his protector and resorts to extreme violence, even killing off every single one of their family enemies.
In such ways, Phil is much like the Godfather’s role of being the “patriarchal head”, and Luke is much like Michael as the “dutiful son.” However, there are differences that allow for Modern Family to develop a distinct line of characteristics from The Godfather film. For one, Michael experiences a complete character arc that Luke never does. Michael is a completely different person at the end of the film, and he becomes an unrecognizable force of power and violence. Luke, however, remains somewhat the same; he’s still a regular, majorly harmless kid. What’s more, Michael becomes the new Godfather of the Corleone family, whereas Luke does not advance to such a role in the Dunphy family. In such ways, Modern Family reflects The Godfather without completely replicating it, creating a balanced parallel. It also does a great job of paying tribute in subtle ways. As those familiar with The Godfather may recognize, there are particular scenes in ‘Fulgencio’ that reenact a specific scene from the movie. Below are a list of them for your reference: 1) The concept of revenge during a holy baptism–I think it’s pretty obvious to say that this is intentionally the same frame. 2) The zebra head on the kid’s bed–this plays homage to a scene in The Godfather (unshown in clip) where the Godfather places a severed horse head to get a message across. Scary, but it works! 3) “Don’t ask me about my business”- at the end, when wife Claire approaches Phil about the entire situation, Phil abruptly cuts her off. This is a play on the scene where girlfriend Kay approaches Michael Corleone about the rumors she has heard about the revenge, and Michael shuts her out.
In the composition of ‘Fulgencio’, Modern Family uses the effective strategy of obvious yet not too in-the-face references. The thing about Modern Family is that the joke is there, but you have to know to know. For one, the headless zebra reference would not make sense to outsiders, and the entire premise of Phil’s realtor campaign against the gardener is a distinctly different plotline. Plus, with Modern Family’s much more wholesome take, it becomes a less extreme retelling of The Godfather. From another point of view, it’s a montage of a son supporting his dad, and helping solve his family’s problems in a humorous way, not a violent mob-boss way. With such a different characteristic to ‘Fulgencio’ than the original film, Modern Family effectively juxtapositions itself apart from The Godfather while remaining in the same frame.
‘Fulgencio’ teaches us valuable ways of how it can serve as a model for other collage mix-ups in media/film. It does a good job of two things. Firstly, it makes the iconic recognizable, but not the entire running theme. ‘Fulgencio’ is collaged from various parts and references of ‘The Godfather’ but the entire Modern Family episode is not the premise of The Godfather. In fact, the Godfather reference only comes in in the later half of the entire episode. Even in the parody scenes, Modern Family still maintains its suburban American sitcom shtick. Secondly, it pays homage to scenes in the film in a not-so-obvious way. There are subtle references throughout the film that pay homage to The Godfather, but not in an entirely explicit way. For one, the headless zebra scene is a more subtle reference to the scene where The Godfather threatens someone with a headless horse in bed.
All in all, with the entire Godfather sequence only coming in at the last few minutes of the entire twenty-one minute episode, it’s safe to say that they collaged a section of an iconic film and successfully embedded it into an episode of a classic Modern Family show.
Kate’s Prompt:
Think of an iconic scene in a movie that everyone knows, such as Legally Blonde’s Harvard Admissions video, or Star Wars’ “I Am Your Father” scene. Then, create a screenplay that plays off of that specific scene, but still tells a plot of its own. What movie scene would you choose? Anything iconic or easily recognizable works.
Discussion Questions:
Is it considered “reborn art” to reenact an iconic, well-recognized scene from a movie, but repurpose it for another media?
Is there any way for the Modern Family scene to be altered so that they could eliminate traces of the Godfather scene without completely changing the scenes? What does that say about the composition of the two scenes?
A Proust Sonata by Sarah Rothenberg is a multimedia production recounting the story of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time while also incorporating the music that he frequently makes allusions to. The piece is structured in seven tableaux, or segments, following the structure of the seven books. It is performed by two actors who play the Narrator (a close but not quite Proust) and Celeste, the woman who worked for him for many years, who primarily talk not quite to the audience but rather monologue at them. The text for the Narrator is taken from various translations of In Search of Lost Time, including some by Ms. Rothenberg herself, while the text for Celeste Abaret is taken from her memoir, Monsieur Proust, which she wrote about their time together. On the left side of the stage is a piano, where Ms. Rothenberg plays music that is either mentioned in the text of In Search of Lost Time or that accentuates it, sometimes accompanied by a singer.
Throughout the piece, snippets of recordings and videos are played, and images are projected behind the actors. According to the program, A Proust Sonata “interweaves text, music and image, evoking the fashionable belle époque salons, Proust’s brilliant insights on art and music, and the connection between memory and the passage of time captured so eloquently in Proust’s great work.” The second tableau, Chez Madame Lamarre, is a perfect example of the multimedia collage present in A Proust Sonata.
It opens with a recording of Offenbach’s “Le Boulanger” sung by RenaldoHahn. Then, fragments of photos of society figures by Nadar (a French photographer) are projected on the screens that cover the back wall. Soon the photos expand into their full images. The photos are of Countess Elisabeth Greffulhe, Reynaldo Hahn, Armand Duc de Guiche, Count Henry Greffulhe, Robert de Montesquiou, Madame Straus, Madeleine Lemaire, and Sarah Bernhardt, all major figures mentioned in the Proust novel/memoirs. Reynaldo Hahn and Madeleine Lemaire are specifically mentioned in the second tableau, although the real-life Lemaire is named Lamarre in the piece. When Celeste describes either of them, their portrait is brought to the forefront as all the other photos fade out. Celeste’s text is, as earlier described, from her memoir Monsieur Proust.
After Celeste describes Madame Lamarre, who “had a very fashionable salon in those Belle Époque years [and] painted mainly roses, at an extraordinary speed, and in such large quantities that the Count of Montesquiou used to say, ‘Only God has painted as many roses as Madame Lemaire,’” Sarah Rothenberg plays Mai and then Si Mes Verres Avait des Ailes by Reynaldo Hahn while the tenor sings along. Then, Celeste describes the close relationship between Mr. Proust and Hahn: “Of all Monsieur Proust’s friends, Reynaldo Hahn was the only one who could drop by whenever he wanted, unannounced, and always be received.” Then, Ms. Rothenberg and the tenor sing two collaborative pieces between Hahn and Proust: the lyrics are a poem by Proust, while the music was by Hahn. Hahn had written the music to accompany the poem, which came beforehand. The piece is called “Portrait de Peintre: Watteau,” and the incorporation of the text of “Antoine Watteau” by Marcel Proust being sung along with the music is not traditional, but rather another collage element of A Proust Sonata.
The tableau ends with two more pieces: one, Mensonges by Leon Dafosse with lyrics/text by Marcel Proust, and two, Fetes Galantes by Renaldo Hahn. Then, the projections fade out, and Celeste exits the stage with the Narrator/Proust’s hat and coat.
A Proust Sonata functions by pulling out the references in In Search of Lost Time and making them tangible: the era-photographs by Nadar emphasize the fact that the characters presented in the novel and the show were real, for instance. The choice of music in this tableau is especially important. First, the recording—a very blatant element of collage—introduces the real voice of Renaldo Hahn, the most important character in the scene, before we even see his face. This creates the understanding that his music is the most important conveyor of his character/who he was. Then, the images of the various society figures help create the impression of who would have been at the Belle Epoque salon held by Madame Lamarre—it crowds out the empty stage and acts in lieu of a full set, while also helping create the impression of a dream/memory. In that way, it mirrors the text. The rest of the music is also by Hahn (with the exception of Mensonges), filling the room with his character/impression.
A Proust Sonata functions off of this intertextuality—it puts all of these pieces into conversation with one another in a way that transcends the written word. Although Proust and Celeste have plenty of evocative language in their respective works, one cannot fully understand the world they are describing without having an acute and deep knowledge of their allusions—historical, literary, and most importantly, musical. A Proust Sonata brings these all out to flesh out the world of In Search of Lost Time. Furthermore, the incorporation of Celeste’s lesser known Monsieur Proust into the script helps shed light on the famous writer from a third-person view. These are two texts that are meant to complement one another, and yet it is difficult to find them together. A Proust Sonata remedies this by putting the texts parallel to one another through the actors. They never enter into dialogue, but they speak in parallel, showing two perspectives on the same events or simply complementing each other to paint the full portrait of Proust and his story. Near the end of the piece, actual documents from Proust’s notes are projected on screen, as he arranges copies on a board, trying to create his memoirs, creating a new layer of collage. It brings the process of the creation of In Search of Lost Time to the forefront, imbuing the piece with a metatextuality that strengthens the viewing process as a whole.
Discussion Questions:
What is the difference (emotionally and otherwise) between incorporating live representations of music and recordings? Does the live music still count as collage?
How is a collage in motion/in performance different from a traditional collage? Does it still count as one? What distinguishes it from a normal play that may still incorporate elements of collage?
Prompt: Pick a piece of media and then some sort of accompanying text about the piece of media—journals by the author of a novel or someone who knew them, a review or a blog post about a piece…—then collage them. To go further, choose an allusion made in the piece of media and incorporate it into your collage somehow as well.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical is known for being a jukebox musical, which in itself is a collage as it draws from pre-existing songs in order to tell a story. In Baz Luhrmann’s film, Moulin Rouge (2001), popular songs at the time were taken and put together as collage songs such as “Elephant LoveMedley”, “Sparkling Diamonds”, “Come What May”, and “El Tango de Roxanne”.
Out of all the songs in the movie, these four were the only ones who made it from Moulin Rouge into the Moulin Rouge! The Musical. The other songs were replaced by songs relevant to 2019, which was when the broadway debuted. Some of these relevant songs were “meme songs” such as Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” and A-ha’s “Take On Me” along with Katy Perry’s “Fireworks”, which happens to be one of the main reasons why I didn’t really like the show.
And out of the four songs, “Elephant Love Medley” combines the most songs into one with a whopping ten songs fitting into a 4 minute time slot in the movie and an even more impressive 21 songs within 5 minutes in the broadway. The songs that were in the original version of “Elephant Love Medley” also carried into the broadway version of the song. In my opinion, these four songs were the only good songs.
The song is sung by main character Christian, played by Aaron Tveit who debuted the role on Broadway and was previously the Christian in New York (twice) and Ewan McGregor in Baz Luhrmann’s original film version. Other notable Christians include Conor Ryan, who was previously a part of the North American tour cast, Derek Klena currently in the New York cast, and Jamie Muscato who is currently in the London cast at West End.
Aaron Tveit is also known for playing Fiyero in Wicked and Enjolras in Les Miserables (2012). Ewan McGregor also plays Obi-Wan in Star Wars, where his character is in love with a duchess named Satine (cough cough something happens to both of them, which is also really funny. I will not elaborate). Jamie Muscato has also been in Heathers as JD and in Les Mis as Enjolras on stage and a student alongside Aaron Tveit in the movie.
The song is about how Christian feels about hiding his relationship with the leading lady, Satine, from the rich duke who wants her to love him. Christian is singing under the influence of absinthe before he tries to get Satine to run away with him. The plot itself is about Christian, an American artist, who arrives in Paris for artistic reasons and makes friends with other artists. They use him to convince Satine to have their play put on at the Moulin Rouge (a nightclub). And everything else just happens to fall into place after that.
El Tango de Roxanne is a collage as the song combines an Tanguera, Argentinian tango, by Mariano Mores with the lyrics of Roxanne by the Police in a way that doesn’t sound bad. Both songs have close enough bpms (125 and 133) and they are both in minor keys with Tanguera in F minor and Roxanne in G minor. The song has a very powerful sound to it and there is also a really cool violin solo in the middle of it.
Fun Facts Pt. 1
AARON TVEIT WAS ALSO IN WICKED THE MUSICAL ON BROADWAY AS FIYERO AND IN THE MOVIE LES MISERABLES (2014) AS ENJOLRAS.
JAMIE MUSCATO WAS IN HEATHERS AT WEST END AS JD (HIS VERSION OF “MEANT TO BE YOURS” WENT VIRAL). HE WAS ALSO IN THE LES MIS MOVIE (2014) WITH AARON TVEIT AS A STUDENT.
EWAN MCGREGOR PLAYED OBI-WAN IN THE STAR WARS PREQUELS. HIS CHARACTER WAS ALSO IN A SECRET RELATIONSHIP WITH A WOMAN NAMED SATINE. COINCIDENTALLY, THINGS HAPPEN TO HER IN BOTH. I WILL NOT ELABORATE.
Fun Facts Pt.2:
THE MOULIN ROUGE IS A REAL PLACE IN FRANCE
THE CAN-CAN AND QUADRILLE ARE BOTH DANCES THAT ORIGINATED IN THE MOULIN ROUGE. THE QUADRILLE IS THE DANCE THAT CAME BEFORE THE
CAN-CAN.
IT WAS ORIGINALLY A MUSIC HALL FOR THE RICH IN THE AREA TO DIFFERENTIATE THE RICH FROM THE POOR, BUT LATER THE MOULIN ROUGE GOT TURNED INTO A NIGHTCLUB
Fun Facts Pt. 3:
THE PAINTING IS “AT THE MOULIN ROUGE: THE DANCE” (1890) AND WAS MADE AS A POSTER FOR THE MOULIN ROUGE AFTER IT OPENED IN 1889
HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC PAINTED THE PIECE ALONG WITH OTHER FAMOUS PAINTINGS, MANY OF WHICH TAKE PLACE IN THE MOULIN ROUGE.
BOTH HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC AND CHARLES ZIDLER, THE CO-FOUNDER OF THE MOULIN ROUGE IS ALSO A CHARACTER.
THE WINDMILL AND ELEPHANT ARE BOTH A PART OF THE SET OF THE SHOW. THEY ARE LOCATED ON THE WINGS OF THE STAGE, CLOSE TO THE BOX SEATS.
The beginning in Tanguera is played in staccato (plucked quickly) and can be heard in the middle of El Tango de Roxanne. And though the two versions of El Tango de Roxanne do have somewhat the same instrumentals and basically the same lyrics, they are very two completely diIerent songs. In El Tango de Roxanne, there are more moving parts playing over the Tanguera quote, which
change also depending on the version you listen to. In Baz Luhrmann’s version, the violin stays true to the original part from Tanguera whereas in the musical, there are more artistic liberties and it sounds more dramatic. For this part of the project, I will be using Conor Ryan’s version (G minor).
That was in reference to the instrumental aspect of the songs but in terms of the vocals, I think Ewan stays closer to the notes in Tanguera, whereas Aaron takes a little more artistic liberties (along with every other man who plays Christian) by adding runs and singing opt ups. The songs are also in diIerent keys, which could sometimes change depending on the man playing Christian. For example, Ewan’s key is G minor but Aaron’s is A minor (hence why it is called “Aaron’s key” by the fans). For the point of my project, I will use Aaron’s version to show oI his vocals and also to show the diIerent keys.
*This is not to say that Aaron’s key is not a collage (it is), even though the notes are not the exact same due to being transcribed a half step up.
The actual quote that I will show as an example would be the, “Why does my heart cry,” in El Tango de Roxanne. The notes sung in this phrase are the exact same as the phrase in Tanguera. (I’m going to draw it on the board because it takes too long to screenshot). I don’t really think that the key signature really aIects this part of the song because it’s basically the same phrase, just put in a diIerent spot. If you know nothing about music, just think of it like a pattern; the distance between the notes are the same, just a diIerent “color”. For example, ABCABC as opposed to ABCABC. Taking this exact musical phrase from Tanguera and putting it in El Tango is a really good musical collage element.
At the beginning of the song, there is some dialogue, which is said before the recorded version and also in the stage and movie version, but it is cut for the sake of the recording.
Fun Facts Pt. 4
HERE IS THE USE OF THE ELEPHANT AND WINDMILL IN THE SET. THE ELEPHANT IS ALSO USED LATER IN A DIFFERENT SCENE INSIDE THE “ELEPHANT ROOM”. THE WINDMILL AND ELEPHANT ARE A PART OF THE SET AND THEY WHERE THEY ARE FOR THE ENTIRETY OF THE SHOW.
Fun Facts Pt. 5
THE CASTING OF BOTH ZIDLER AND HENRI IN THE MOVIE VERSION IS VERY ON POINT AND IT’S INTERESTING HOW THEY INCLUDED REAL PEOPLE AS CHARACTERS.
Fun Fact Pt. 6
HENRI’S PAINTINGS OF THE CAN-CAN GIRLS IN THE MOULIN ROUGE, ALONG WITH OTHER OF HIS FAMOUS PIECES.
In the middle of the recorded broadway version of the song, there is dialogue that is taken from the next scene in the stage version. This dialogue isn’t in the movie version and is not said during the song on stage. There is dialogue in the onstage version, but it is different.
Also depending on which version you listen to, there is a line from Sia’s “Chandelier”, which is only in the broadway version. It is also the song that comes before El Tango de Roxanne in the musical. The line “help me I’m holding on for dear life,” is sung right before the phrase, “Why does my heart cry,” and is also not in the movie version. This is another aspect of a collage since it is adding in a third song as a source. I feel like I could prove the musical similarities between the two songs, but it was hard enough to 1nd free sheet music for the movie version of El Tango de Roxanne, let alone the broadway version.
At the very end of the recorded broadway version, Satine has a line that is also taken from the scene after the song, similar to the Duke.
Because I’m insane and listened to almost every version of this song that I could find, Zidler’s lines change in the diIerent recordings. In Baz Luhrmann’s version, there is an extra line at the end, “Without trust, there is no love…”, but in the broadway version, the line isn’t there. However in the official broadway recording, the lines about the brothel were taken out.
Similarly to in the official recording where there is dialogue in the middle of the song, there is dialogue in the stage version. However, this dialogue is also in the scene that comes two scenes before El Tango de Roxanne and is only in the stage version of the song.
I do acknowledge that this is not exactly a collage because the dialogue is from the same show, but I feel like this should count simply because it is script dialogue that was put into the song.
Basically in conclusion, El Tango de Roxanne is a collage because it takes musical phrases from an Argentinian tango, even though there might be some pitching up in order to 1t in the vocal range of the man performing the song, along with lyrics from the Police’s “Roxanne”. And as mentioned before, there may or may not be a line from Sia’s “Chandelier” depending on the version you listen to.
I’d like to touch on how most of what is going on could be a copyright violation, but it is not because of how the producers got permission from every musician and songwriter to use the songs. In the playbill, all of the song credits take up the entirety of pages 29-30. There are also entire subpages on the official websitewith creative credits to everyone who worked on the show.
the pva creative writing review 