August 2008 Offering Of The Month:
"Music Box Dancer Breakout"
Written by Edward Jerlin
© 1984 Edward J. Jerlin/2008 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved
During the process of going through my old tapes and archives
for the purpose of finding candidates for the "Monthly Offering",
I came across a collection of tapes of piano music I'd written
between the ages of 16 and 20. Rediscovering these tapes and
getting reacquainted with them was a bit of a revelation for me,
because I'd long since set aside this material which almost
nobody has ever heard before because I was painfully shy
about sharing them with anyone.
I hope to eventually release many of them via a CD series called
"Music for Piano, Drums, Bass and...".Written by Edward Jerlin
© 1984 Edward J. Jerlin/2008 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved
I wrote "Music Box Dancer Breakout" at the age of 19 or 20 in the summer of 1984. The recording dates from Spring of 1985. I was given the opportunity to record some of my piano music at my college's recording studio on a wonderful Mason and Hamlin grand piano that in my estimation remains one of the best pianos I've ever had the privilege of playing. I was trying to get as many of them recorded as possible in the time allotted, so I pretty much had one take at each song. So there are a few minor flubs and some tape hiss in an otherwise nice performance/recording.
Many of these piano solos had stories behind them and "Music Box Dancer Breakout" is no exception.
In the late 70's, Frank Mills had a huge novelty radio hit with the instrumental Music Box Dancer. If you remember it, you're probably humming it now. With the exception of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" (made popular at the time by its use in the movie "The Sting"), I think I got more requests to play "Music Box Dancer" than any other piece of music. Growing weary of the requests for the simple but catchy little ditty, I eventually decided that I would write my own more "interesting" version.
Frank Mills' original was basically one riff repeated over and over, which makes sense given what a real music box does: play the same music over and over. My idea was to have the dancer "break out" of the music box, the premise being that a little girl has snuck into her mother's bedroom, opened Mom's music box, wound it up and watched the dancer jump out and become a real dancer, though it's ambiguous as to whether the dancer is actually real or just the girl's vivid imagination. This may be the only music I've ever written where I even had an idea for a video (not that you'd ever see it on eMpTyV), with the girl watching the dancer turn real and break away from the tether holding her to the box and dancing all over Mom's bedroom, rather than in circles in the box.
The music and the dancer continue to swirl through various sections and ranges of motion, emotion and intensity. Eventually (at around the 4:40 mark in the music), the little girl hears Mom coming up the stairs and in a panic tells the dancer to hurry up and get back in the music box, which she does just in the nick of time (not unlike the little green army guys in the movie "Toy Story").
Then at 4:47, Mom walks in and asks, "What are you doing in here?"
"Nothing!"
Then at 5:00 as Mom is walking out, with the girl taking her time following behind, she takes a step back and opens the box a crack to make sure the dancer is okay and waves goodbye for now...
...until next time...
Enjoy!