A partial mini-musical written in June 2004
In 1927 Professor Thomas Parnell at the University of Queensland started a now famous experiment to study extremely viscous liquid. He filled a funnel with pitch (a thick sort of tar) which has such a high viscosity that it moves though the funnel extremely slowly – so slowly, in fact, that when I heard about it in the latter part if 1999, the eighth drop was about to fall. The first seven had fallen without anyone seeing them, presumably at night, on the weekend, or in the holidays.
At this time I was writing Keep on Coding, a musical based on two subjects I was doing then. I had found some dramatic potential in the often boring fields of computer science and pure maths. When I heard about the Pitch Drop experiment, I imagined another dramatic scenario, where a group of students resolve that one of them should be present to witness the drop.
A lot of people have tried their hand at using popular songs and changing words, keeping a similar arrangement. Three particular songs were popular when I was at uni and wanted to use thus were Mmm-bop (Hanson), Kiss Me (Sixpence None the Richer) and Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing (Aerosmith). Kiss Me was one of five such songs among the numbers of Keep on Coding, and the other two had to wait until I wrote this.
At MADD Camp in 2003, a group of us wrote and performed a short musical of the story of David and Goliath. I ended up writing much of it myself. For the next such camp I thought it would be good to have something already written rather than write something there, so I write these two songs in June 04. Whereas I write a lot of my music using the standard notation, in this case I have just defined the two numbers here as using the music of the original song.
I found that no one had been there to see the eighth drop fall, and even the webcam set up to catch it somehow failed to retain a record of the event, keeping the legend large. Unfortunately it didn’t break off cleanly, probably due to air-conditioning providing a cooler temperature than before. Staff were wondering how to continue the experiment without disturbing it too much.
All the action takes place in the foyer of the Parnell Building, where the experiment is running. The only other important piece of scenery is a clock, because passage of time needs to be indicated. A group of students have decided that somebody must witness the ninth drop, so each night one of them stays there in the foyer from 6pm to 8am. Similar arrangements are made for the weekends. At all other times during the week there are people going past, so someone will notice if anything starts to happen. The students measure the position of the drop using a ruler behind the glass case regularly, so they can tell whether it’s moving faster than usual.
No.1, sung by some of these students, is a rewording of Mmm-bop. In this case the arrangement is defined by Hanson’s recording. It would probably be a trio (SAT). One student plays a bass guitar. There are only the chords of A, E and D in the entire song, which suits it nicely to a beginner guitarist.
In botany one regularly hears
Of flowers blooming once in seven years
They watch carefully when the time nears
To be there when it all appears
If you miss it, there’s tears.
The thing we have in physics like that flower
Is this apparatus here, and our
objective is to be here at the hour
The drop falls if it’s in our power
If it’s in our power
Pitch drop! How long until it goes plop? Our observation won’t stop until we see it fall.
It will be a big flop if no one sees the ninth drop, the sleeping watcher will cop the ire of us all.
I really wanna say that I was there. But then most of my friends don’t really care.
When we get old and lose our hair, we can say that we were there. But they don’t care.
Pitch drop! How long until it goes plop? Our observation won’t stop until we see it fall.
It will be a big flop if no one sees the ninth drop, the sleeping watcher will cop the ire of us all.
When you’re staying here all night, it’s hard to keep
yourself from drifting slowly off to sleep
Two days ago we found our watcher deep
In slumber in a heap
How long had he been there asleep?
He woke up with a leap
Pitch drop! How long until it goes plop? Our observation won’t stop until we see it fall.
It will be a big flop if no one sees the ninth drop, the sleeping watcher will cop the ire of us all.
Can you tell me when the drop’s gonna go?
Can you tell me? Why it moves so slow?
Can you tell me? Have you ever watched grass grow?
Can you tell me – It’s like grass in slo-mo
Can you tell me when the drop’s gonna go?
Can you tell me? You say you can but you don’t know.
Pitch drop! How long until it goes plop? Our observation won’t stop until we see it fall.
It will be a big flop if no one sees the ninth drop, the sleeping watcher will cop the ire of us all.
At the end of No.1, the lecturer enters and tells one of the students off for bringing a bass guitar into the building, which is forbidden. Late in the day one of these students passes the baton to the main character, who is to stay the night.
With the time around 4am, the main character sings No.2, which of course is Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing. Being a solo song, it should be transposed to suit the singer. The main part of the song describes the exhausting watch, while the last part is the actual event starting to happen. Therefore there needs to be a definite break; perhaps the best way to do this is to play the verse again on whatever melody intrument is available along with a guitar, transposing up a minor third half way through it, then play the refrain, coming back down the minor third half way through that, before moving into the bridge, during which the student rings the others. I don’t know accurately how all of the original song goes, but this should fit closely enough. The style of singing is largely up to the singer, but I don’t suggest imitating the vocal glissandi from Aerosmith’s recording, but shouting “Better come here quick, guys” wouldn’t be amiss. I think the “this is it” line coincides with some sort of scream in the original, so I guess anything could work there, being in a sense the high point of the whole show.
I’ve got to stay awake to watch this stuff till morning
It can hardly be called a liquid.
It’s changed shape no more than a brick would.
Four more hours of cola drink and yawning
I’ve done as much homework as I can take
They’re hard enough to understand when I’m fully awake.
Don’t wanna close my eyes, don’t wanna fall asleep
Lest I miss it and I don’t wanna miss a thing
I’ve stayed awake so long I feel
So tired I can’t tell what’s real
And what isn’t but I don’t wanna miss a thing
This scientific testing isn’t interesting
Only nerds this event is worth watching every minute for
But this common goal of these nerds
Has brought a fellowship beyond words
And I find myself in a team who I want to win it for
That’s what I’m in it for
Don’t wanna close my eyes, don’t wanna fall asleep
Lest I miss the drop, no I don’t wanna miss a thing
Why can’t the hours be more swift
As I endure this graveyard shift
With the pitch drop cos I don’t wanna miss a thing
(interlude)
It’s a millimetre down from where I think it was before
I don’t wanna be a false alarm but still I better call my friends
If I can really trust my eyes it’s down a millimetre more
Better come here quick, guys, it’s gonna fall, my friends
Guys, it happening! This is it!
I can’t believe it chose my night
It looked like it was frozen tight
Till this minute, and it seems very hard to believe
But as I look closely I can see
The drop is falling visibly
Now we’ve done it – the thing we set out to achieve
I hope the webcam’s working now
It missed the last one, don’t know how
They won’t wanna miss a thing
And with that the main character watches the drop fall and then falls alseep exhausted. It isn’t long before the other students arrive to see what has happened and celebrate the occasion. The finale hasn’t been written, but it will be an upbeat number where the team congratulate their friend for having been there and awake at the time. During this the lecturer comes in to join the celebration, again (in passing) telling off one of the students for the misdemenour of bringing a bass guitar into the Parnell Building. An SMS comes in from someone overseas who has seen the drop via the webcam.
I won’t write the finale unless I have a group of people who want to perform the show; then I can arrange it according to what singers and musicians there are. I might possibly make use of mobile phones as part of the instrumentation.