Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Esther (class of 2025) featuring some songs for taking a break on a hectic day.
Interlude
On days a little more hectic, a moment to pause and breathe can make all the difference. Here’s a playlist of songs that feel like a gentle pat on the back for me.
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia (“Arachno” = spider / “-phonia” = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Premiering on Broadway in 2016, Dear Evan Hansen is a musical about Evan Hansen, a high school senior in therapy for social anxiety and depression. As an exercise, his therapist tells him to write a letter to himself about his feelings going into the first day of school. The musical also centers around Connor Murphy, another high school senior battling depression. On the first day of senior year, Evan and Connor bump into each other, and Connor ends up taking Evan’s letter. Later that same day, Connor sadly ends his own life, with Evan’s letter still in his pocket. Connor’s family later reads this letter thinking Evan must have been Connor’s best friend, and Evan goes along with it instead of telling the truth. Through classic songs like “Sincerely, Me” and “You Will Be Found“, Dear Evan Hansen tells the story of just how big a single lie can get, while also raising awareness for teen mental health and suicide.
Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Alex Lacamoire are responsible for bringing this world to life through their musical talents. Their music has been heard off and on-Broadway, on tours, and even in a musical movie. If you would like to learn how to sing these coming-of-age pieces through sheet music, you can check this item out now from the Parsons Music Library.
Welcome back to Parsons Playlists! Today’s playlist is curated by Music Library student manager Eliana (class of 2024) and features a selection of songs recorded live.
Best Live Performances
There’s an endless number of incredible live performances, but these are some of the ones that top my list. I suppose being able to see the real thing would be better but a YouTube video is a close second, right?!?
Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean” (Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever at Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California on March 25, 1983) – An even bigger cultural reset
Rihanna – “Love on the Brain” (Live at Global Citizen Festival 2016) – Performance I would have traded my left kidney for to see live
Beyoncé – “At Last” (For Barack and Michelle Obama – Inaugural Ball January 20, 2009) – A defining historical moment that never fails to bring tears to my eyes
Editor’s note:Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Susie (class of 2019) and features the Tony Award winning musical Dear Evan Hansen. Thanks, Susie!
Dear Evan Hansen is certainly not your classic musical. For one thing, there are only 8 people in the entire cast, and there are certainly no big dance numbers. But there are many reasons why Dear Evan Hansen cleaned up at the 2017 Tony Awards including winning Best New Musical, and one of those reasons is the cast recording, which also won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album in 2017. The soundtrack captures the rawness of the story by having the “orchestra”, comprised of 5 instruments, on stage with the performers, and it utilizes electronic instrumentation to complement the importance of technology in the story line. And the soundtrack as a whole takes you on the journey of Evan Hansen, shy, bullied, friendless teenager who finds his place in the sun through a fabricated story just to have the truth come crashing in and destroy his new “perfect” life.
The soundtrack opens with “Anybody Have A Map?”, a song any mother wondering “does anybody happen to know how the hell to do this?” while raising teenagers can relate to. Then you hear the heartbreaking tune “Waving Through A Window” from Evan Hansen himself as he sings about always being on the outside and never being seen. Through the next 5 songs, you hear about Evan and his bully Connor, who is now dead, but due to a combination of coincidences, Evan is believed to have been Connor’s only friend. And as Evan leans into the lie, he helps Connor’s family, the school, and the world cope with loss due to teenage suicide through the song “You Will Be Found.” As Evan builds relationships and finds love in a father figure and a girlfriend that he never thought would be possible, everything begins to fall apart in a true Broadway fashion culminating with “Good For You” and “Words Fail.” But, of course, when the whole world seems to hate you, a child can always find support from his mother, and in “So Big/So Small”, Evan’s mother comforts him and the audience with lines like “your mom isn’t going anywhere … no matter what”. And from the rubble, Evan comes back and finds himself by “Stepping Into The Sun”. And in closing, Evan Hansen reminds us that even if you don’t have the life you have dreamed about, “today at least you’re you, and that’s enough”.
This soundtrack certainly isn’t a light and breezy listen, but if you enjoy emotional ballads and the beautiful vocals of Ben Platt, certainly give Dear Evan Hansen a listen.
