1776
Is the musical about the founding of America.
Is the musical about the founding of America.
The Music Man
Is the Great American Musical.
But The Music Man
May tell the story of America as well.
I don't mean to be trivial,
Merely metaphorical.
You may recall the story:
Con man Harold Hill
Tells River City Iowa
That they've got Trouble
With a capital T and that rhymes P and that
Stands for pool.
He convinces parents that the new pool hall
Will corrupt their youth.
They need something wholesome to compete:
A boys' band!
He collects their money to join
And buy instruments and uniforms
But in the end, he leaves before any music
Is ever played.
He keeps the money for himself.
Colonists had real Trouble,
The tyranny of the British Crown,
Instead of a pool hall in their colonies.
But they did propose a solution.
Not a boy's band,
But the truth, held to be self-evident,
That all men are created equal.
They convinced people to go to war
To fight for this idea.
There were, no doubt, some forms
Of marching bands involved,
Musical or otherwise.
But like Harold promising a boy's band
And delivering some of the supplies needed
But then cutting out with the cash,
Our Founding Fathers promised equality,
Went to war for it,
And made steps towards it
(They delivered some of the instruments,
The Constitution, for example),
But they cut out with with cash for themselves:
Only the landholding, white Harold Hills
Were permitted to hold power.
Our national River City
Ended up with something that sounded great
But in the end didn't deliver.
Not even the Wells-Fargo wagon
Could deliver
The promised America.
But, of course, remember the plot of The Music Man.
Harold Hill starts as a con man,
But then he is caught,
Held to account.
But he is also caught
"with his foot in the door."
Because he falls in love,
Not just with a woman,
But with a place.
In the end he admits
That he always actually believes
There is a band.
And what Marian the Librarian
Points out to him
Is that even his pretend band
Created magic.
He has tranformed the town
Just by creating the anticipation
Of the marching band.
It's taken the better part of 250 years
For the magic to work its way
Through our River City.
It hasn't completely worked yet.
In fact, at this moment,
The magic seems pretty dim.
The band seems thoroughly fake.
But perhaps the time has come to hold
Our Harold Hills to account,
To ask them to finally play the music
That was promised all those years ago
When the words "All men are created equal"
Rang out like 76 trombones.
It will involve some real thinking,
Not just the "think method"
("Think, boys! Think!").
So far our attempts to play the music
Have been off key, discordant, grating.
But still, music to some ears.
("That's my Davey!")
But remember where the show ends,
With a united band,
A grand diversity of different
Instruments -
Trombones,
Cornets,
Reeds like weeds,
Horns of every shape and kind -
All playing
in a more perfect union.
This time for real.
