Entries tagged with cycle

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Maps Without Gaps

The Fool's son has taken up the family trade and become a Cartographer himself. But the art is changing, and the world with it. In case it's not clear, in this context this is a villain song. Will the Cartographer, or one of his children after him, earn redemption? That part of the story remains unwritten.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

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All In One Basket

The story continues... Years have passed. The Fool and the Dragon have become fast friends. But the world is changing. Mortally wounded and no longer able to protect her last clutch of eggs, the Dragon makes a perilous choice.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

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Dragon Tales

Picking up the story right where "Here Be Dragons" left off, the Fool has fallen into a dragon's lair...

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

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Here Be Dragons

The song that introduces the story of the Here Be Cartographers cycle. The Fool, son of a map-maker, sets out into the world to seek his fortune.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

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Here Be Cartographers

A playful but meaningful reversal of the roles of cartographers and the dragons they so carelessly scatter across their maps. Originally written to stand on its own, this song became the seed of a song cycle which is still being written.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

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Song Cycle: Here Be Cartographers

The "Here Be Cartographers" cycle began as a single song, playfully reversing the roles of map-makers and the dragons they so carelessly scattered at the edges of their maps. It grew into the story of generations of a family of map-makers, as the craft of cartography hardened what had once been a fairy-tale world into a more definite and less wondrous shape. I eventually realized that this story is about colonialism, and that I'm not sure that a happy-ending redemption arc for the map-makers is mine to write. The end of the story remains unwritten... for now.