The Fall of Two Lovers

For my project I decided to create a song about Hamlet and Ophelia. I found it interesting when I was re reading Hamlet to see how differently these two characters descended into madness. I am very interested in mental health and personally that was one of my favorite things to read about in Hamlet. Now because I have an atrocious singing voice I wanted to convey this theme by a split melody. I had the intention of creating a song that sounds much happier then the true meaning is. A great example of this would be Pumped Up Kicks. To achieve this lighter tone I decided to use a capo on the second fret of the guitar, solely because of its pleasant tone. When the song first begins it starts with an e major chord. I chose this because naturally Hamlet is Royalty and is rather dominant compared to most people. Then as I slide this chord farther up the neck I want it to represent his thought process declining. Then the chorus coms in, I used a couple chords mainly a d chord, g chord, e minor chord, and a chord that i found out myself that I don’t particular know the name of. To me at least I like how chaotic and almost melancholy the chorus is. Although it sounds happy to be it just sounds tragic almost, and Hamlet for me is such a tragic play that I wanted to represent that with the chorus. Sometimes throughout the song I would change up with strumming pattern. This was done intentional to hopefully try to convey a rapid switch of lifestyle both Hamlet and Ophelia have had. After a repeat of the first verse and the chorus I decided to switch up the melody. I wanted this to almost be a part of Ophelia’s story. For this I chose an A minor chord. To me it sounds dreadful the way this singular chord can create such a haunting atmosphere. I then proceed to move the chord up the neck a whole step 2 times. I feel like the A minor chord perfectly correlates with the tragic nature of Ophelia’s story. Then after going into the chorus I decided to experiment foe the solo. I did not slap random notes together but instead I used a variety of chords. I wanted the solo or much rather the bridge of this song to be truly chaotic. Like in Hamlet there are not a lot of normal events happening and it is a bit dizzying sometimes to try and catch up with. So that is why the bridge of the song may not sound very pleasant. Then at the very end of the song I decided to use both the E major chord and the A minor chord. The reason why I chose to do this was because both Hamlet and Ophelia both were lovers. I wanted to show that and also emphasize that if none of the events ever happened then the both of them would be alive. I think the ending of the song is a nice wrap up of everything that I have done. I hope that with the song and explanation that I can convey my interpretation of Hamlet and Ophelia. I can understand that for some listeners that it may not be perfect, but that was the whole point. Much like the characters in the play they are not perfect. They are flawed human beings who have done some questionable actions in their lives. I hope that you enjoy this post and this song and thank you very much for checking it out.