#Erhu version of tango

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

By 陈依妙chen yimiao

[sweet-sappphic]

Ghost Quartet synopsis and essay

Ghost Quartet is a song cycle about “Love, death and whiskey” written by Dave Malloy in 2013. It is unique in a number of ways, one of which being that there are only four cast members, Brittain Ashford, Gelsey Bell, Brent Arnold and Dave Malloy himself. Each cast member plays an instrument (Dave on the piano, ukulele and percussion; Brittain on the Autoharp keyboard and percussion; Gelsey on the Celtic harp, accordion, percussion and metallophone and Brent on the guitar, cello, dulcimer, percussion and erhu) and a group of linked characters. It consists of five interweaving storylines.

The main storyline is that of the original Pearl and Rose. We are not given a date for this storyline which, I think, is supposed to add to the mystery and surreal atmosphere. In this storyline, Rose falls in love with the Astronomer so she writes him a poem. The Astronomer, envious of the beauty that Rose sees in the world, steals her work and publishes it as his own. This makes Rose extremely angry and she refuses to have anything to do with him. However, she is still in love with him and flies into a rage after discovering that he is in love with her sister, Pearl. She asks if she wasn't smart enough for him and when he says that they were never involved she runs to a bear and asks him to maul the Astronomer and turn her sister into a crow and put them in a cave until the crow starts to starve and would have to choice but to peck out the eyes of her lover and eat them. The bear agrees on the condition that she brings him one pot of honey, one piece of stardust, one secret baptism and a photo of a ghost and gives Rose the ability to possess her incarnations, past and present, in order to do so. This is why this storyline affects all of the others. After returning with all of these things, she goes to the bear again and learns that he will not do what she asked as he is not "a murderer or a crazy person" and he just wanted the honey. Rose is so upset that she gets drunk and drowns her sister in the Miller's pond who fished her out and made a fiddle out of her bones. It can be inferred that Rose later married him as the fiddle is present in the camera shop belonging to one of her descendants. After this, in Hero, she realises how wrong she was and that she is really no different to anyone else and, therefore, should not have the power to decide anyone’s fate.

Stardust: In 14th century Persia, Sheherazade (A version of Pearl) is using stardust to create stories for her sister (A version of Rose) and Shah Zaman in an attempt to appease him so he will not have her killed. These stories are about Rose and Pearl. We later discover this is because, due to the fact that she is an “Ancient”, she remembers all of her incarnations, past and present and is trying to get her sister to remember too. In side three, in the song Tango Dancer, Dunyazad is dead and Rose uses this to convince Sheherazade to give her the remaining stardust by showing false sympathies, leaving her even more empty than before.

Baptism: The Usher storyline is set in the 1870s and is loosely based on Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” In this storyline, the youngest child of the Usher family, Roxie, grew up with an imaginary friend who is the ghost of Rose. Rose tries to get her to cross over but it does not happen. Later, when she is still quite young, Roxie has a child that she calls Starchild (Both she and the child are versions of Rose). Rose steals the child from her in order to perform the secret baptism, sending Roxie into a deep depression, which results in her death. She is buried in the family vaults but returns from the dead and attacks her mother (A version of Pearl), killing her.

Honey: In 1990s Sarajevo, Soldier (A version of pearl) has been given the task of guarding a pot of honey. She is depressed and no longer wishes to live. Rose seduces her in order to get the honey and Soldier gives it to her on the condition that Rose takes her into the alley and shoots her. Rose does so and leaves with the honey.

Ghost: This storyline is set in modern-day New York. Rose is waiting on the subway platform when Pearl is pushed onto the track and can not climb out. Instead of helping, Rose takes a photo of the “Ghost.” The guilt haunts her so she smashes her camera and goes to a camera shop, which is run by a woman who is both a descendant of Rose and an incarnation of Pearl, to get a new one. Here the woman shows her a fiddle made of bones and tells her the story behind it (The story of the original Rose). 

There are a few songs that take place out of these storylines such as; I Don't Know, Any Kind Of Dead Person, Four Friends, Prayer and Midnight. Some serve a specific purpose. For example, I Don't Know gives us an overview of the themes covered within the song cycle, Prayer serves as a reminder of where everything went wrong and Midnight provides closure to the Stardust storyline. However, others are simply fun filler songs, such as Any Kind of Dead Person and Four Friends.

On the Genius website, Dave Malloy wrote that he created Ghost Quartet as the simplest answer he could possibly give to the question: Do you believe in ghosts? There is a lot of confusion amongst the fans of Ghost Quartet concerning what exactly his answer to the question is but I have a theory. I think he believes in ghosts in the sense of holding on to the past but not literal spirits. My evidence for this is that, throughout the song cycle, whenever a ghost is present, it is usually due to some underlying reason. For example, when Rose is haunted by the ghost of Pearl, it is likely due to the guilt she feels for not helping her and using her death for her own selfish gain. When Brent and Dave ask if the ghost haunts her, Gelsey simply replies with "She sees her when she closes her eyes… She is always screaming" implying that it is not a physical ghost that haunts her, only the thought of her.

More evidence to support this is the man who can talk to ghosts, mentioned in The Astronomer. He can be inferred to be Shah Zaman due to the fact that he "hasn't spoken to anyone alive in forty-two years" and Shah Zaman says that, after killing Sheherazade,  he will "keep drinking for forty-two years" due to his immense regret about killing the woman he loved. The relationship between Shah Zaman and Sheherazad is likely abusive especially due to the reason for her execution being that she lost her temper with him.

This idea is further shown in the song Monk when the character David spends his days playing the music of Thelonious Monk, even though it causes him excruciating pain, in the hope that his ghost will wake and give him a reason for his suffering. This could be a representative of the fact that he can not remember his past and is desperately searching for any hint of who he was before he came to this inverse reality. This becomes even more clear in the fact that, in Midnight, the moment he remembers who he was, he walks away from the piano and simply talks with Brittain about their future together, signifying that he no longer is focused on the past and is hopeful for the future. 

An opposite which contributes to this theory is the lack of ghosts in the song “Soldier and Rose.” In fact, the only time that Ghosts are mentioned is in the opening where Soldier states that Ghosts don’t bother her anymore as she is used to death. This is an interesting contrast to the rest of the characters, especially as Soldier is the only character in the song cycle, other than David, who has no explained backstory and, unlike him, is not trying to find it. Her sole want is to end her life and when she finally gets this, she promises that she will not come back to haunt her killer. This is likely as there is nothing left for her in life, so none of the reasons for coming back listed in “Midnight” apply to her. 

This symbolism makes for a complex, thought-provoking musical, unlike any I have seen before, which is likely what adds to its appeal. Many of the themes and emotions explored in this song cycle are relatable to the audience, however unorthodox the presentation may be and, even though the audience is small, attracts a diverse and creative group as its fans.