Character Karaoke Tag

(Images all from Pixabay)

Jane Maree over at Misty Maiden recently did this tag and I thought it looked fun, so I decided to join in.  I don’t really talk about music a lot on this blog, but I love music and I enjoy singing. I can’t play any instruments, but I want to learn the oboe so, so badly (I’ve heard it’s really hard to play though, so…).

Anyway, onto the questions, 😀 I’ll be focussing again on my current Beauty and the Beast/Phantom of the Opera retelling, because I really love this book…and that’s all the reason I need!

1. It’s your character’s wedding day. What song plays during their first dance?

I think it would have to be “All I Ask of You” from the Phantom of the Opera. It’s such a beautiful love song and it fits so well with Felicita. Or it would be Angel, by Casting Crowns, if Benito was choosing.

2. What song(s) describe your protagonist(s)?

This is actually really hard. I don’t know!! Let me come back to this.

Okay, so after perusing my iTunes playlists, I’ve decided that Just Be Held, by Casting Crowns describes Felicita fairly well. She’s so busy holding on, trying to keep it all together by herself, her eyes are on the storm and she can’t see past it. She needs to learn, as the story progresses, that her world isn’t falling apart, it’s falling into place. Who Am I, also by Casting Crowns, works really well into her character arc, as does another Casting Crowns song, Set Me Free, like the man in that song, she is imprisoned and frightened, isolated from other people, and she is pleading to be set free.

Benito is a bit harder to choose for. The Altar and the Door, by Casting Crowns, describes him fairly well. It’s a song about a man confused by his continual turning away from God, describing himself as a “careless…reckless…wrong way travelling shell of a man…” whose fire’s “Just an ember laid out in the corner of my cold, cold heart”.  My Own Worst Enemy (by, you guessed it, Casting Crowns. Can you tell it’s my favourite band yet?) is also reminiscent of him. And can I just add one more? Also by Casting Crowns, So Far to Find You (one of my favourite songs. It was written for the lead singer’s adopted daughter, and it’s just so…sweet and lovely and emotional, but it applies to Benito as well).

Emilia, another main character is pretty well described by the song Belle, from the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack. Like…she’s exactly like Belle. She reads Shakespeare and longs for more than she has in her tiny town. Wedding Day, by Casting Crowns, is pretty much what I want Emilia’s life to end up like, though she’s only taken the first step there by the end of the book.

3. Any instrument players or characters with ties to music?

Not really. A minor character (Lucius, a servant in Felicita’s castle) plays the lute and Felicita sings and writes songs.

4. Go-to songs for battle, romance or intense scenes?

Aha! Well, since this is a Beauty and the Beast/Phantom of the Opera inspired story, the majority of what I listened to while writing it was the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack and the original London cast of the Phantom of the Opera. I only really have one fight scene in the book and that’s where the villagers take up arms against “the beast” in the castle. When writing this scene, I listened to The Mob Song and Down Once More/Track Down this Murderer on repeat. For other battle scenes, I listen to the soundtrack from How to Train Your Dragon, particularly The Dragon Battle, Battling the Green Death and Counter Attack.

For my romance scenes, I listened to The Music of the Night,  All I ask of You and All I Ask of You (reprise). For intense scenes…I just listened to anything really, though The Dragon Book, The Downed Dragon and Dragon’s Den are very intense pieces of music. For my masquerade ball scenes, I listened to Masquerade, and for my village scenes I listened to Belle and Belle (reprise).

(P.S. I’m currently experimenting with formatting and stuff that I don’t really understand…so, apologies if this turns out looking really strange or something. :D)

What about you? What songs are your “go-to” for battle scenes? Do you use songs to describe your characters?