Stephen Schwartz Comments on the Movie The Prince of Egypt - The Songs This PDF Forum archive includes SECTION 1 – Songs background SECTION 2 – Deliver Us SECTION 3 – Through Heaven’s Eyes SECTION 4 – When You Believe SECTION 5 – Playing with the Big Boys SECTION 6 – Cut Songs ADDITIONAL RESOURCES The following questions and answers are from the archive of the StephenSchwartz.com Forum. Copyright by Stephen Schwartz 2010 all rights reserved. No part of this content may be reproduced without prior written consent, including copying material for other websites. Feel free to link to this archive. Send questions to
[email protected] SECTION 1 – SONGS – Background Prince of Egypt: Subject Matter Influence Music? Question: How did the subject matter influence your choice of musical 'style' or 'flavor' for Prince of Egypt? Does it contain any 'middle eastern' type of sound? Answer from Stephen Schwartz: The locale and period of PRINCE OF EGYPT absolutely influenced the sound of the music. I wanted to come up with a sound for the songs that was accessible to a contemporary audience but at the same time was redolent of both Egyptian and Hebraic flavors. When I'm working on a score set in a specific place and time, I try to prepare by listening to and playing on the piano a lot of source music; then when I start to write, I don't think about it consciously, but the influence in my unconscious is certainly there. Thus, in the same way that I prepared for writing THE BAKER'S WIFE score by listening to and playing on the piano Debussy, Edith Piaf songs and French folk music, or for my upcoming Disney TV project GEPPETTO by listening to and playing Verdi, Rossini, Nino Rota and Italian folk songs, for PRINCE OF EGYPT I used Hebrew folk records, tapes of ancient Egyptian court music, and even pop tapes I picked up in Cairo on a research trip to Egypt.