Sorry, Random S.A question

[elphabelle07]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 12:02am

what exactly is the song of purple summer? is there a metaphor hidden in there? well...obviously there is but what is it? it's bugging me because i love the song but have no idea what it's saying!

[kikki327]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 12:04am

purple summer is a type of flower

[elphabelle07]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 12:08am

oh really? awesome. gorgeous pic! thanks!

[FIERCEY516]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 12:11am

probably a metaphor between the kids and the flower...

growing. and budding. like a little purple summer flower! BLA BLA BLA

Spring Awakening just cracks me up sometimes -- has such an unattractive attitude, in general. it's just too DEEP for me. **rolls eyes**

[East Village]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 12:16am

A lot of wild summer blooms are purple

[elphabelle07]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 12:28am

lol fiercey!

[East Village]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 12:45am

I was just finishing up the landscaping design for the new dog park in Tompkins Square when I read your post. I checked my perennial guide and it looks like a lot of the last flowers of summer and early fall are purple. I always thought the song evoked the end of the season or the end of a rite of passage.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 12:58am

While we're on the subject, as much as I love that song, can someone please tell me what a grey fly choir is?

[East Village]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 1:15am

"can someone please tell me what a grey fly choir is?"

It's a swarm of flies.

Its also seems to be a literary reference to a poem by John Milton. The poem would have been available throughout Europe during the time period -- and like Spring Awakening, it makes abundant use of European, pastoral imagery.

Lycidas (1637)

Under the opening eyelids of the morn,
We drove afield; and both together heard
What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn,
Batt'ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night.



Updated On: 5/18/08 at 01:15 AM

[Bobby Maler]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 2:01am

from the faq section of the spring awakening myspace:

The song is meant to be poetic and not literal, therefore it is open to interpretation, but in general terms, this song is about hope and renewal, about the cycle of life, and about moving forward by learning from past mistakes. The innocence and exuberance of Spring (youth) moving into bruised but wiser Summer (adulthood). Purple Summer is also a type of flower.

[clever name]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 10:35am

Thank you so much for asking that question elphabelle! I had no idea that was a flower. Sometimes I'm afraid to ask a question here for fear of getting torn to shreds!

[East Village]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 10:56am

I'd find it odd if the Spring Awakening song was referring to Purple Summer, solanum pyracanthum or devil's thorn. Its common botanical name is Purple Summer, however it's a tropical plant from Madagascar. It isn't native to Europe and might not have even been classified at this time period. Its also a fairly arcane reference by contemporary standards.

There are however many summer blooms that are purple -- especially phlox which folks in the old world informally referred to as purple summer. This can refer to either the actual flower or a field of similar hue. These plants would be found throughout the European countryside and seem more consistent with the common pastoral imagery used elsewhere in Spring Awakening.

Updated On: 5/18/08 at 10:56 AM

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 12:07pm

The info from 'Bobby Maler' is directly from one of the producer's of the show. He's been asked that question a million times, and that's his response.

Just like anything else: what YOU bring to it, is what it means.

Posted: 4/2/08 at 12:29pm

The producers are being obtuse. "Purple" clearly refers to the color of passion, of engorgement, and simultaneously of religious ecstasy. "Summer" is the growing season, the season paradoxically held as a time or productivity and recreation. It's the season the crops come to maturity, that the grain ripens and trees bear fruit. All is clear so far, no?

Then they taunt the listener:
And yet, I wait
the swallow brings
a song too hard to follow
that no one else can sing

There is no doubt what the "Song hard to follow" refers to and that the reference to "a swallow" seems almost too obvious in this context. Colts to be born, porches swaying, thunder, butterflies... Obviously, references to the industrial revolution, the rise of communism and the polio vaccine. The composers seem obsessed with the cycles of birth, reproduction and death and the lack of acceptance for Esperanto and the metric system (referred to in Latvian by the word "perspice" coincidentally a shade of purple? I think not.)

In any case, it is a work that rewards deeper scrutiny, for like an onion (or an onion dome-get it?) Spring Awakening leads you further and further down, with layer after layer of symbolism. The book of Mormon, Cyclamates, the suppression of the electric car, all tied up in this apparently simple tale of sexual awakening and guilt.

[elphabelle07]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 2:47pm

I figured it had to have something to do with maturity and some sort of sexual (For lack of better word) awakening...i mean that's the whole show really. Thanks everyone! Sorry if I seem like an idiot but I love that song and really wanted to know the deeper meaning of it.

And Clever Name: You're welcome! I was scared to ask it too! Hahaha

[haddaddy3]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 4:30pm

Isn't it supposed to be that they've just had a spring awakening and now they are continuing to grow through the coming summer and bloom like the flower?

[tazber]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 4:41pm

joe, that was hialrious.

I never realized that purple summer was a metaphor for an erection.

Posted: 4/2/08 at 4:46pm

A throbbing, Metric, RELIGIOUS erection at that. Doesn't 165 millimeters sound longer anyway?

[tazber]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 4:53pm

It depends on what you're comparing it too.

[LiveUnscripted]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 10:14pm

This could be totally off the wall, but this is my thoughts. Throughout the winter and spring, the characters have learned about, been "awakened" to life, love, death, sex, ect. but all those lessons came with loss and pain. So they're now wiser, in their purple summer, but the kids don't feel like they should have endured all that suffereing to get there. So when they're saying "I will sing the song of purple summer" and "All shall know the wonder of purple summer" they mean that they won't be like their parents, they'll teach their kids these lessons.
Also, there's a ton of refreneces to nature- corn, flies, stallions, ect. and I was thinking that shows how animals and nature naturally understand and embrace these lessons, but humans have to struggle to learn and accept them.

... Did that make any sense?

Posted: 4/2/08 at 10:43pm

Simply enough, I always figured it was just life moving on and forward.

[FIERCEY516]

Posted: 4/2/08 at 10:46pm

are we seriously disecting "Purple Summer" ?

Posted: 4/2/08 at 10:54pm

Go away.