At the Central Square Copyright ©2020, 2022, 2024 Alphasongs LLC, all rights reserved, Music and Lyrics by Matthew L. Kearns ​ Meet me at the square ALTO: Lovely sunny day at the central square. Thought I saw you there last evening.     MEZZO-SOPRANO: It’s a Saturday! It’s a lovely day, and I see a brand new shop in the marketplace. ALTO: Lovely sunny day at the central square. Thought I saw you there last evening.       BARITONE: A Saturday. A lovely day. A brand new place. Meet there today? SOPRANO: The central square. See the people going ev’rywhere. At the central square. I saw you there last evening. MEZZO-SOPRANO: It’s a Saturday! It’s a lovely day, and I see a brand new shop in the marketplace. (2x) ALTO: Lovely sunny day at the central square. Thought I saw you there last evening. (2x) TENOR: Lovely day! The sunshine warms my heart. (2x) BARITONE: A Saturday. A lovely day. A brand new place. Meet there today? (2x) Let’s do breakfast Let me see if we can find a place to get together. I think I know where. Let me say the coffee tastes the best there at Joe's on the eastside of Main. Their breakfast, I can't complain. “Let’s go shopping” Time to open to a brand new morning. Open to a brand new day.                I love the energy of central square. People come down here, in from ev'rywhere. They go shopping.                They're going shopping. Fragrant dining.                                They're going dining. Fun spending money.                Having a blast, spending their money. Here with my honey.                              Couples in love, there with their honey. Oh, feel music all around. Look and you’ll see.                Can't you just feel it, in all directions. "Open", I see a sale. "Open!"                              Stores are all open. I see some nice clothes that I'll try on. ​ Pulse of the City Pulse of the city, it seems to always march along.             I feel the pulse of the town. The city always marches along See all the people, parts of an everlasting song.             People are all in this song. The city has a pulse and a song. I love the rhythm of the town.             I love the rhythm of the people. People come here to be around the town.             People from all around the world. You'll find a diff'rent kind of pace,             And we’ll find them coming together.  Coming together in this place.             This place! “That was fun!” That was fun. I loved the time that we had at Joe' on Main. I loved their om’lets. Anytime you want to spend time with me, let's go to the central square. You’ll love the people there. It was a lovely day SOPRANO: The central square. Saw the people going ev’rywhere. At the central square. I saw you there last evening. MEZZO-SOPRANO: What a Saturday! It was a lovely day, and we saw that brand new shop in the marketplace. (2x) ALTO: Lovely sunny day at the central square. Thought I saw you there last evening. (2x) TENOR: Lovely day! The sunshine warmed my heart. (2x) BARITONE: A Saturday. A lovely day. A brand new place. Met there today. (2x) MEZZO-SOPRANO: What a Saturday! It was a lovely day, and we saw that brand new shop in the marketplace. ALTO: Lovely sunny day at the central square. Thought I saw you there last evening.       BARITONE: A Saturday. A lovely day. A brand new place. Met there today. ALTO: Lovely sunny day at the central square. Thought I saw you there last evening.         ​ Notes At the Central Square depicts friends gathering for breakfast and some shopping. Perhaps, in this day and age of online shopping and social distancing, the picture here is a bit nostalgic, but it’s still great fun to meet friends and enjoy the pulse and the rhythm of the city. I named the sections of the song based on the topics of that section’s lyrics. Structurally, there is a build-up section at the beginning and a wind-down section at the end in which overlapping lyrics in various vocal parts depict friends gathering and later dispersing at the Central Square. These sections are titled “Meet me at the Square” and “It was a lovely Day,” respectively. The next two sections reveal the day’s agenda: “Let’s do Breakfast” and “Let’s go shopping,” which is the main activity At the Central Square. This section is filled with stores opening and sales and places to dine. The day’s shopping breaks down into two sections. The first—“Let’s go shopping”—f­ocuses on people enjoying themselves in the hustle and bustle of the Central Square. The second section—“Pulse of the City”—uses a march rhythm to depict the regular daily clockwork of the downtown core. After immersing themselves in the city, our friends reminisce about the wonderful omelets at Joe’s Diner and the day itself, in “That was fun!” And then they depart with thoughts about “It was a lovely day.” Often, my songs will start with a subject or a musical theme that flashes into my consciousness. I sing these musical ideas into my phone as they come to me. I then transfer them to a musical score and listen to them to get ideas for harmonies. These are my musical “seeds.” Two of these seeds were recorded separately and later became the Alto/Bass counterpoint that begins and ends the piece. From there, the rest of the song blossomed. Performance Notes This piece is scored for a small-to-medium vocal ensemble. There is also a part written for hand claps. The clapping parts are intended to be a starting point for adding rhythmic emphasis. The clapping is intended to emphasize rhythms and enhance timing. This part is optional and could be left out. On the other hand, I would encourage adding the written clapping parts…or… For more creativity, improvisational beat-boxing can enhance rhythms even more. Have fun with it! Audio tracks generated with Cantamus software