“How Can I Go?” is the female lead’s song and main theme from the forthcoming Mappa Mundi musical, Rocket Opera. It will take place at a dance, during which she alternates between getting dragged into it, and watching it from the outskirts. She’s torn between wanting to be part of her world, and ultimately standing outside of it.

We’ve already invited our super-talented friends and collaborators to sing some of the other roles (like this one), both live and on record. So, stay tuned for alternate versions featuring some incredible performers!

The band, mining a hodgepodge of musical influences, instrumentation, and tons of percussion, will be largely onstage, in this case as the dance band. This song, more than any other perhaps, best reflects the plural, polyphonic aesthetic of Rocket Opera.

We tragically had to leave the harmonium out this time. We found out too late that it is tuned to an A445, for traditional Indian musical forms. This makes sense since it was carried by hand from India to Brooklyn. Modern American music is generally tuned to a standard A440 (an A which vibrates at 440 hz), though this hasn’t always been the case, and still isn’t in many parts of the world, even Europe. It also turns out that there’s a whole school of New Age thought that believes (for reasons unclear to your humble chronicler) that A444 is somehow more spiritually harmonious than 440. Well, if it’s true, I’m hoping that 445 brings us out of the realm of quietude and back around to noisy, unruly, riotousness. Anyway, regardless of any spiritual overtones, A445 shall now be known as Mappa Mundi tuning!

For now, this song features the incomparable Jason Sagebiel on (layers of) guitar, Suzanne Lipkin on violin, Ning Yap on cello, and Matt Moore on cajon, as well as yours truly on everything else.

As usual, please download and share freely using the buttons on the player. And stay tuned as I post further Rocket-Opera tracks, and perhaps a story will come into focus…