The Bells of Notre Dame - Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz

Clopin:

Morning in Paris, the city awakes

To the bells of Notre Dame

The fisherman fishes, the bakerman bakes

To the bells of Notre Dame

To the big bells as loud as the thunder

To the little bells soft as a psalm

And some say the soul of the city’s

The toll of the bells

The bells of Notre Dame

Listen, they’re beautiful, no?

So many colors of sound, so many changing moods

Because you know, they don’t ring all by themselves

— They don’t? -

No, silly boy.

Up there, high, high in the dark bell tower

lives the mysterious bell ringer.

Who is this creature

— Who? -

What is he?

— What? -

How did he come to be there

— How? -

Hush, and Clopin will tell you

It is a tale, a tale of a man and a monster.

Dark was the night when our tale was begun

On the docks near Notre Dame

Man #1:

Shup it up, will you!

Man #2:

We’ll be spotted!

Gypsy:

Hush, little one.

Clopin:

Four frightened gypsies slid silently under

The docks near Notre Dame

Man #3:

Four guilders for safe passage into Paris

Clopin:

But a trap had been laid for the gypsies

And they gazed up in fear and alarm

At a figure whose clutches

Were iron as much as the bells

Man #4:

Judge Claude Frollo

Clopin:

The bells of Notre Dame

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

Clopin:

Judge Claude Frollo longed

To purge the world

Of vice and sin

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

Clopin:

And he saw corruption

Ev’rywhere

Except within

Frollo:

Bring these gypsy vermin to the palace of justice

Guard:

You there, what are you hiding?

Frollo:

Stolen goods, no doubt. Take them from her

Clopin:

She ran

Dies irae, dies illa (Day of wrath, that day)

Solvet saeclum in favilla (Shall consume the world in ashes)

Teste David cum sibylla (As prophesied by David and the sibyl)

Quantus tremor est futurus (What trembling is to be)

Quando Judex est venturus (When the Judge is come)

Gypsy:

Sanctuary, please give us sanctuary

Frollo:

A baby? A monster!

Archdeacon:

Stop!

Clopin:

Cried the Archdeacon

Frollo:

This is an unholy deamon.

I’m sending it back to hell, where it belongs.

Archdeacon:

See there the innocent blood you have spilt

On the steps of Notre Dame

Frollo:

I am guiltless. She ran, I pursued.

Archdeacon:

Now you would add this child’s blood to your guilt

On the steps of Notre Dame

Frollo:

My conscience is clear

Archdeacon:

You can lie to yourself and your minions

You can claim that you haven’t a qualm

But you never can run from

Nor hide what you’ve done from the eyes

The very eyes of Notre Dame

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

Clopin:

And for one time in his live

Of power and control

Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy)

Clopin:

Frollo felt a twinge of fear

For his immortal soul

Frollo:

What must I do?

Archdeacon:

Care for the child, and raise it as your own

Frollo:

What? I’d be settled with this misshapen .?

Very well. Let him live with you, in your church.

Archdeacon:

Live here? Where?

Frollo:

Anywhere

Just so he’s kept locked away

Where no one else can see

The bell tower, perhaps

And who knows, our Lord works in mysterious ways

Even this foul creature may

Yet prove one day to be

Of use to me

Clopin:

And Frollo gave the child a cruel name

A name that means half-formed, Quasimodo

Now here is a riddle to guess if you can

Sing the bells of Notre Dame

Who is the monster and who is the man?

Clopin and Chorus:

Sing the bells, bells, bells, bells

Bells, bells, bells, bells

Bells of Notre Dame