When you think about Romeo and Juliet, you’re instantly transported to “fair Verona” where familial strife, unrequited love and and deadly consequences reign. But when songwriter Katrina Cabansay sat down to write her Shakespearean-inspired song, she instead found herself thinking about a lesser plot line–Romeo’s banishment to Mantua. Katrina’s song, which earned her the top prize in our Songwriting Competition, beautifully captures the essence of this scene while remaining universally relevant. We recently got the chance to chat with Katrina who shared her goals for the song and some of the challenges (and subsequent successes) she encountered while penning this layered piece.
Your song “Mantua” was loosely based on the story of Romeo and Juliet. Why did you choose to channel this love story in your song?
I actually wrote “Mantua” for an assignment! We read Romeo and Juliet in my English class, and my teacher asked us to make some sort of adaptation of the story using any medium we liked. I chose to write a song specifically about Romeo’s exile to Mantua because I wanted to bring focus to that part of the story. It feels like everyone fixates on Romeo and Juliet’s unfortunate (and carelessly-decided) deaths, and my goal was to give light to one of the more touching scenes in the play. I also liked the word “Mantua,” oddly enough. I couldn’t get it out of my head, so I made it into a song!
What was your process for writing this song? Did you write the lyrics or melody first?
I wrote both the lyrics and the melody at the same time. I think I wrote the first two lines before pulling out my guitar and plucking away for a bit to get an idea of the sound I wanted the song to have. And once I had a general melody, I continued to write the lyrics, changing the melody to fit the lyrics in certain parts and vice versa in others.
What was the most challenging part of composing this song, and what did you enjoy most about writing it?
The most challenging part was creating the entire second half of it. I already had my favorite quote from the original Shakespearean text (“And all these woes shall serve for sweet discourses in our time to come” from Act 3, Scene 5), but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to fit it into the song. Then I reread the scene, found and paraphrased another quote I liked that I thought fit the tone of the song, and decided to mash them together to form the bridge. And I think that was my favorite part of composing the song—putting all of the little pieces together to make the final product. The harmonies, the instrumentation, the lyrics—it was all so fun to play around with and combine.
Who are some of your favorite songwriters?
My top three songwriters are William Finn, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Taylor Swift. I’m a huge musical theater fan, and both William Finn (who composed Falsettos) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (who composed Hamilton) have wowed me with their intricate lyrics and melodies. And Taylor Swift has always managed to capture emotions beautifully with her songwriting, which is something that I hope to be able to do as well as her one day.
