Written in Stone

This article is about the song. For the album, see Written in Stone (album).
"Written in Stone"
Song
GenreShowtune
Songwriter(s)Stephen Schwartz

"Written in Stone" is a song that was written for Disney's 1998 animated film Mulan, but was cut from the film when its composer Stephen Schwartz left the project. Lea Salonga auditioned for Mulan with "Written in Stone" and recorded a demo during production.

"Written in Stone" has "surfaced over the years" in later reworkings of the original film.[1] Mulan's deleted torch song, which "accompan[ied] her transformation into a soldier", was salvaged by the one-act version of the play licensed to grade schools, Mulan Jr[2] in multiple reprises .[3] Meanwhile, Salonga has performed the original demo version live at least once.[4]

Collider explains: " In addition to some amateur recordings made publicly accessible online, the song was translated into one of the tentpole numbers for the licensed children’s staged musical Mulan, Jr. The song incorporates the pentatonic (five notes per octave) scale, which are characteristic of traditional Chinese music."[5]

  1. ^ "20 Years of Disney on Broadway: 10 Lesser-Done Audition Songs to Consider". Musical Theatre Resources. 2015-07-20. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  2. ^ Yuill, Bessie (2020-09-16). "Before She Was a Warrior Heroine, Mulan Was Rescued by a White Savior". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  3. ^ "Disney's Mulan Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Online". www.halleonard.com. Archived from the original on 2021-06-03. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  4. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Written in Stone - Original Concept song for Mulan (Lea Salonga). YouTube.
  5. ^ Poletick, Rachel (2021-11-16). "Written in Stone? Imagining the 'Mulan' That Could Have Been". Collider. Retrieved 2022-10-07.