HOW SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABEDNEGO BECAME “COOL”!
The Creation of It’s Cool in the Furnace
Publisher’s Note: Word Music’s “It’s Cool in the Furnace” celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2013!
As far as we can tell, it’s the world’s “longest running” children’s musical…having never been
out of print in its 40-year existence. That’s quite a feat, to say the least, in a world where music
from 5 years ago can seem dated, let alone 40 years ago. But thanks to the vision and talent of
its two very special creators, this musical has inspired countless children and lives over the
decades. We asked Buryl Red and Grace Hawthorne, legendary writers and the co-creators of
“It’s Cool…” to tell us how it all came about and what their thoughts on why it’s continued to be
so popular over the many years.
From Buryl:
1. A choice: write children’s music (please don’t call it “kiddie” music), or write music that
children can sing, but that all (including adults) can enjoy hearing or performing. This is
important to consider because adults sometimes have a fixed notion (often much too limiting)
about how children should sound, and what kind of music children respond to. (My opinion:
children can sound beautiful as a choir, and will respond to all kinds of music if they are not preconditioned.)
My choice: write music that is technically within the reach of children to perform (vocal ranges,
etc.), but that people of all ages can experience on some level. (“It’s Cool . . .”) can be
performed in unison, and the melody along with certain other vocal parts can be sung an
octave lower than notated. There can be performances by teenagers and adults, as well as
children, or joint performances by a combination of various age groups. “Cool” will also be
performed in situations other than churches (schools, for example).
2. Stylistic choices: to be timely or timeless, or possibly both. Perhaps it’s possible to be timely
without being trendy to the point of becoming dated. An awareness of, rather than a reaction
against, tradition and heritage is the goal: folk music, rounds, traditional anthem, and other
influences such as jazz, and rock can all be compatible.
3. Should this be a real “musical” in its form, or should it be just a collection of songs with
dialogue between? Well, why not have a “choral musical” in the sense of having recurring
themes and motifs? The old miracles plays from medieval times are an interesting model – fun,
humor, serious lessons to be learned, all simply presented with percussion, bells, flutes or
recorders, lutes or guitars. “Let the People Praise” (really an anthem), provides themes for
“Processional, Fanfare, Announcement, and Nebuchadnezzar’s Decree.” And finally – the last
piece to be written – what’s the only musical style you could have to be “cool in the furnace?”
4. Old Testament writings have been described in various ways: history of a people, culture of a
region, great literature. They are all that and much more. We must continually reassert this
poetry and promise of God’s word – using new and emerging vocabulary (musical and linguistic)
-- in order that today’s generation and future generations will know the eternal lessons of
strength and faith, right and wrong, bravery and commitment as portrayed in the story of
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – from an unimaginable number of years ago, three young
men with unusual names who still have something important to tell us.
5. Why a kazoo? First, its nasal quality provides a suggestion of ancient instrumental sound
appropriate to the Court of King Nebuchadnezzar. Second, who cannot smile when you hear
that sound. It can be a mighty racket, but it is a joyful noise.Third, the kazoo is an equalizer of
talent– meaning a six year old or a sixty year old, a beginning singer or the most accomplished
opera singer will sound pretty much the same if they just hum into it. 4. The more, the merrier.
I thought once of handing out kazoos to the entire audience who could sing (hum? play)
Nebuchadnezzar’s Fanfare in an unending round as they leave. Maybe someday, somebody will
be bold (or crazy) enough to try it. “Let the people praise!” Let ALL the people praise.
In closing…
What’s “cool?”
You know it when you feel it. Kids have it. Adults don’t want to lose it.
It’s cool that there’s a fantastic story in the Bible about three fearless youngsters who were
very cool. It’s cool that Grace Hawthorne and I had the opportunity to create a musical based
on the story. It’s cool that both kids and adults have enjoyed performing and hearing this
musical – so much that three generations now think it cool. It’s cool that Word Music is
celebrating the musical’s 40th year of being in print.
A word to the wise: “NOW GET BUSY!!!!!” as King Nebuchadnezzar barks, (cool, perhaps, but
not coolly) to his advisors (The Wisemen, who think they, themselves, are cool).
So what’s “cool?” Just sing, “It isn’t hot in the furnace, man, this furnace is cool,” and you will
know and feel the coolest of cool.
From Grace:
“It’s Cool in the Furnace” wasn’t the first musical Buryl and I wrote. The first one was
“Lightshine.”
Billy Ray Hearn asked Buryl to write a musical based on the Beatitudes—not a lot of plot there.
I was working for Triune Music and Buryl asked if I wanted to write the book and lyrics. Up until
that time, my writing experience has been with newspapers and advertising in Louisiana, and
with Time-Life Books in New York. I had no music background at all, but I thought, “it’s just
words,” so I said yes. (I mean, how hard could it be?)
I was soon to find out that Buryl and I had a language barrier. He spoke music, which I didn’t
understand, and I spoke words in a way he didn’t understand. I’d turn in something, Buryl
would take it home, then bring it back the next day and say, “I can’t work with this.” I don’t
know how he handled the problem, I went home and cried a lot. Since I didn’t know what was
wrong with the words, I didn’t know how to fix them, so I‘d start over and write something
new.
Eventually, we developed a working system.
Word and Billy Ray and were pleased with the result of “Lightshine” so he approached Buryl
about another musical and this time he asked for the team of Red and Hawthorne. Billy Ray also
had a brilliant idea, “Write a musical for young kids.” As far as I know, at that time, there was
nothing on the market for young voices.
I started looking for a Biblical story about kids, one with a plot and interesting characters. The
story of the fiery furnace had all the right elements. It was a good story about kids with funny
names who did great things.
We did the recording in Nashville and New York. What I remember is that the musicians in
Nashville, the engineers at Woodland Studios and the kids who did the vocal tracks all liked
it…that’s when I knew we had a winner, but I don’t think any of us dreamed it would last this
long.
One thing that has worked in our favor is that I didn’t use any current slang. That is the fastest
way to date material. “This furnace isn’t square, it’s really neato,” just doesn’t have the same
ring as “It’s Cool in the Furnace.” The word “cool” had been in use since the 20s and I gambled
that it would stay popular and it has.