Seasons of Love

Haruka

What did Jonathan Larson want to say? When I listened to his famous song “Seasons of love”, I wanted to ask him the question. This song is a theme of the musical Rent. The musical was made by Jonathan Larson. In this story, there are seven main characters. Six of them have HIV, two of them are homosexuals, and two of them are lesbians. Life is hard for them, but love helps them to get over their difficulties. Rent makes me happy and sad. I could almost understand the story, but I have a question about his song “Seasons of love”.

What is the meaning of “five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes”? This is the lyrics of his most famous song “Seasons of love”. At the beginning of Rent, all main characters sing this song. “Seasons of love” asks us what the important thing is in our life. From this song, I understand Jonathan Larson thought love was the most important thing in his life because the title is “Seasons of love”. However, I can’t figure out why he said five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. At first, I couldn’t understand the meaning of the number at all, so I had been thinking about the meaning of the number for a long time. Consequently, I realized that we have five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes in a year. After that, I began to think why he used the complicated number. The length of time is the same as a year. He could say “a year”, or “three hundreds six five days”. I think he wanted to emphasize something by using this number, but I don’t know what it is.

For this reason, I really want to ask Jonathan about “Seasons of love”. I want to understand why he used “five hundred twenty- five thousand six hundred minutes” in his song. However, he died in 1996. I will never be able to ask him that question.