I need help writing songs

I am working on a play. It's a dark musical set in England in the 1890s. A morally bankrupt scientist and a misanthropic witch try to work together to create the ultimate killer. After the homunculus the witch makes gets killed , they try a different method: an empathic child who cannot access his own emotions.

Meanwhile the son of the homunculus's early victims , a boy named Tobias Jacobs, is blamed for his family's death and locked away in an asylum. He tries to little avail to convince the doctors he is innocent and eventually breakout to find the culprit himself. I need help writing the songs. Can anyone help?

Edit: Is the premise too creepy? I mean I posted this same thing on reddit and got two negative points.

edited 5th Sep '11 1:47:28 PM by JewelyJ

Dark is right. If you don't mind my asking: supposing this was not a musical - like, if you took out the songs and staged it as an ordinary play or published it as a novel - what would you say the genre was? Drama? Tragedy? Black comedy? Horror?

Writing songs is rather like writing poetry, but different rules apply. Of course, the music itself is important.

Listen to some Nightwish for inspiration.

Ah thanks. I would say its a sort of psychological drama.

Ehh I'll make another thread.

edited 6th Sep '11 9:50:12 AM by JewelyJ

You might want to listen to Emilie Autumn, who has a theatrical style, tends to be pretty dark, and whose songs have a pseudo-Victorian quality mainly as a result of classical influences.

I'd also recommend the Clockwork Quartet, a pretty obscure steampunk-themed outfit whose songs are performed in-character and tell stories.

In terms of actual musicals, if you haven't already, listening to (preferably seeing) Les Miserables is a must. Actually, I guess seeing as many musicals as you can is probably the single best thing you can do for inspiration.

It might also be a good idea to listen to some music from the period you're writing about, particularly music hall and light operas like Gilbert and Sullivan's, if you want to capture a Victorian flavour.

Regarding the songs themselves, they need to be written with the characters in mind. A song should convey its singer's personality.