The Bells Of Notre Dame
 
Music by Alan Menken
Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Performed by Paul Kandel(Clopin), David Odgen Stiers(Archdeacon), Tony Jay(Frollo), and Chorus

Clopin
Morning in Paris, the city awakes
To the bells of Notre Dame
The fisherman fishes, the bakerman bakes
To the bells of Notre Dame
To the big bells as loud as the thunder
To the little bells as soft as a psalm
And some say the soul of the city's
The roll of the bells
The bells of Notre Dame

Listen, they're beautiful -
So many colors of sounds, so many changing moods...
But you know, they don't ring by themselves.
They don't?
No, silly boy...
Up there high, high in the dark bell tower
Lives the myterious bell ringer.
Who is this creature?
Who?
What is he?
What?
How did he come to be there?
How?
Hush... Clopin will tell you.
It is a tale,
A tale of a man and a monster

Dark was the night when our tale was begun
On the docks near Notre Dame

Shut it up, will you!
We'll be spotted!
Hush, little one.

Four frightened gypsies slid silently under
The docks near Notre Dame

Four guilders for safe passage into Paris.

But a trap had been laid for the gypsies
And they gazed up in fear and alarm
At a figure whose clutches
Were iron as much as the bells

Judge Claude Frollo!

The bells of Notre Dame

Chorus
Kyrie Eleison                                             (Lord have mercy)

Clopin
Judge Claude Frollo longed to purge the world of vice and sin

Chorus
Kyrie Eleison                                             (Lord have mercy)

Clopin
And he saw corruption ev'rywhere except within

Bring these gypsy vermin to the palace of justice.
You there, what are you hiding?
Stolen goods, no doubt. Take them from her.

She ran...

Chorus

Dies irae, dies illa Solvet saeclum in favilla Teste David cum sibylla Quantus tremor est futurus Quando Judex est venturus

(Day of wrath, that day) (Shall consume the world in ashes) (As prophesied by David and the sibyl) (What trembling is to be) (When the Judge is come)

Sanctuary, please give us sanctuary!
A baby? A monster!

Stop!
Cried the Archdeacon -
This is an unholy deamon.
I'm sending it back to hell, where it belongs.

Archdeacon
See there the innocent blood you have spilt
On the steps of Notre Dame

I am guiltless. She ran, I pursued.

Now you would add this child's blood to your guilt
On the steps of Notre Dame

My conscience is clear!

You can lie to yourself and your minions
You cam claim that you haven't a qualm
But you never can run from
Nor hide what you've done from the eyes
The very eyes of Notre Dame

Chorus
Kyrie Eleison                                             (Lord have mercy)

Clopin
And for one time in his life of power and control

Chorus
Kyrie Eleison                                             (Lord have mercy)

Clopin
Frollo felt a twinge of fear for his immortal soul

What must I do?
Care for the child, raise it as your own.
What! I am to settle for this misshappen...
Oh well, let him live with you in your church.
Live here? Where?
Anywhere...

Frollo
Just so he's kept away where no one else can see

The belltower, perhaps.
Who knows? Our lord works in mysterious ways.

Even this foul creature may yet prove one day to be
Of use to me

And Frollo gave the child a cruel name -
A name that means half-formed, Quasimodo

Clopin
Now here's a riddle to guess if you can
Sing the bells of Notre Dame
Who is the monster and who is the man?

Clopin and Chorus
Sing the bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells, bells, bells, bells
Bells of Notre Dame