Seasons of Love

“Seasons of Love” is a song from the 1996 Broadway musical Rent, written and composed by Jonathan Larson. The song starts with an ostinato piano motif, which provides the harmonic framework for the cast to sing “Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes” (the number of minutes in a common year). The main instruments used throughout the song are piano, vocals, guitar, organ, bass and drums. The song is performed by the entire cast in the musical and in the 2005 film adaptation. The lyrics ask what the proper way is to quantify the value of a year in human life, concluding in the chorus that the most effective means is to “measure in love”. Since four of the lead characters either have HIV or AIDS, the song is often associated with World AIDS Day and AIDS awareness month. Jonathan Larson actually intended for “Seasons of Love” to be performed symbolically as a song at Angel’s funeral. When Larson died the night before the preview opening of the show, the cast sang it at the beginning to pay their respects to the composer. It is performed at the beginning of the second act, referencing recent past events or the events to come. The song is heard twice throughout the second act (once as the opener, before A Happy New Year and the reprise is heard after “Take Me or Leave Me”, before “Without You”) before hearing it in its last incarnation as background to I’ll Cover You: Reprise and Angel’s eulogy.