The Bells Of Notre Dame Lyrics

The Bells Of Notre Dame lyrics

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 soft as a psalm

 And some say the soul of the city's

 The toll of the bells

 The bells of Notre Dame

 

 Listen, they're beautiful, no?

 So many colors of sound, so many changing moods

 Because you know, they don't ring all by themselves

 

 CLOPIN AS PUPPET

 They don't? 

 

 CLOPIN

 No, silly boy.

 Up there, high, high in the dark bell tower

 lives the mysterious bell ringer.

 Who is this creature 

 

 CLOPIN AS PUPPET

 Who?

 

 CLOPIN

 What is he?

 

 CLOPIN AS PUPPET

 What?

 

 CLOPIN

 How did he come to be there 

 

 CLOPIN AS PUPPET

 How? 

 Hush, and 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

 

 MAN ONE 

 Shup it up, will you!

 

 MAN TWO 

 We'll be spotted!

 

 GYPSY

 Hush, little one.

 

 CLOPIN 

 Four frightened gypsies slid silently under

 The docks near Notre Dame

 

 MAN THREE 

 Four guilders for safe passage into Paris

 

 CLOPIN

 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 

 

 MAN FOUR 

 Judge Claude Frollo 

 

 CLOPIN 

 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 

 

 FROLLO 

 Bring these gypsy vermin to the palace of justice 

 

 GUARD 

 You there, what are you hiding? 

 

 FROLLO 

 Stolen goods, no doubt. Take them from her 

 

 CLOPIN 

 She ran 

 

 CHORUS 

 Dies irae, dies illa (Day of wrath, that day)

 Solvet saeclum in favilla (Shall consume the world in ashes)

 Teste David cum sibylla (As prophesied by David and the sibyl)

 Quantus tremor est futurus (What trembling is to be)

 Quando Judex est venturus (When the Judge is come) 

 

 GYPSY 

 Sanctuary, please give us sanctuary 

 

 FROLLO 

 A baby? A monster! 

 

 ARCHDEACON 

 Stop! 

 

 CLOPIN 

 Cried the Archdeacon 

 

 FROLLO 

 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 

 

 FROLLO 

 I am guiltless. She ran, I pursued. 

 

 ARCHDEACON 

 Now you would add this child's blood to your guilt

 On the steps of Notre Dame 

 

 FROLLO 

 My conscience is clear 

 

 ARCHDEACON 

 You can lie to yourself and your minions

 You can 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 live

 Of power and control 

 

 CHORUS 

 Kyrie Eleison (Lord have mercy) 

 

 CLOPIN 

 Frollo felt a twinge of fear

 For his immortal soul 

 

 FROLLO 

 What must I do? 

 

 ARCHDEACON 

 Care for the child, and raise it as your own 

 

 FROLLO 

 What? I'd be settled with this misshapen ...?

 Very well. Let him live with you, in your church. 

 

 ARCHDEACON 

 Live here? Where? 

 

 FROLLO 

 Anywhere

 Just so he's kept locked away

 Where no one else can see

 The bell tower, perhaps

 And who knows, our Lord works in mysterious ways

 Even this foul creature may

 Yet prove one day to be

 Of use to me 

 

 CLOPIN 

 And Frollo gave the child a cruel name

 A name that means half-formed, Quasimodo

 Now here is 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