Olive Tree Lyrics – EPIC: Cut Songs

Song Overview

Personal Review

The first time Olive Tree drifted through my speakers I felt doors close behind me; everything outside the song fell suddenly quiet. These Lyrics move like candlelight: small, flickering, but able to flood a room with memory. Key takeaways: the wedding-bed myth becomes living metaphor, Penelope’s patience hardens into proof, and Odysseus learns that love keeps score in wood grain as well as war tales. One-sentence snapshot: twenty years of separation resolve in the heartbeat-hush beneath an ancient tree that never stopped growing.

Song Meaning and Annotations

The scene mirrors Homer’s Odyssey: Odysseus, still disguised, listens as Penelope tells a stranger the legend of their wedding bed, carved from the olive that grew at its center. Rivera-Herrans filters that epic through chamber-pop intimacy: a hush of nylon guitar, bowed strings sighing like night wind, and soft hand-drum pulses that echo a long-kept heartbeat. When Penelope recalls young Odysseus inviting her—“When the day sleeps, I’ll be waiting at the olive tree”—the song burrows into first-love nostalgia while setting up its later twist.

The olive itself is triple-symbolic: token of Athena, sign of peace, and literal root of their home. By fusing house and heart, Rivera-Herrans lets one image shoulder a lifetime of devotion. Stars overhead earn quick mention—“When the stars shine, then it’s our time”—nodding to fate “written in the stars,” a classical motif of destiny.

Mid-song tension blooms when Penelope threatens to move the marriage bed—an impossibility Odysseus alone would protest. His raw outburst, “I built our wedding bed into that olive tree,” exposes him; trust cracks disguise. The same line foreshadows its repurposed echo in the later replacement number “Would You Fall in Love With Me Again.” Penelope’s startled “My gods! It really is you…” completes the recognition beat, a poetic pivot kept intact in the staged rewrite.

The cut also preserves the famous twenty-year interval—“How long has it been? / Twenty years…”—planting temporal stakes in plain speech. It closes with both voices on a single word, “You…,” collapsing distance into one held vowel.

Why was it cut? According to the EPIC wiki, “Olive Tree” originally aimed to serve as the musical’s finale but ceded that role when Rivera-Herrans needed a harsher, more self-questioning reunion. The songwriter later dropped a demo on YouTube; an animatic upload has since passed 340 K views. Community covers flourish—piano renditions, choral reharmonisations, even a lullaby version posted just four weeks ago.

Verse Highlights

Youthful Promise

Young Odysseus’ motif lands on suspended seconds, resolving only when Penelope responds—musical shorthand for dialogue written in harmony.

Recognition Burst

When grown Odysseus reveals himself, the tempo doubles for two measures, imitating a sudden heartbeat spike before melting back into slow 6/8.

Song Credits

• Artist: Jorge Rivera-Herrans
• Composer / Lyricist: Jorge Rivera-Herrans
• Drafted: 2019
• First Fan Upload: January 2024 (YouTube animatic)
• Genre: Chamber-pop musical theatre
• Language: English
• Album: EPIC: The Musical Cut Songs
• Instruments: nylon-string guitar, string quartet, hand drum, harp
• Mood: reverent, longing
• Label: Independent
• Poetic Meter: mixed iambic with lullaby lilts
• Copyright: © 2019-2025 Jorge Rivera-Herrans

Songs Exploring Themes of Enduring Love

First, “Would You Fall in Love With Me Again”—the number that replaced Olive Tree. Where the cut song bathes in nostalgia, the final version injects doubt: Penelope tests a changed Odysseus, forcing him to confront what war made of him. Same couple, new question—can love survive mutation?

Shift to Jason Robert Brown’s “Still Hurting”. Cathy’s soliloquy flips perspective: instead of reunion joy, she sifts through loss in real time. Both songs circle a central object—olive bed, wedding ring—binding time into timber or metal.

Finally, Cole Porter’s classic “Every Time We Say Goodbye” unspools the bittersweet math of parting and reunion. Porter’s chromatic sighs echo the descending cadences in Olive Tree, reminding us that melody often weeps even when words promise return.

Questions and Answers

Why didn’t “Olive Tree” make the final EPIC score?

Rivera-Herrans wanted a harder-edged reunion; “Would You Fall in Love With Me Again” exposes guilt and growth, matching the musical’s darker Act IV tone.

Does the wedding-bed myth appear in Homer?

Yes—Book 23 of The Odyssey uses the immovable bed as Penelope’s test of identity.

Are there official covers?

No commercial releases, but multiple YouTube and SoundCloud covers—piano, orchestral, lullaby—garner thousands of plays.

Any chart history?

No—“Olive Tree” remains unreleased; fan uploads drive its popularity.

Will the song appear on the rumored “Cut Saga” EP?

Jorge hinted it’s a candidate, but no release date confirmed. Community speculation is lively on Reddit.

How to Sing?

Range rests in a mezzo-tenor pocket: Penelope lines run B3–E5; Odysseus A2–G4. Keep the 6/8 sway gentle—each bar feels like two long beats. Practice sustaining “Olive tree” on one breath, adding spin to the final vowel for warmth. When the disguised Odysseus speaks, drop vibrato to differentiate character; let it bloom only on the reveal line. Think lullaby hush over epic declaration—roots instead of trumpets.