The Witch’s music in Into the Woods is interesting because, unlike most characters, who’s music starts simple, and innocent (reflecting the innocence within themselves, not having learned what they need), her music starts out extremely complicated, harmonically and rhythmically, with 12 tone rows, hexachords, and quartal harmony (based solely on augmented and diminished fourths, but the perfect). As the show goes on, the music becomes less and less complicated with screams of simplicity fighting their way through in songs like “Stay with me” and “Last Midnight.” All of this culminates for the Witch in her final number, “Children Will Listen” which uses the fewest chromatic techniques of any song in the show, next to “No One is Alone.” This simplicity is peace among the characters, and peace within themselves, that they have now learned what they need and have grown from it.

Another old video. This time, “Lesson #8” from “Sunday in the Park with George.”

An old video of me analyzing “My Friends” from “Sweeney Todd.”

“No Place like London” is, like “Color and Light” a great example of a Sondheimian scene. The dialogue and music is intertwined so beautifully, it gives the impression of an opera, even though it is clearly not. But this is what Sondheim was going for in Sweeny Todd, a quasi-parody of opera.
    The song begins with a brass fanfare. The first two phrases are two measures each; both mirroring the two characters about to enter, Antony and Sweeney. The first two measures consist of the progression Db (add 9), Db major 7 over C, Db major 13, Db major7 over Ab, and Gb (add 9)- a series of beautiful chords. This symbolizes Antony’s love for London, and his perception of it being a beautiful place. The next two measures in clued the first three chords, but in the second measure switch to a Gb minor 9, and an Fb major 9 (#11). These last two chords are eerie and dissonant, symbolizing Sweeney’s hatred for London.  Antony sings his first verse, all over a tonic progression, with color tones, once again mirroring his love for the city. However, before his last “no place like London” Sweeney interjects, and sings it instead. At this moment, the underscore suddenly changes to Sweeney’s anger motif, an eighth note motif with two juxtaposed lines creating constant whole step intervals and diminished fifth intervals. This makes it not just dissonant, but unsteady, with no tonal center. He sings, “You are young, life has been kind to you. You will learn.” This is sung over the same accompaniment, but alternates between 4/4 and 7/8. This use of an uneven meter makes Sweeney seem even more unstable in his anger. Sweeney then sings to Antony, “You will learn.” The important thing to note here is the placement of “will.” The series of these three notes are Ab, Cb, and Bb. Not only does the “will” get prominence because it is the highest pitch in these series of notes, but it is a minor third, almost a blue third when sung correctly, which gives it even more importance because the listener’s ear is dying for it to resolve to the Bb. This shows Sweeney’s cynicism in life. He is telling Antony that eventually everyone will get taken for a ride in the end because the world is a horrible place, and the accenting of “will” makes this message clear as day.
    There is then some dialogue, which is said over another motif of Sweeny’s, working to show his anger and sorrow. We all know this motif, in this case it is a Bb to a D, over a rolling Eb5 chord, creating an Eb major 7, the perfect chord to fit the feeling of sorrow. The next measure includes two eighth notes of the motif, the second of which is tied to a half note to fill the rest of the 3/4 measure, they are a Db and Cb. Both of these are over an Eb and D in the bass. This created extreme dissonance on the downbeat, creating a series of three notes in half step intervals (excluding their compound interval counterparts). This mirrors Sweeney’s anger as well.
    The Beggar Woman now appears. The musical rhetoric is very clear here. She is rather insane, so the music calls for instability. The accompaniment loses it’s tonality and become nearly atonal. The Beggar Woman sings almost entirely in descending half-steps, giving a “melting” impression, which symbolizes that her mind has slowly melted away. Now, a complete shift of feeling comes when she sings “’Ow would you like a little muff dear…” and so forth. Two things are important to note whenever this little “jig” comes up. First, and the most obvious, is that the tonality is still gone, especially in the accompaniment. That’s all fine, but the interesting thing here is the meter it’s written in. Sondheim put these parts in 9/16, an odd meter. Any professional musician won’t have a problem with this meter, but it is rarely seen, mainly because it makes rhythms look more complicated than they need to be. Most of the time, music written in 9/16 could be transferred 9/8 easily. Sondheim did this for the performer’s sake. Writing this section in 9/16 makes the music look maniacal and jumbled; exactly the feelings the Beggar Woman should be showing at this point. It gives the actor, when looking at the music, a subconscious note on how to articulate the notes.
    The Beggar Woman sings one more set of “Alms…” and a jig, then moves on. We come back to Sweeney’s anger/sadness motif, followed by his mini soliloquy, “There’s a hole in the world…” The important thing to note here is how fast Sondheim has Sweeney sing these notes, it’s very much like a recititative (again, parodying opera). Sweeney sings this so fast because he’s so passionate about how he feels, that the words can’t come fast enough.  This is all the while sung over the same anger/sadness motif. Sweeney then breaks into Antony’s motif of “…sailed the word and seen it’s wonders…” except here, the accompaniment has changed slightly, there are alternating G to A# quarter notes  over the C# minor 7 accompaniment, creating some strong dissonances (diminished 5ths with the G and G#, and major sevenths with the A# and B in the bass). This symbolizes that Sweeney’s feelings are opposite to Antony’s.
    Sweeney now tells his story. Since this is so expositional, nothing of intense musical rhetoric happens here, but it is important to note the meter changes. Sondheim does this whenever there is a story being told like this, it makes it seem more conversational and real, this way the audience can focus on the exposition, rather than motifs or a rhyme scheme of a normal strophic song, this would take too much away from the exposition. Another important aspect to notice is that the word “beautiful” is always the peak of a phrase, to show Sweeney’s love for his wife.
    After Sweeney is done telling his story, Antony leaves, and Sweeney sings his mantra again, this time over his unstable eighth note motif. This shows that Sweeney is now on the move, looking for his revenge.

Color and light is the classic example of a Sondheim scene. It is dialogue intertwined with music, which makes his style much more intricate, almost through composed. The piece starts with George, at his painting, dabbing at his work, accompanied by a series of staccato eighth notes in a quasi-chromatic motif, which is the motif of his art work, also found in “Finishing the Hat,” in which the motif is varied and fought against. The motif is chromatic in harmony for a reason, George’s color schemes are so varied (rather: “anti” monochromatic), that Sondheim chose this series of notes during his work sessions to show the differences and the particularities in his painting. The motif persists, just like George’s work ethic, with little pauses to speak his mantra (Order, Design, Composition) and then continues over the persistent motif, until finally he sings, “more red” shortly (two eighth notes, being F and Gb, again a chromatic interval). This matches the accompanying motif and also highlights the color, “red.” Color is sacred to George, so the colors are agogically accented by the movements of the pitch. The same is done with “A little more red.” He sings “blue” in the series of notes the motif contains, chaotically in eighth notes, and then breaks free with less movement on “Even, even.” 4 quarter notes, one of the most simplistic rhythms besides half notes and whole notes. This climb continues until he breaks free with, “Color and light” (the two things most holy to George). Each phrase George speaks is followed by an attack by the strings and piano, an Eb (add 9) chord over a Bb (all the while over the eighth note motif). The chord itself is not terribly dissonant, but the way the upper part of the chord is voiced makes it so. The F is doubled, and it is in first inversion, which puts a G on bottom and an F on top. This combination of voicing and pitch doubling makes this a haunting, almost jarring attack. This is foreshadowing to the kind of accents in “Finishing the Hat,” where there is a battle between motifs, this is the outside world calling to him, which is soon to be Dot in the coming scene.  George continues to work and becomes consumed with his painting, speaking to his creation, all the while being underscored by the motif from “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Finishing the Hat,” which is what I consider the passion motif, whether it be George’s passion for his work, or Dot’s passion for George.

                This fades in to the similar motif, but with Dot now sitting at her mirror getting ready for the Follies. She sings “more rouge” in the same two note pattern George sang “more red,” thus showing Dot’s adolescent love of looks and all things superficial.  The motif then stops and Dot sings “if my legs were longer, if my bust was smaller, if my hands were graceful, if my waist was thinner, if my hips were fatter, if my voice was warm, if I could concentrate-“all over the regret motif, which, in this key, is a G major 9 to an A 6/9 without the 3^rd. This motif is all over the score, present in almost every song, most notably in “Lesson #8” and “Sunday in the Park with George.” Here Dot is displaying her insecurities, which makes her feel somewhat not good enough for George, almost as if she is trying to find the reason George is not as fascinated with her as he is with his work. But alas, in her naivety, she sings “I’d be in the Follies.” She sings this over an insanely fast accompaniment, almost unstable (in 2/4, the half note beating at 112 bpm). The speed of the accompaniment paired with the chromatic, dissonant counter melody underneath (at times creating many, many diminished 5ths) mirrors Dot’s unsteadiness and immaturity. She comes to realization that her fantasy of being in the Follies is silly, and sings about this, again, over the regret motif.  The music then breaks into the eighth note motif and goes back to George, working chaotically, in which he sings the entire series of the eighth note motif, chromaticism and all, showing his persistence with the work. The string attacks repeat again, as George knows Dot is waiting- once more, the real world beckoning to him. Dot then sings about George over the first chord of the regret motif, singing, “But it’s warm inside his eyes” followed by George singing “hotter” (over a completely different second chord of the motif, on purpose- just remember that) An important lyrical note here is that Dot sings “warm” while George sings “hotter.” Both are close in meaning but have extremely different connotations, Dot’s warmth is in regards to her love for George, but George is in the world of his painting, outside on the Isle of La Grande Jatte, on a hot Sunday. The two couldn’t be further apart. The motif continues in its normal fashion as Dot sings her pain about being an object to George, “and he burns you with his eyes…and you’re studied like the light, and you look inside the eyes, and you catch him here and there, but he’s never really there.” The two soon converge in counterpoint and both sing in harmony “I could look at him/her forever.” Once again, Sondheim writing harmonies mainly when two people are speaking the same words, but they have two different meanings. Dot is in love, but George is in awe of how Dot can be drawn. After this harmony is sung, the passion motif comes in (now symbolizing two different passions) and concludes with a heavily orchestrated G9 chord, voiced almost as an F chord with a diminished fifth added, thus alluding to George’s decision about to be made. He inevitably picks his painting over the Follies and Dot storms out. He goes to his painting, and has a moment of regret, with “damn.” But in the end, George makes his decision with two words, “well…red.” The eighth note motif continues with the string attacks becoming more and more consistent and rhythmic, battering George wildly. However, in the last two measures, George is “consumed by light” and the eighth note motif plays heavily throughout all the voices of the orchestra, showing the painting’s triumph.

“Children and Art” is one of the more heart-wrenching songs in “Sunday in the Park with George.” It’s beauty and sophistication lies not in it’s form, such as “Color and Light” or “The Day Off,” but in small “Sondheimian” nuances- much like “Send in the Clowns.” It is strophic in form, yet complex in the detail and reasoning for each note.

                The song begins with an underscore of the regret motif. In this case, we’re back to it’s original key, Db, so the chords are a Gb major 9 followed by a Ab 6/9 (excluding the third). George and Elaine are speaking of Marie as she sits in her wheelchair and looks at the painting. The song begins, now in 12/8 with a rolling accompaniment of eighth notes stopping on beat 3. Mirroring the first notes of the play, and also symbolizing the weakness and shortness of breath Marie has in her old age (which will be discussed in a moment). The series of notes creates a Db 6/9 to a Gb in first inversion, a simple I-IV progression in terms of harmonic analysis, this also symbolizes the simplicity and sweetness of Marie at her old age. Marie sings, “You would have liked him, mama you would. Mama, he makes things, Mama they’re good.” Each phrase is sung over a period of two beats. These shorts phrases once again mirror Marie’s shortness of breath and frailty. After each phrase, the accompaniment hits the Gb chord and hold for two beats, giving a moment of silence, giving the feeling of a pause for breath.  She continues to sing, eventually singing, “He should be happy, Mama he’s blue. What do I do?” The important thing to notice at the end of the phrase is in the question “What do I do?” On Marie’s last “do” the pitch falls on a Cb, creating a minor seventh on top of the Db 6/9, and then a minor third over an Ab minor seventh chord. The Cb clashes with the Bb (the sixth of the Db 6/9) this was done to mirror Marie’s uncertainty and pain in seeing George’s unhappiness.

                George eventually comes and speaks with Marie, she doesn’t recognize him, and then becomes lost in the painting singing her longing for her mother and her sadness that her mother didn’t get to be with Marie’s actual father (George Seurat).

Isn’t she beautiful? There she is, there she is, there she is- Mama is everywhere he must have loved her so much.”

The important thing about these phrases is that they are all sung over the regret/sadness motif. This shows that Marie is expressing her dire sadness for the situation. Another important factor here is Sondheim’s use of repetition when Marie sings “There she is” 3 times. The notes go back between an F and a Gb, stopping twice on the F, but agogically accenting the Gb, creating a hemiloa of 2 vs. 3, making the listener  lose pace of where the beat is, making Marie’s pointing out Dot in the painting seem much longer than it actually is. This is done so the audience can see that George actually did see Dot everywhere. Marie sings “This is out family this is our lot. After I go this is all that you’ve got, honey” A lecture, and almost a mission for George- to use his family as inspiration to continue on. Which makes sense, because Marie is singing an altered version of the pointillism motif from “Color and Light,” just set in a compound meter and tonically based.

                The song changes key, making Marie sing higher, symbolizing that Marie has gained strength from talking about her mother. This continues, and the accompaniment gets more and more dissonant on the “breath pauses” until “I’m just quoting Mama,” where there is an almost indistinguishable chord, symbolizing the weakness Marie feels.  She has one more moment of being lost in the painting (sung over the regret motif) and then she begins to fade as her  phrases become more and more sporadic until she falls asleep.

So, In “The Ladies Who Lunch,” Joanne sings her final song about how upper class women sit around all day, try to seem perfect, and swallow their troubles, letting them build up inside of them. Towards the end of the song, Joanne comes to the startling realization that she is one of these obnoxious women who just drinks to hide herself from her troubles. The song starts with Joanne saying, “I’d like to propose a toast.” Following this are a series of lush chords called and responded in 2 different octaves; these lush chords (a C 6/9 and an F with an added fourth) give a sense of “richness” and “classy-ness” to Joanne’s character. This makes sense, considering she is a wealthy woman in a classy nightclub. Not only do these first 2 chords add a sense of richness to Joanne’s character, the F with an added 4th creates color dissonance that mirrors her disillusion with the way she views herself, and society. It also mirrors the bitter sarcasm of Joanne’s words. Once this call and response is over, a smooth bossa nova starts, with the same 6/9 / Fadd4 progression and is followed by the lyrics “I’ll drink to that:” a perfect lyric to be said to a bossa nova. Once the verses start, the accompaniment becomes more and more violent until all stops and there are two held chords that completely shift the harmonic mood of the song, and the mood of Joanne. She has finally realized that she is one of “The Ladies Who Lunch.” The bossa starts back up quietly, as she is clearly upset. As the lyrics indicate, Joanne turns this sadness into anger, and becomes more and more belligerent with each “vodka stinger” which is also rising articulation and octaves of the music. She then screams “everybody rise, rise, rise, rise, rise!” These consistent repetitions of “rise” show that Joanne has clearly lost control. Under her is a percussive, highly dissonant variation of the previous accompaniment (not color dissonance like in the beginning of the song, but a strong, enharmonic dissonance that is written to make the audience uncomfortable, just like Bobby is, listening on stage.)…

Okay, we all know Sweeney Todd is filled with motifs and allusions from other operas, so I figured I could dissect one.

In “Epiphany” the soaring theme that occurs throughout the song is the “I’ll never see Johanna, no I’ll never hug my girl to me…” along with other lyrics speaking of loss. This theme consists of (in this particular key) Ab, G, F,Eb, Ab, G. Ne-ver see Jo-ha-nna. Throughout all the repetitions of this theme, Sweeney is singing about the loss of his daughter, as well as the loss of his love, Lucy.

If you are well-versed in opera, go play that series of notes on the piano, excluding the Eb. Sound familiar?

In Leoncavallo’s I, Pagliacci. Canio sings the famous aria “Vesti La Giubba” (Put on the Costume). Here, Canio has realized that he has lost his love, Nedda, to another man. He sings, at the climax of the song, “Ridi, Pagliaccio, sul tuo amore infranto!” (Laugh, Pagliaccio, at your broken love!) The first half of this phrase contains the series of notes, G, F#, E, G, F#. Ri-di Pag-li-a-ccio. The exact same series of notes and rhythms (minus the Eb/D due to the extra syllable of ”Jo-ha-nna”).

It makes sense that Sondheim made this parallel, seeing as Pagliacci is a clown, and he is telling himself to laugh, put on a happy face, and be joyous for the crowd, while Sweeney is breaking down, and in the process becoming joyous with madness (hence the last line, “And I’m full of Joy!”). This is just one of the allusions Sondheim uses in Sweeney Todd give the audience a familiar reference into how the character feels.  

If that isn’t enough proof for you, listen to the end of Vesti La Giubba, and you’ll hear a theme repeated in octaves, which is E, D#, G#, B played in the same rhythm (proportionally) as “I feel you Joh-ha-nna” (excluding the 6th on the lat syllable). If that’s not proof that Sondheim used themes from Pagliacci  intentionally, I don’t know what is.

So, as far as Anyone Can Whistle goes, there was a reason it was a flop. It was bizzare music to say the least, which explains why the public didn’t like it. But the music was bizzare for the sake of being bizzare. I think that was Sondheim’s mistake. While it was set in a fictional world, a dystopia almost, the score just doesn’t reflect that well enough, in my opinion, because it’s inconsistant. Songs like “Me and My Town” and “There Won’t Be Trumets” don’t relate at all. and I think that’s why academics weren’t crazy about it as well. It’s by no means a bad score. It’s a great score, but I don’t think it’s one of Sondheim’s best. He was 34 when it opened, so it was a good learning experience for him. Everyone has to fail before they can succeed.

There isn’t alot of in depth factors in this song, but there are a few gems that are worth mentioning. For instance, the style of the song. A bluesy swing. Pefect for a ruthless politician. Also, anytime Cora sings the words “me, my” and ”love,” they are normally at the peak of the phrase, as far as pitch is concerned. This emphasizes her self-loving attitude, and need to be liked, because anytime the listeners hears these words, they stick out like a sore thumb, thus the listener subconciously recognizes that Cora is vein. Also, Cora’s “riffs” are all quite odd, shifting to almost atonal points that the ear can’t recognize easily. I believe this was done purposefully as well. It makes the listener uncomfortable, which makes them uncomfortable with Cora.  Now, when the songs shifts to the mambo, I see it as a ignorance, or denial of the problems she’s facing. I feel that she’s almost dellusional, which is why she’s failing as the mayoress. She’s only concerend with being liked, which is what the song is about. My feelings are justified in the fact that the mambo is extremely dissonant, Gb 9’s over an Eb going to F’s over Eb? Just plain weird. It makes the mambo extremely odd, which in my opinion reflects Cora’s delusion. Now, the whole spoken part, which I guess you could call a cheer, or something, goes along with the fact that Cora is trying to make herself believe that everything is ok. I mean, she’s speaking about all the town’s problems in a peppy, fun manner. Now, the last chord the voices sing are also worth mentioning. They sing an Eb Major 7, over the mambo progression, which, if you remember, includes Db. So there’s a D against a Db. This creates a stinging little dissonance, which make the listener even more uncomfortable. So the song really tries to shine a negative light on Cora.

Assuming you’ve read my other blurbs about Sunday, and you’ve watched my videos, the important thing to know about this show is that it relies HEAVILY on motifs. This is because Sondheim had to tie the characters in the first act to the characters in the second act as well as having to show the relationship between Dot and George grow and become resolved.

There are a few main motifs to know for this song. Ive numbered them in my book on Sunday I’m writing as follows:

Motif 1: The first notes in the show. 5 notes, also the melody of “Putting it Together”

Motif 2: Probably the most used in the show. It is the theme that is used in the beginning of “Lesson #8” (it’s probably best to understand this motif first, which I explain in my analysis of “Lesson #8”)

Motif 3: Part of George’s art theme. A series of eighth notes in thirds and major 2nds.

Ok, the song begins with motif 2, the “pain” motif. Over this music, Dot is saying “Yes, George, run to your work…” This vamps until George says “I cannot divide my feelings as neatly as you…” under which, his art theme occurs. It makes sense tha this theme would appear because he is justifying his distance and isolation from the world. Now, the theme starts to develop into a dissonant fury, with diminished fifth intervals becoming more and more frenzied. The motif finally breaks free at “Tell me not to go.” It seems that whenever Dot is pleading, or putting herself on the line emotionally, the accompaniment is minimal. Here is is just a bass note with 4 rolling notes after it. This makes sense, because Dot is alone, and pleading alone, so the music is minimal. We then move on to “Tell me that you’re hurt, tell me you’re relieved…” which is actually the underscore preceeding “Move On.” it is widely known that this song is a sister to “Move on,” but most people thing that it starts at “There’s nothing to say.” When actually, it begins right here.

 Now George sings, “What I feel? You know exactly how I feel.” Under this is motif 2, the pain motif. It is important that this is the accompaniment, because it clearly shows how George feels. He actually does love Dot, but cannot say it. By using this theme, Sondheim is able to show George’s emotions without words, even more so, with conflicting lyrics. (Genius alert!!) George sings some more, and gets to “Not the ones you need” Need lands on a sharped sixth in the key of D minor, a B. This is almost a reversed modal mixture which created a really beautiful dissonance. It is dissonant obivously, because these words are hurting Dot, and the audience will relate to Dot because of the harmonic placement of the word “need.” On “need,” the “Move On” theme begins, which is a mixture of motif 1, motif 2, and motif 3. It steals the theme from motif 1, the harmonic color of motif 2, and the rhythmic pattern of motif 3. All these combined show George’s conflict within himself. He loves his art, but he also loves Dot, so the three motifs are mixed. It also moves so quickly, because Dot makes the decision to move on, and in “Move on” Dot is telling George to in fact, move on. Ha. So the color and the rhythmic texture mirror the lyrics of the song, as well as the emotion. They continue to sing, and Dot has another break in the the motif with “You are complete, George.” Again, Dot is putting herself on the line, so the accompaniment is quite minimal. Just a bass note, with the overlaying melody. In this next section, it is important to note that “do not” are generally supressed by the highlighing of “We, you, I,” and “belong.” Those 4 words are usuall at the peak of the line, and are accented. This is meant to show that neithe George or Dot want this. They want to be together, but they realize they cannot. This is why “do not” generally apears covered up by these words. Another interesting tidbit is the measure “I am diminished.” Dot lands “diminished” on octave A’s which is right over an Eb in the bass, which, if inverted becomes a diminished fifth (augmented fourth in this case). Just a little nerdy Sondheim trivia. The song contines with “You, We” and “Me” being highlighted, over shadowing “No one.” The “Move On” motif occurs again, and Dot says to George, “I have to move on” to finish out the song.