The important thing to remember about Follies is that it is unlike most Sondheim shows because the music is about pastiche, not character development through “musical rhetoric.” That is not to say that it doesn’t include Sondheim’s normal traits. It does, but a significant amount less. It is also due to the fact that this show was early on in Sondheim’s career (relatively speaking). I mean, he was 41 when Follies opened, but in my opinion, he didn’t find his true style of writing until A Little Night Music. Company was close to his normal style, but Follies and Company were written at approximately the same time, according to Sondheim, so it was hard for him to learn from Company.
Anyway, some basics of “Could I Leave You” are as follows. The song is a waltz, and the harmonic layout of the song is rather jarring at times, which makes sense because Phyllis is not only highly sarcastic in this song, but incredibly angry. There are TONS of diminished fifths in the song, which is a rather passe form of rhetoric, even in ‘71. But again, Sondheim was “young.” It works though, because it makes the harmonic structure seem almost evil at times. When analyzing it a long time ago, I realized the similarities between it and “A Little Priest.” The melody in the opening “Leave you? Leave you? How could I leave you?” follow a common characteristic of Sondheim’s writing in that the melody ascends, just like one’s inflection would when they’re asking a question, so it’s important to know that when performing, so you can accent the ascension between the two notes. Phyllis sings sarcastically in the first section of the song, which is accompanied by only slight dissonances, to mirror the sarcasm, not pure rage. But when the B section comes up, the mood changes all together, we now get into blunt, forward anger with lyrics such as “Martyred looks, cryptic sighs…” The accompaniment shifts to fast eighth notes, all bouncing back between fourths, diminished fifths (augmented fourths in this case, same difference) and fifths, which causes a real nasty feeling in the music, obviously symbolizing her anger.
The song goes back and forth between sarcasm and anger, until she starts to lists off “Leave me the house, leave me the flat…” Here we have something that’s also found in “Not a Day Goes By.” The rhythm pattern of what Phyllis is singing becomes extremely repetitive, to give the listener the impression that the list goes on forever. When the ear hears a repeated melody line, it tends to lose focus. When this happens, the moment the repeated melody stops, the listener has lost track of just how long that segment went on. This was done on purpose, because it shows not only the build up of Phyllis’ anger, but it makes her list of items seem to go on for a significantly longer period of time. Not to mention a repeated rhythm mirrors the inflection of a list being spoken. Once we reach the end, Phyllis sings her last question ending on the leading tone of the key. (An A, in the key of Bb). Again, matching the spoken inflection of the lyric, also providing a slight bit of dissonance to match her anger.
