“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.
