Enchanted Evenings:The Broadway Musical from 'Show Boat' to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber (61 page)

Example 13.4.
“Somewhere” motives

(a) “There’s a place for us” (motives
a
and
b
)

(b) “Some day! Somewhere” (motive
c
)

Bernstein elides the last note of this
a
motive with a second motive,
b
, on “place for us,” composed of intervals that form a simple descending minor or, less frequently, major triad. This second motive with its idiosyncratic rhythmic signature is usually paired with its predecessor and occurs nine times in the first sixteen measures of the song and another four thereafter. The most frequently stated (six times) descending minor triad, C-sharp minor (G
-E-C
or vi in E major as in m. 2) marks a deceptive and therefore ambiguous resolution. For most of the song Bernstein plays on our expectation that the B major dominant seventh implied in the first motive, which corresponds to the “place” for Tony and Maria, should be followed by the tonic chord, E major. Like many nineteenth-century composers, however, Bernstein does not allow his song to actually arrive on the tonic E until the final measures. It is tempting to make a connection between these deceptive cadences and Wagner’s Prelude to
Tristan und Isolde
, where harmonic resolutions are similarly denied to make the dramatic point that nowhere on earth will there be a place to rest for Wagner’s star-crossed lovers.

The minor seventh melodic interval of the first motive (“There’s a place”) and the dotted rhythm signature of the triadic second motive (“place for us”) also permeates the orchestral underpinning of “Somewhere.”
⁶⁹
After the offstage “Girl” introduces the first motive vocally, the orchestra will repeat it until interrupted by the first appearance of the third (or “Somewhere”) motive (
c1
) at measure 8. The “place for us” motive gains in orchestral as well as vocal prominence after measure 8 as it frequently answers its vocal statements, occasionally straddling measures in the process.
⁷⁰

After its solitary appearance during the course of the first two A sections, the third “Somewhere” motive will emerge in the second half of the song as the principal rhythmic motive (with no less than eight statements). Bernstein introduces this third motive with a descending half-step (E to D
); thereafter the most emphasized melodic interval will be an ascending whole-step (
c2
) to mark the modulation to C major on the words “Some day! Somewhere” (mm. 17 and 18). On three other occasions, “living,” “–giving,” and “Somewhere” (mm. 20, 22, and 23, respectively) he changes the third motive more drastically with a descending perfect fifth (
c3
). All three melodic versions of this third “Somewhere” motive share the same defining rhythmic identity.

At the outset of
Romeo and Juliet
the character known as the Chorus informs Shakespeare’s audience of the destiny soon to befall the doomed lovers.
⁷¹
The characters themselves, of course, are not allowed to know this. Similarly, Romeo’s dreams prepare audiences for the forthcoming tragedy, but Romeo himself does not fully grasp their significance until after the fact.

Bernstein borrows the theatrical device of foreshadowing when he successively anticipates the three “Somewhere” motives in “Tonight,” Tony and Maria’s impassioned love duet on the fire escape (Shakespeare’s Veronese balcony) within minutes of their first meeting at the gym dance.
⁷²
As in Wagner’s music dramas, the orchestra gives an alert audience classified information to which the principals are not privy. At the end of Wagner’s
Das Rheingold
, for example, the first opera in the
Ring
tetralogy, when the gods enter the newly constructed fortress Valhalla as the trumpet plays a new motive that will be identified one opera later in the cycle,
Die Walküre
, when Sieglinde tells Siegmund about the sword. At the conclusion of “Tonight” the idealistic lovers show their oneness by singing in unison and the celestial heights of youthful optimistic love by singing and holding high A
’s. Meanwhile, back on earth, the omniscient orchestra warns audiences of their imminent doom (
Example 13.5
). Upon future hearings, audiences come to realize that the death associated with “Somewhere” is already present at the moment of greatest bliss in “Tonight.” As with Wagner’s
Tristan und Isolde
, another
Romeo and Juliet
prototype, love and death, like love and hate, are inextricably entwined.

Example 13.5.
Orchestral foreshadowing of “Somewhere” at the conclusion of the Balcony Scene (“Tonight”)

A second prominent foreshadowing of “Somewhere” occurs minutes later during the dance between choruses of “Cool,” when the Jets make an energetic but ultimately fruitless attempt to achieve a calm before the rumble. Here Bernstein uses the first “Somewhere” motive (without its usual second-motive continuation) as the first three notes of the fugue subject that introduces the “Cool” fugue, danced rather than sung by the Jets (
Example 13.6a
). Several measures later a slightly transformed version of the third “Somewhere” motive (
Example 13.6b
,
c3
and
c1
) can also be heard.
⁷³
Like the use of the three “Somewhere” motives presented in succession at the conclusion of the “Tonight” duet, the idea here is an orchestral one that can be interpreted as a foreshadowing of death, much in the way the orchestra at the conclusion of Wagner’s
Das Rheingold
informs the audience, but not Wotan, of Siegfried’s sword.
⁷⁴

Example 13.6.
“Somewhere” motives in “Cool” fugue

(a) first “Somewhere” motive (motive
a
)

(b) third “Somewhere” motive (motive
c
)

Ingeniously, Bernstein finds a new use for the “There’s a place” motive when Maria and Anita reconcile their anger and pain in “I have a love,” the song that follows the “Somewhere” dream ballet. In this climactic scene the composer transforms the first “Somewhere” motive into a new context. As shown in
Example 13.7
, Bernstein preserves the melody but alters the rhythm to fit a new declamation on the words, “I love him, I’m his” and “I love him, we’re one” sung by Maria to Anita, and in harmony with her friend on the words, “When love comes so strong.”
⁷⁵

The “Procession and Nightmare” introduces a new important motive shown in
Example 13.8a
, a motive that will return to conclude the musical in the Finale. In contrast to the three “Somewhere” motives, the “Procession” motive is not foreshadowed in earlier portions of the work. Rather, this “Procession” motive itself foreshadows a new principal theme, set to “I have a love, and it’s all that I have” and “I have a love and it’s all that I need” (the opening is shown in
Example 13.8b
), where it alternates with a rhythmic transformation of the first “Somewhere” motive (compare Examples 13.4a and 13.7).
⁷⁶
The “I have a love” motive also retains its symbiotic relationship with the three “Somewhere” motives, since it will either adjoin or occur simultaneously with one or more of these “Somewhere” motives whenever it is heard. The “Procession” motive also bears an uncanny and perhaps intended melodic, rhythmic, and symbolic connection with Wagner’s “redemption” theme (
Example 13.8c
) first sung by Sieglinde in
Die Walküre
and later by Brünnhilde during the Immolation Scene that concludes
Die Götterdämmerung
.
⁷⁷