GREATEST MUSICAL THEATER HARMONIES...

[stage_door76]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 3:10am

a lot of musicals have one or several songs with sensational harmonies (i.e. wicked, POTO, Pippin, Prodigal, Rent etc). but in your opinion what are the musicals that have the GREATEST harmonies in history?

granted, it depends who sings them, but you know what i mean.

for me, the two best harmony musicals are (WITHOUT A DOUBT!!!):

Side Show ('Who will love me as i am' is spine tingling)
The Witches of Eastwick (three gorgeous women, singing in three part harmony for two hours whilst flying above the orchestra, is there anything better in life?)

get passionate, i expect to see claws out! what makes your spine tingle?

[Justice]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 3:46am

Closer Than Ever
It's Never That Easy/I've Been Here Before
Fathers of Fathers

Ragtime
Goodbye, My Love/Journey On
Wheels of a Dream
Our Children

Jeckyll & Hyde
In His Eyes

Once on This Island
The Human Heart
Forever Yours

The Life
My Friend

The Me Nobody Knows
How I Feel

Parade
He Calls My NAme

[BWAYboi_yes]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 3:48am

Lily's Eyes

[bjivie2]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 5:48am

It's Off-Broadway, but the opening of Songs for a New World is truly beautiful harmonies.

Also, Sweeney Todd has some pretty great huge vocally thick chords.

[JBSinger]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 8:17am

"Sunday" - Sunday in the Park...
"At the Ballet" - Chorus Line
"Louder Than Words" - tick, tick, boom
"It's Never That Easy/I've been Here before" - Closer than Ever

There are so many, but these are among my favorites.

[Chip1012]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 8:36am

Spelling Bee's "The I Love You Song" (that's what it's called, right? There is no song list in the playbill but I saw it labeled there on Broadway.com) is a beautiful example.

[wildcat]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 9:00am

Anything written or arranged by Hugh Martin. I believe Richard Rodgers called him in to do "Sing For Your Supper" in BOYS FROM SYRACUSE.
And that includes shows written by Martin, such as BEST FOOT FORWARD and HIGH SPIRITS.

[Barnaby12345]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 9:20am

"Make Me Happy" The Wild Party Off-Broadway.
The end of "One" from Bare.

[wildcat]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 9:27am

All the choral work in THE GOLDEN APPLE.

And CANDIDE.
Updated On: 5/4/05 at 09:27 AM

[Christopher_Acts]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 9:31am

On the Frogs/Primrose recording:

The very last harmony in Evoe.

On the Lippa Wild Party recording:

The Juggarnaut

I've always been a fan of extremely dissonant harmony.

[peach]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 10:14am

I'm drawn to relatively simple harmonies where I can hear all voice parts...so in addition to those already mentioned here are a few more:

PIPPIN
Morning Glow (beautiful, beautiful - if done well it gives me goosebumps)

SWEET CHARITY
Baby Dream Your Dream (I've always found these harmonies so simple and yet so pretty)

JOSEPH
Almost any of the songs. Lots of nicely arranged layers in the chorus.

CATS
Lyrically it's dim indeed - but throughout it's got good harmonies.

[wildcat]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 10:21am

The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

[Sant]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 10:27am

THE WHO'S TOMMY - "Listening To You".

WITCHES OF EASTWICK - all the songs that the 3 leading ladies sing together, "I Wish I May" being the highlight.

CARRIE - "Unsuspecting Hearts"

MARTIN GUERRE - "The Imposter Is Here"

JEKYLL & HYDE - "In His Eyes"

RAGTIME - "Journey On", "Wheels Of A Dream", "What A Game"

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:04am

ONE DAY MORE nothing beats 5 part...

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:08am

I don't know about the "Greatest" but I really love three part harmonies in various spots of THE WOMAN IN WHITE. Gorgeous, simply gorgeous.

[cathyhyatt]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:31am

jekyll and hyde "in his eyes" is the first thing that came to mind.

[Plum]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:35am

I always liked the final "I'll say" in "Soldiers' Gossip," from Passion.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:43am

the book report in yagmcb.

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:54am

Smile has some really good ones, Tomorrow Night, Tomorrow Night. And these are only two of the three songs from the show I know. I'm sure there are a lot more.

[cathyhyatt]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:54am

yagmcb could NEVER have one of the GREATEST MUSICAL THEATER HARMONIES..

there are jsut sooo many other high scale musicals..its a fun show. and thats about it. theres no depth...no AMAZING harmonies.

[aliceripleysnumber1]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:56am

just about any of the songs from Side Show...can't get much better than that...

[Plum]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:56am

Uh...what? Any show with multiple singing parts, regardless of its textual content, can have gorgeous harmonies. I don't think the harmony at the end of "The Book Report" is particularly remarkable, but it is pretty.

[Sant]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:57am

Forgot one: Betlehem / Holy Fight from MARTIN GUERRE

[musicnmath]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 12:00pm

"Morning Glow" from Pippin
a few songs from Martin Guerre.
"Elaborate Lives" from Aida. The bit they do harmonize in that last minute + remembering what was happening on stage = dreamy.
"Tom, Dick, or Harry" from Kiss Me, Kate is fairly simple, but I just love it.
"Music Of The Night" Barbra Streisand and Michael Crawford. Harmonies that are quite different from the original.
The Civil War. I don't think this made it to Broadway, but I have the concept album...there are *several* I songs I shiver from the harmonies...
...and this is random: the Yentl medley from Barbra's concert. She harmonizes live on Piece of Sky with herself singing melody of the song from the movie (does that make sense?) and it is one of my favourite harmony moments of all time.

I like these threads because I get to break out some favourite songs and re-listen to them!

[alwy15]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 12:20pm

musicnmath - civil war WAS on broadway in 1999, i believe, and then there was a touring production a year later with bebe winans and larry gaitlin.

as for me - i'd say the most beautiful harmonies have been written by adam guettel in floyd collins, especially in the songs "lucky," "the riddle," and "the call" when floyd is harmonizing with his echoes - it's really quite incredible. well thats my opinion