#1
Posted: 8/23/05 at 10:58pm
So I was rereading the thread entitled "Into the Woods lyric" and someone mentioned all of the parallels, inversions
(All the witches, all the curses, All the wolves, all the lies, the false hopes, the good-bye's,The reverses,)
that occur in Sondheim shows. I wanted to make a thread dedicated to people revealing these little known secrets for all to appreciate the true musical theatre genius of Stephen Sondheim. We'll start with some from the Into the Woods thread (forgive me for not knowing whom to give credit to)
"...the five-note theme that recurs throughout ITW.
Calvin listed most of the places it is heard - but here is a secret revealed by Sondheim:
The phrase "people make mistakes" in NO ONE IS ALONE is the "bean theme" turned "upside down"! To explain:
Let's say the "bean theme" starts on "C". The second note is down a fifth to F. The next note is up a step to G. Next is down a third to E. Finally, you go down a step to D.
If you start "children make mistakes" on C, you go UP a fifth to G, then DOWN a step to F, then UP a third to A, finally UP a step to F.
In other words, the intervals are the same, just in the opposite diection.
And that's why Sondheim is a genius!"
"There are more parallels throughout that score. The discovery songs of Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and Cinderella all feature a variation on the same rythmic figure in the accompaniment. "Our Little World," "Lament" and "Children Will Listen" are all melodically linked together. The main melody of "Stay With Me" is also the five note bean theme."
"The reason why the same actor played the Mysterious Man and the Narrator in the original production is for a version of Act Two that got abandoned in previews on Broadway. At the end of the show, the Narrator was revealed to be the Baker's Son (the baby that the Baker is telling the story to at the end of the show, all grown up). So the Mysterious Man is the Narrator's grandfather. It brought the theme of fathers and sons full circle, and the way that we pass stories on to future generations.
It was not due to cheap producing."
(All the witches, all the curses, All the wolves, all the lies, the false hopes, the good-bye's,The reverses,)
that occur in Sondheim shows. I wanted to make a thread dedicated to people revealing these little known secrets for all to appreciate the true musical theatre genius of Stephen Sondheim. We'll start with some from the Into the Woods thread (forgive me for not knowing whom to give credit to)
"...the five-note theme that recurs throughout ITW.
Calvin listed most of the places it is heard - but here is a secret revealed by Sondheim:
The phrase "people make mistakes" in NO ONE IS ALONE is the "bean theme" turned "upside down"! To explain:
Let's say the "bean theme" starts on "C". The second note is down a fifth to F. The next note is up a step to G. Next is down a third to E. Finally, you go down a step to D.
If you start "children make mistakes" on C, you go UP a fifth to G, then DOWN a step to F, then UP a third to A, finally UP a step to F.
In other words, the intervals are the same, just in the opposite diection.
And that's why Sondheim is a genius!"
"There are more parallels throughout that score. The discovery songs of Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and Cinderella all feature a variation on the same rythmic figure in the accompaniment. "Our Little World," "Lament" and "Children Will Listen" are all melodically linked together. The main melody of "Stay With Me" is also the five note bean theme."
"The reason why the same actor played the Mysterious Man and the Narrator in the original production is for a version of Act Two that got abandoned in previews on Broadway. At the end of the show, the Narrator was revealed to be the Baker's Son (the baby that the Baker is telling the story to at the end of the show, all grown up). So the Mysterious Man is the Narrator's grandfather. It brought the theme of fathers and sons full circle, and the way that we pass stories on to future generations.
It was not due to cheap producing."
BSoBW2: I punched Sondheim in the face after I saw Wicked and said, "Why couldn't you write like that!?"
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