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Analysis the Tonight Ensemble from West Side Story West Side Story No 10: Tonight (Ensemble) Maria, Tony, Anita, Riff, Bernardo, Jets and Sharks In this number,
Submitted by griff-ap-twm on September 28, 2006
Category: Music and Movies
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West Side Story
No 10: Tonight (Ensemble)
Maria, Tony, Anita, Riff, Bernardo, Jets and Sharks
In this number, all the participants talk about the eventful evening they feel is ahead, each with their own thoughts on what will happen.
There are three trains of thought:
1 Riff and Bernardo - thinking (in terms of their own gangs) of the fight arranged for later that evening
2 Anita - thinking about her 'nocturnal activities' with Bernardo after the fight
3 Tony and Maria - more romantic love, idealised, though Tony has to agree with Riff, in exasperation, to be present at the fight
Each group/individual states their case with their own line (Anita's is related to Riff/Bernardo but adapted) and then the different melodic lines are combined. This sort of idea has been used by many composers in different genres eg Mozart's finales often have several characters singing similar music with similar rhyming words but with opposite meanings, or several different melodies all together. Sullivan, in G&S operattas was renowned for his 'double choruses' where two different melodies, with different and possibly opposing themes in the lyrics, would fit against the same harmony. Puccini, in Turandot has ensembles where several characters sing their own melodic lines with different points of view and emotions being expressed.
Time Signature - C+2/4 - a bar of 4 followed by a bar of 2. This could have been scored as 3/2 or 6/4 (or 3/4). The bass ostinato plays on this, being a 3 crotchet repeated pattern. These 3 beat patterns under duple time signatures has been found din a number of the songs and dances of West Side Story, not least the Prologue. Probably scored this way to get away from first beat accents in the 'wrong' place - note that the bars are usually tied over.
The music and the lyrics are perfectly matched to create the feeling of anticipation in all...
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