Into the woods

Question 1

Agony main points

Answer 1

• Ab major opens with a simple tonic chord - jacks innocence
• Highly effective song showing the characterisation of both men have identical attitudes towards women ‘the harder to get, the better to have’
• Performance direction ‘A la Barcarolle’ traditional song sung by Venetian gondoliers, compound duple metres, repetitive accomp and beautiful melodies.
• Princes try to out do each other with their maidens’ beauty and inaccessibility just like the gondoliers would’ve
• E major 7sus2 chords give soft gentle feel
• ‘Agony’ is set on the highest pitch of the song heard as of yet
• Rapunzel’s prince sings the baracole motif and then sings Rapunzel’s wordless melody a motif of enchanted sleep
• Ascending chromatic melody adds intensity B41
• Nonstandard structure
• Song is reprised later in the show showing the princes have not grown since Act 1

Question 2

Giants in the sky main points

Answer 2

• Song is based on the bean motif - Sondheim paralleling music with meaning
• Main verse - heavy use of syncopated speech, fixed beat patterns that follows natural speech rhythms
• Juxtaposition of the words he is singing and his excited mood are indicated both on stage and in music
• Excitement in music:
• Use of marcato syncopated rhythms on beats 2,3 and 4 give rushed excited feeling B35
• Tension created in bars 46-51 from rising sustained and chromatic chord sequences and rocking chromatic motif F-E in Ab major (causes dissonance)
• Use of tremolo in the strings B50-51 stabbing F natural octaves against the D major sus 4 chord, followed by tremolo created a feeling of confused explosion

Question 3

Giants in the sky main points continued

Answer 3

• Fair maiden motif used in orchestration as h sings about the giant woman with tenderness
• The choice of unrelated keys Ab-F-Ab-F# major helps paint the picture off the far off places jack has visited and his new far flung experiences
• Word painting on ‘alone’ with a C flat - lonely and stark
• Word painting on ‘free to do’ with carefully placed rests in vocal line

Question 4

Other notable points

Answer 4

• Into the woods - fairy tale quest musical
• Songs are used for more in depth character interpretation and reflection
• Narrator is employed in a pantomimic style but role morphs into an external observer and character
• Heavy use of syncopated speech
• Motivic development