Send in the clowns - FINAL Flashcards
Intro
Uneven 5 bars. Begins with monophonic lonely low pitched clarinet solo to show sadness. Has a rising perfect 4th, 5th, and octave intervals to show hope, aswell as a minor 3rd to show sadness. Intro is pianissimo and marked lento to show sadness as it’s slow and quiet.
‘isn’t it rich’
3 note anacrusis shows how Desiree is eager to be with Fredrick. Dissonant V79 – 1 perfect cadence shows how she is trying to hide her sadness, but it still shows. Her sadness is shown through the dissonance. The harp plays hopeful rising arpeggios. P4 rise on ‘isn’t it’ also shows hope of being a pair, and the yearning she feels for Fredrick. Melody is low pitched and the same as the intro, however the clarinet played very smooth and legato phrases in the intro and here Desiree has fragmented phrases and rests to show her sadness and emotions.
‘are we a pair’
V79 chord creates dissonance showing her uncertainty of the situation. Strings double the vocal line representing hope of them being together. It is ironic as she is asking a question and there is a perfect cadence, showing she is still trying to be hopeful while hiding her sadness.
‘me here at last on the ground, you in mid air’
Fredrick is joyous and can live his life normally without Desiree, and Desiree is depressed. F minor 7 chord on ‘me here at last on the ground’. Shows desires sadness. Dissonant V 791113 chord on ‘air’ also shows her sadness. Time signature changes to 9:8 to create tension and uncertainty and show her fragmented and emotions and sadness as it frequently changes. Octave fall between ‘in mid’ show how far apart they have become. ‘Here at’ falls a minor 3rd. Clarinets double the melody in 3rds to show hope of becoming a pair. Frequent changes between major and minor 3rds show her constantly changing emotions. Hopeful arpeggios continue in accompaniment
‘send in the clowns’
Means that Desiree wants cheering up as clowns can make her laugh. Minor 3rd rise and perfect 5th fall represent her sadness. Eb minor chord shows her sadnesses it is a minor chord but also her love for Fredrick as Eb is the key of love. Imperfect cadence on ‘Clowns’ to end the phrase, showing how Desiree is unsure of the situation and does not know what to do.
‘Just when id stopped, opening doors’
She has been yearning for love for so long but then stops searching for it and finds the one she loves who is Fredrick. Emphasised through the Perfect 4th rise on ‘just when’ to show her yearning for Fredrick. ‘stopped’ lands on the tonic F minor chord. Antiphonally answered by flute and clarinet to show her mood. They have 2 against 3 cross rhythms which create tension. There is another perfect 4th rise on ‘Opening’ to show her yearning to be with him and hope for a relationship. ‘Opening doors’ is on a C minor 7 chord to show her sadness. There is also lots of dissonance on ‘doors’ with the augmented 11th appoggiatura in the bass.
‘making my entrance again with my usual flair’
This line could show how she has made a mess of the situation by being obsessed with trying to get him to like her. There is rising contour on ‘entrance’ to show the idea of entering somewhere but then the contour descends onto ‘flair’, it’s ironic as she doesn’t have any. All the chords are dissonant to show her lack of flair. ‘flair’ has an unresolved 4th suspension to show she has made a mess of things. ‘flair’ lands on an imperfect cadence, landing on a dissonant V 7 11 chord again representing her lack of flair.
Background
Fredrick has just rejected her offer for them to become a permanent couple and she is feeling devastated. The song discusses Desiree’s hurt feelings through irony. The phrases are short, low pitch, narrow range – also shows the character of Desiree and her mood with lilting rhythms, an unhurried tempo and slow rate of harmonic change.
