1. What is a musical?
Broadway musicals developed in America in the late 1920s (one of the first was Showboat in 1927).
Rogers (composer) and Hammerstein (lyricist) made musicals an important genre from the 1940s onwards.
A musical is a play with songs. They are similar to operas but usually in a popular style.

2. CONTEXT
Bernstein: influenced by bebop jazz (dissonance and fast-driving rhythms) and the blues (syncopation and blues notes). Something’s Coming fuses these together.
He was a skilled pianist, conductor and broadcaster. After graduating from Harvard, he began conducting one of the country’s most famous orchestras.

3. West Side Story Mirrors the plot of “Romeo and Juliet”.
First staged in 1957.
The focus of social problems and tensions, alongside mixing both classical and jazz music made this a cutting edge musical at the time.
The idea for West Side Story came from Jerome Robbins (choreographer). Dance was also innovative.
Based on a love story set in New York in the 1950s.
The two rival gangs are the Jets (American) and Sharks (Puerto Rican)
Something’s Coming is sang by Tony (tenor) – it is an optimistic song about a better life away from the gangs.

4. West Side Story- what can you remember?
Name the Gangs
Which city does the action take place in?
Name the Romeo & Juliet characters
When is the story set?
Who sings SOMETHING’S COMING?

5. INSTRUMENTATION Solo tenor accompanied by a band made up of: Strings
Woodwind
Brass
Percussion
To make sure the band doesn’t overpower the solo singer, the accompaniment uses:
Quiet dynamics
Soft timbres (muted trumpets, pizz. strings)
Homophonic texture
Harmonics and tremolo are also used.

6. “Something’s Coming” How is the song structured? Part of Song Length
Intro
Bars 1 - 3
Section A
Bars
Section B
Bars
Section B1, shorter
Bars
Section A1, shorter
Bars 141 – 157
Outro
Bar 158 (fade out)

7. THEMES
There are three themes:

8. Musical Features
1. Jazz-based harmony – ordinary chords have added “blue” notes

9. Musical Features
2. Syncopated rhythms – “push” rhythm anticipates the beat

10. Musical Features
3. Tritone motif (three complete tones/augmented 4th) appears

11. NOW FIND ME TWO more TRITONES IN THE SCORE

12. TELL ME 5 MUSICAL FACTS ABOUT SOMETHING’S COMING.

13. Musical Features
4. Short riffs – lots of little ideas

14. Musical Features
5. Cross-rhythms – different sorts of rhythms working against each other

15. Musical Features
6. Combination of short phrases and long sustained notes

16. A bit more detail
Beginning riff: uses tritone, push rhythm (driving), jazz harmony, three note bass riff/ostinato.
Tritone used throughout. Sometimes enharmonically as an Ab which makes it a blues note.
“Could be?” uses tonic and dominant notes of scale
Intro and sung melody based on same riff
Word painting (e.g. “it may come cannon balling”, “the air is humming” strings use harmonics.)
D major and modulates to C major
Very fast (176bpm)
Uses a fade out (also ends on a flattened 7th – something’s coming!)
Metre changes between ¾ and 4/4.

17. On which play by Shakespeare is West Side Story based?
Which character is Tony based on?
The accompaniment at the start features a cross-rhythm. What does this mean?
Something’s Coming begins and ends in D major. Which other key is used in the song?
On what note does Tony finish?
How does the music reflect Tony’s gradually increasing sense of excitement and expectation?

18. Quick test – West Side Story
 1. Explain how the music
sounds exciting and hopeful (2)
hints at a tragedy yet to come (2)
2. In what decade was the song written? (1)
3. Give one typical feature of jazz that is present in this performance (1)
4. This is a solo character song from the musical. Name another kind of song featured in musicals (1)
5. Explain how there is a Latin-American influence in this music (1)
6. This piece starts in D major. Name one key that the piece modulates to part way through. (1)
7. How would you describe the tonality? (1)
Major throughout
Starts major but then minor in places
Starts major but then modal in places
Minor throughout

19. Instrumentation
Melody
Rhythm
Metre
Tempo
Harmony
Tonality
Texture

20. Instrumentation
Solo tenor
Woodwind, brass, percussion and string accompaniment (with quiet dynamics and soft timbres so they don’t over power)
Melody
Syllabic
Three themes – quiet syncopated theme, loud theme at b.21, slow-moving theme at b. 73
Blue notes added – Bb
Word painting
Rhythm
Syncopated
Cross rhythms (on beat bass and off-beat chords)
Push rhythm
Metre
Changes between 3/4 and 2/4
Tempo
Fast tempo – this with the syncopation and changing metre add a feeling of excitement and anticipation.
Harmony
Tritone used throughout. Sometimes enharmonically as an Ab
Blue notes.
Jazz influence (i.e. seventh chords)
Tonality
D major
Modulation to C major at bar 32.
Texture
Homophonic mainly (melody and accompaniment)
Repeated riff opens the song
Short syncopated chords
Fast um-cha accompaniment (b.32)