‘ Something’s
Coming’ from West Sid e Story
by Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein 1918-1990
Leonard Bernstein was
a conductor, composer and pianist. He was
born in Lawrence,
Massachusetts
in
1918, and studied music at Harvard University. He conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and composed ballets, musicals, the Chichester Psalms,
1600 Pensylvania Avenue and three symphonies. His musicals include ‘On the Town’,
‘Wonderful Town’ and ‘Candide’.
Background to West Side Story
West Side Story fuses
together bebop jazz [with dissonances and fast driving rhythms],
blues [with syncopation and blue notes] and Latin American dance rhythms.
The story is based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics. The Jets and Sharks are two rival gangs in the run down, violent streets of the West Side of New York. Tony and Maria, each a member of the opposing gang, fall in love. In the song ‘Something’s Coming’ which occurs near the beginning of the story, Tony is happy at work in the drug store. He hopes to have a new life away from the Jets gang, and is looking forward to the dance to be held that night at the gym. Just before the song, Riff, the leader of the Jets had asked Tony to help him organize a‘rumble’[fight]. Tony agrees, but insists on leaving the gang afterwards.
‘Something’s Coming’ is the third musical number in West Side Story, after the opening prologue and the Jet song.
New Musical Features
in West Side Story
A tragic and violent theme
The use of long, extended dance scenes to convey the drama
The fusion of classical and jazz music
The focus
on contemporary social problems
and
tensions
in America
Metre and Rhythm
‘Something’s
Coming’ has some sections in fast triple metre [3/4] and others in fast
duple metre [2/4].
The accompaniment has an
on-beat bass
part with off beat chords,
particularly in the 2/4 sections. There are also sustained inner parts, mainly in minims.
The vocal melody frequently uses short notes which are often syncopated, sometimes by using pushed notes [ notes that are brought in earlier than the main beat e.g.
on
the words ‘Could’ and ‘Who’] and sometimes due to off-beat accents. The vocal rhythm in
the bridge [‘Around the corner’] has long note lengths and triplets, although the rhythm of the accompaniment is
the same as
before. The voice has cross-rhythms with the accompaniment on ‘or whistling down the river’.
Harmony and Tonality
The song is in D major with two sections in the distantly related key of C major. The two chromatic notes [notes not in the original key] of a sharpened 4th and a flattened 7th appear in both keys, and the vocal melody ends on the flattened 7th of D major [C natural]. The augmented 4th interval [forming a tritone] is used frequently in West side Story. The flattened 7th is a blue note [the influence from jazz]. The harmony is tonal, but the chords contain added 6th,7ths, 9ths and 11ths. There is a dramatic neopolitan chord [the flattened supertonic- Eb major 1st inversion] in bar 95.
Timbre
The vocal part is for a tenor voice, with some sections requiring a quiet, whispered tone. The song is accompanied by a large, live band. Instrumental timbres include pizzicato strings [plucking], clarinets often in their low register, muted brass, piano and drum kit. In the bridge, high bowed strings, sometimes using harmonics and tremolo, add a countermelody.
Orchestration
There are five woodwind players who double up:
Clarinet and saxophone
Two horns
Three trumpets
Two trombones
Seven violins
Four cellos
Two double basses
Drum kit
Percussionists
Piano
Electric and accoustic guitar
Structure
The song does
not
follow a conventional verse-chorus structure, but has several musical
ideas and sections that recur.
The structure is:
Introduction
Section A
Section B
Section B1
Section A 1
Outro [fades out]
How Bernstein creates
a sense of excitement and expectancy in this song?
Lively and fast tempo
Fast triple time dance metre with a one in a bar feel
Short rhythmic riffs
Short vocal phrases
Ostinato patterns
Two techniques or devices used in the song and throughout ‘ West Side Story’
The augmented 4th interval Ostinati [repeated musical patterns]
Blue Notes: A blue note is the flat 3rd, 5th or 7th of the scale e.g. C
natural in bar 17.
Describing
the
words ‘the
air is
humming’
A descant melody [a higher pitched countermelody] in the first violin part imitates a mild
breeze
Ending: The piece ands
with a fade out.
The unusual subject matter of West Side Story:
This musical is different from other Broadway musicals up to this time because it deals with serious social themes such as racial tension and conflict, and is a tragedy.
Vocal forms used in a musical
Solo song, duet, trio, quartet, quintet, chorus
Dance styles
Latin American dance styles such as the mambo and cha-cha are included in the gymnasium scene.
Order of Events
Introduction: D major; fast one in a bar tempo; 3 note ostinato bass; breathy and excited mood of the accompaniment; syncopated ‘push’ rhythms; use of tritone [augmented 4th] in harmony; jazz inspired harmony such as blue notes [Bm11, D9 etc.]
Section A: Quiet piano section; Opening rhythmic orchestral riff creates excitement and urgency; Syncopated ‘push’ on ‘Could be’ and ‘Who knows?’ to create expectancy and tension; Tritone [inverted augmented 4th] used melodically on ‘Who knows?’
Tony’s melody is based on the opening riff. It contains two-bar phrases, a triplet and tritone on ‘soon as it’ and a long blue note crescendo [flattened 7th in D major] on ‘shows’ and ‘trees’.
A fast, loud recitative –like phrase; word painting on ‘It may come cannon balling down through the sky’[repeated quick fire quaver notes followed by a descent]; syncopation on ‘eye’ and ‘sky’ and ‘due’ and ‘true’; Modulation to C major on the highest note [E] on ‘Me’, but with an F# in the harmony [the music is either bitonal [the bass in C major and the other parts in G], or the F# [Gb enharmonically] is a blue note [the flattened 5th in C major]
‘Whistling down the river’: The accompaniment is simplified to on-beat rhythms with a broken chord accompaniment. The voice has
both straight and syncopated rhythms.
There are cross-rhythms between voice and accompaniment.
Section B
The phrases of the ‘could it be?’ section are similar to those of section A [‘something’s due’] but they are extended, down a tone into C major and are in 2/4 time. The tritone is in the harmony, and on the words ‘Something’s coming, the Bb on ‘wait’ is a flattened 7th in the key of C [blue note].
When repeated [‘with a click’], the music modulates to G major, then returns to D major.
‘Something’s coming’is repeated a tone higher in G major with a mixture of straight notes and syncopated rhythms on ‘I don’t know when’ and a ‘push’ on ‘when’, ‘moon’, ‘catch’ and ‘great’. The accompaniment has on-beat crotchets.
A more legato, lyrical section with four long eight-bar phrases. The melody has a higher range and reaches a top G on ‘down’. The voice part is speech-like with straight rhythms of minims and crotchets, and the use of triplets to keep it flowing, helping to avoid the regularity of 2/4 time. The bass plays on-beat quavers outlining the primary chords of D, G and A major. However, the inner parts have chromatic notes, sometimes moving in parallel 4ths. The chromatic harmony creates a feeling of suspense, mystery and perhaps, foreboding of future events.
‘Come on, deliver’ has a flattened 7th blue note on the word ‘on’. The harmony of bar 95 has a dramatic chromatic Eb major neopolitan chord [the flattened supertonic of D major] in first inversion.
Bi-tonality [ two keys at once] then occurs with the music moving into C major on ‘me’, and the inner parts using the F# of G major.
Section B1
‘Will it be?’ is then a repeat of section B, except the repeat is cut and proceeds directly to the music from the second time bar. The start of the lyrical section [‘the air is humming’] is then repeated, but with only one and a half eight bar phrases instead of the previous three.
Section A1
The music changes back to ¾ on the word ‘coming, and then returns to the opening musical ideas with the orchestra playing the one-bar riff. The tritone is sounded for the last time in this song on the hopeful ‘maybe tonight’. The vocal part ends with a long note on the flattened 7th C as the accompanying riff fades away.
