Songs That Fit Together

[Scarlett]

Are there any songs (especially from musicals) that have two sections which are then sung at the same time? one which has 3 parts but they are all the same tune. Any ideas?!

[VHG]

I am not totally sure what you mean, but in this song from Les Mis two singers are singing their own words at the same time, but over the same tune.

That starts about 50 seconds in

[VHG]

Even if my answer above is not right, it is worth listening to the whole song for two great performances.

[Scarlett]

Thanks VHG- yes that's kinda what I meant! There is also one in Miss Saigon- I Still Believe that has a bit where the two women sing together.

[Quizmonkey]

Sondheim uses it a lot in his musicals (often called counterpoint but musicologists may disagree!) - most notably in A Little Night Music with the songs Now, Soon and Later. A trio of songs in Follies too: Rain on the Roof, Ah! Paree, and Broadway Baby end up all being sung together.

[VHG]

I was going to say that if anyone has done it Sondheim probably has because he likes to put complex things in his musicals.

I went to see an amateur production of Sondheim's Sweeny Todd a few months ago and while I found it interesting I found the music so complex, almost as though Sondheim wanted to show off and say "look how clever I am" and look how many notes I have used.

By half time it had done my head in and I could not go in for the second half.

And this is the same man who wrote a lovely "simple" song like "Somewhere" from West Side Story (though he only wrote the words).

[Calibax]

I Hear Singing and There's No One There

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGBbfAkzZvM

[Quizmonkey]

Don't want to get into a row about Sondheim but...! He wrote the lyrics to WSS in his 20s, first ever job, and he soon hated most of the lyrics (especially I Feel Pretty) for their crassness, simplicity and inappropriateness. It is the complexity and sheer brilliance of his later works that mark him as a genius. Take the time to get to know the intricacies of Sweeney - you'll find it's unbelievably clever - but never 'clever-clever'.