By
David Crews Möschler
B.Mus. and B.A. (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) 2005
THESIS
Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS in
MUSIC in the
OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES of the
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS
Approved:
_____________________________________ D. Kern Holoman, chair
_____________________________________ Beth Levy _____________________________________ Jon Rossini Committee in Charge 2010 i
This thesis was possible only with the generosity, advice, and assistance of many people I now need to thank both collectively and individually. My thanks go, first of all, to Beth Levy, whose never-ending patience with my writing, intelligent revisions and editing, and shared enthusiasm for American musical theater was indispensable. To the faculty and staff of the UC Davis Department of Music for their support during my time here. To Jon Rossini for his comments and insight into the field of performance studies. To Mark Eden Horowitz and the staff of the Music Division at the Library of Congress for locating and processing many of the materials from their collections. To Bruce Pomahac and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization for their generosity and encouragement. Bruce Pomahac never hesitated to respond to the most minute and mundane queries with a string of historical anecdotes that not only made the research possible, but always exhilarating. To Tim Carter for his thoughtful suggestions on pursuing a thesis on Rodgers and Hammerstein and Kim Kowalke for his thought-provoking conversations. To Kara Gardner and Peter Purin for sharing their writing and research on Trude Rittman and Don Walker, respectively. To Ben Krauss for his
friendship and many late-night discussions over the years, when many of these ideas first took form. To director Tony Howarth for his passion, vision, and insight into our
production of Carousel (College Light Opera Company, 2007), and to Robert and Ursula Haslun for scheduling our production conveniently during the summer of my visit to Library of Congress. Thanks of course to the cast, orchestra, and designers for my first
inspiration. To David Weiller, with whom I worked as assistant conductor and played banjo for my first Rodgers and Hammerstein production, who instilled a deep-seated passion and respect for their work. To director and choreographer Mindy Cooper, for her insight into our production of Oklahoma! at the University of California, Davis, which served as the performance portion of my MA degree and revealed to me the timeless power of Rodgers and Hammerstein. To Brian McCune for his unwavering friendship and assistance in preparing the musical examples. To Emma Goldin, who provided inspiration and encouragement when it seemed like I could never get started. To my parents and siblings, who have always supported my pursuit of music. Most especially I would like to thank D. Kern Holoman, for his advising in all things musical and otherwise. This
document is dedicated to him.
Music and lyrics reprinted by arrangement with The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization.
© 2010 by Imagem, C.V.
Material contained herein, in a different form
©1945 by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
Acknowledgments ii
Table of Contents iv
Abstract v
I Songwriting in Carousel 1
1.1 The Engine of Broadway 3
1.2 The Sound World of Carousel 5
II Early Drafts of Carousel 11
2.1 Prologue (“The Carousel Waltz”) 12 2.2 Julie and Carrie Sequence: “Mister Snow” 19 2.3 Scene Billy and Julie: “If I Loved You” 23
2.4 “Soliloquy” 31
III The Legacy of Carousel 38
3.1 Carouselʼs Afterlife 38
3.2 Operetta or Broadway Musical 41
Appendix: An Interview with Bruce Pomahac 45
Bibliography 90
This thesis examines the score of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1945 musical,
Carousel. Following on the heels of the authors’ first collaboration, Oklahoma!, Carousel
continued the “Hammerstein model” of the serious musical play, while Rodgers greatly expanded the music to more operatic dimensions. Demanding vocal writing, extended musical sequences, and symphonic orchestration all contribute to its unique aesthetic. A comparison between Rodgers’s early drafts and the published versions illustrates the evolution of four musical numbers: “The Carousel Waltz,” “Mister Snow,” “If I Loved You,” and “Soliloquy.” Harmonic and structural analysis of the score proves that it is more than just a collection of songs that advance the plot forward. Carousel's music stands out from other Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, leaving an enduring legacy and transcending the conventions of genre.
I
SONGWRITING IN CAROUSEL
On 19 April 1945 the musical Carousel opened on Broadway, and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II found critical and commercial success in their second musical collaboration. Written on the heels of their first show, the groundbreaking Oklahoma!,
Carousel served for a decade or more as the model Broadway musical: an integrated
storyline with musical numbers, an extended and psychologically probing ballet by Agnes de Mille, and a gorgeous score that yielded several standards over the years. It was both traditional and innovative at the same time.
A closer look at the compositional structure in the musical numbers of Carousel reveals many departures from the conventional 1940s musical. Not only was Carouselʼs score musically distinct from the works of their own contemporaries, it also remains markedly different from their own shows.
By 1937 composer George Gershwin had died unexpectedly from a brain tumor, and in 1942 lyricist Lorenz Hart succumbed to his alcoholism, abruptly ending two of Broadwayʼs most formidable songwriting teams, George and Ira Gershwin and Rodgers and Hart. But by the end of the 1940s several important voices burst forth on the scene. Table 1 is a brief survey of several Broadway musicals (and a few operas running in Broadway theaters) from the 1940s.
Table 1. A Selective List of Broadway Shows, 1940–491
Year Show Composer / Lyricist
1940 Higher and Higher Richards Rodgers / Lorenz Hart
Louisiana Purchase Irving Berlin
Hold on to Your Hats Burton Lane / E.Y. Harburg
Cabin in the Sky Vernon Duke / John LaTouche
Panama Hattie Cole Porter
Pal Joey Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Hart 1941 Lady in the Dark Kurt Weill / Ira Gershwin
Best Foot Forward Hugh Martin / Ralph Blane
Letʼs Face It Cole Porter
1942 Porgy and Bess (revival) George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin
By Jupiter Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Hart
This Is the Army Irving Berlin 1943 Something for the Boys Cole Porter
Oklahoma! Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II
One Touch of Venus Kurt Weill / Ogden Nash
A Connecticut Yankee (rev.) Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Hart
Carmen Jones Georges Bizet / Oscar Hammerstein II 1944 Mexican Hayride Cole Porter
Follow the Girls Phil Charig / Dan Shapiro & Milton Pascal
Song of Norway Edvard Grieg / Robert Wright & George Forrest
Bloomer Girl Harold Arlen / E.Y. Harburg
The Seven Lively Arts Porter (incl. Stravinskyʼs Scènes de Ballet)
On the Town Bernstein / Betty Comden & Adolph Green 1945 Up in Central Park Sigmund Romberg / Herbert & Dorothy Fields
Carousel Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II
The Red Mill (revival) Victor Herbert / Henry Blossom
The Day Before Spring Frederick Loewe / Alan Jay Lerner
Billion Dollar Baby Morton Gould / Betty Comden & Adolph Green 1946 Show Boat (revival) Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II
St. Louis Woman Harold Arlen / Johnny Mercer
Call Me Mister Harold Rome
Annie Get Your Gun Irving Berlin
Around the World Cole Porter
Beggarʼs Holiday Duke Ellington / John LaTouche 1947 Street Scene Kurt Weill / Langston Hughes
Finianʼs Rainbow Burton Lane / E.Y. Harburg & Fred Saidy
Brigadoon Frederick Loewe / Alan Jay Lerner
The Telephone Gian Carlo Menotti
The Medium Gian Carlo Menotti
1. Adapted from Steve Swayne, How Sondheim Found His Sound (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005), 49–50.
High Button Shoes Jule Styne / Sammy Cahn
Allegro Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II 1948 Look, Ma, Iʼm Dancinʼ Hugh Martin
Magdalena H. Villa-Lobos / Robert Wright & George Forrest
Love Life Kurt Weill / Alan Jay Lerner
Whereʼs Charley? Frank Loesser
The Rape of Lucretia Benjamin Britten / Ronald Duncan
Kiss Me, Kate Cole Porter
1949 South Pacific Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II
Miss Liberty Irving Berlin
Lost in the Stars Kurt Weill / Maxwell Anderson
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Jule Styne / Leo Robin
Table 1 shows how innovating the 1940s were for Broadway. By the end of the decade Kurt Weill had firmly established himself as a new and exciting composer in America, collaborating with several influential playwrights, authors, lyricists, and poets. The great Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, both thought to be past their hey-days, went on to compose their most enduring scores, Annie Get Your Gun and Kiss Me, Kate,
respectively. The most successful songwriting team, however, was Rodgers and Hammerstein. Indisputably
1.1 Songwriters and the Engine of Broadway
The important difference between musical comedy and the musical play is that, in the former, characters arenʼt really “singing.” The musical itself is singing. In the musical play, the characters are singing. They have to―or the audience wonʼt know how they feel.
—McMillin, The Musical as Drama
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II both were seasoned professionals in their own rights and had achieved multiple successes collaborating with other lyricists and composers. When they teamed up for Oklahoma! they pooled their creative talents and
their business sense. In an interview with the author, Bruce Pomahac―the Director of Music for the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization―describes their partnership: What their contemporaries always said about them is that they went into a room, they made whatever decisions they had to make, and they came out perfectly unified. And this bond gave them great strength. No one ever saw these men disagree. They must have had things to disagree about. As collaborators they must have taken opposite sides over songs and scenes and the things that you need to get into, to take apart and put back together in order to write a musical, but no one ever witnessed them as anything but totally in sync with each other. Their decision from the get-go was to enter into a 50/50 partnership, one in which they would split the publishing, the billing, the royalties, everything, right down the middle. Then they created their own publishing company, Williamson (both of their fathers were named William), and from the beginning they were business equals.2
With Oklahoma! Rodgers and Hammerstein had created a show that many heralded (and even more emulated) as the standard for a new kind of Broadway musical: a show in which the songs were integrated with the scenes. The songs were knit tightly into the plot (for the most part) and developed out of charactersʼ need to express themselves. People referred to this as a “book musical” or “musical play” (Hammerstein preferred the latter term), rather than a “musical comedy.”
But Rodgers and Hammerstein werenʼt the only writers who wanted to fuse the story and the songs into a single element.3 What made Oklahoma! and its authors special was
that it achieved such record-breaking success. With an unprecedented Broadway run of 2,212 consecutive performances over five years, it established a record for longevity not surpassed until Lerner and Loeweʼs My Fair Lady in 1956. Oklahoma!ʼs success made it impossible for others to ignore its innovation, and suddenly everyone—even Irving Berlin—was moving in the direction of the book musical.
2. Bruce Pomahac, interview with the author, 26 July 2009, 51.
3. Show Boat and Music in the Air had already had achieved this prior to Oklahoma! (Pomahac, interview, 46).
Hammersteinʼs pivotal role in the development and success of the musical play was no accident. His early work on Show Boat and Very Warm for May displays a long-term determination to engineer musicals that were real stories, with songs driving the plot forward. Although Hammersteinʼs vision for a new musical theater is clear, it is important to note that he and Rodgers still considered themselves songwriters at heart. Even though the musical had a new trajectory after Oklahoma!, songwriters were still the “engine” behind—Broadway. Oklahoma!ʼs score was certainly integrated with the action, but it was still primarly a collection of songs. In this way the compositional aspect of
Oklahoma! was not that different from lightheartedness of musical comedy songwriting
of the previous three decades. For Carousel Rodgers and Hammerstein used the basic model of the musical play, but greatly expanded the score and its relationship with the libretto, reaching an unprecedented level of expression for a Broadway musical.
1.2 The Sound World of Carousel
The serious tone that is special to the music of Carousel, then, dominates the musical-dramatic techniques of melodrama and quasi-recitative, and pervades the “comic” subplot characters and the chorus.
—Swain, The Broadway Musical
That Oklahoma!ʼs success cast a large shadow over Carousel is certain. But in fact the two shows have much in common. They shared, for one thing, the production team of director Rouben Mamoulian, choreographer Agnes de Mille, and producers Lawrence Langner and Theresa Helburn of The Theatre Guild. Liliom, the source-play for
Carousel, also has several similarities with Green Grow the Lilacs, the source material
the nineteenth century.
What makes Carousel so different is the musical score and the way it interacts with the libretto. The best way to describe Carouselʼs score is as collection of musical scenes. At the heart of each scene is a conventional song—harmonically tonal with a simple form and phrasing. Yet the musical material that leads in and out of the songs creates a richly detailed and complex number, blending into the surrounding scenes. Using melodrama, underscoring, and dramatically evocative orchestration, the composer and his
collaborators created a unique sound world for Carousel—a world in which much of the action and characterization is revealed and advanced during the music.
What fueled and inspired this new type of songwriting? The subject matter was a far cry from the feel-good tales most Americans preferred. Adapted from the play Liliom, written by Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár in 1921, the story revolves around a misfit carousel barker (Billy Bigelow in Hammersteinʼs adaptation) and his ill-fated love affair with Julie Jordan. Julie is unable to escape the abusive relationship until halfway through the second act, when the protagonist escapes a failed burglary by killing himself, leaving his wife alone to raise their unborn child.
While the tragic content of Liliom is not especially new to the world of opera, it was considerably daring for a Broadway musical in 1945. Several other composers—
including Giacomo Puccini and Kurt Weill—had requested the rights to musicalize Molnárʼs masterpiece, and all were turned down. It wasnʼt until Molnár saw a production of Oklahoma! (presumably in October 1943) that he had a change of heart and acquiesced to a request from The Theatre Guild to let Rodgers and Hammerstein adapt his work.4
The tragic dimension of Liliom demanded a score that would stand apart from most Broadway musicals.
Joseph Swain posits that this tragic story required an “equivalent complexity of musical expression, and Rodgers and Hammerstein respond to that demand with a number of musical resources. There is much more use of melodrama … [and] a large amount of sung music which has the freedom of organization, the absence of repetition, and the melodic and rhythmic flexibility of recitative, although the sense of meter never quite disappears. These techniques make transitions from spoken dialogue to song much more gradual and smooth. The musical play therefore seems more serious because one is much less aware of the seams of operatic convention.”5
While Oklahoma! has its share of dark moments, the score functions in an entirely different manner than Carousel’s. In Oklahoma!, dramatic action takes place between characters, and in Carousel the musical numbers illuminate the action taking place within them, the inner conflict being the all-important distinction. This kind of drama allowed for a new and more sophisticated type of musical setting than in Oklahoma! (the notable exception to this point being Laureyʼs progressive “Dream Ballet”).6 Carousel capitalizes
on this kind of inner turmoil in nearly every scene, particularly with the protagonists Julie and Billy.
Musical theater has always been a collaborative art, and many gifted collaborators worked alongside Rodgers and Hammerstein to help create this unique musical style of
Carousel. After the success of Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein thought it would
be wise to use many of the same production team members for their next project. Director
5. Joseph Swain, The Broadway Musical (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002), 115. 6. Ibid.
Rouben Mamoulian and choreographer Agnes de Mille were both hired again. Robert Russell Bennett was originally asked to do the orchestrations, but was busy with several other projects and had to back out after working on only the first two numbers, so Don Walker stepped in as principal orchestrator. Steven Suskinʼs compendium on Broadway orchestrators and their craft lists at least three separate orchestrators who worked under Don Walker on Carousel: Stephen Jones, Joe Glover, and Hans Spialek, in addition to Robert Russell Bennett.7
Trude Rittman was hired for dance arrangements, having worked closely as de Milleʼs assistant the past two years on One Touch Of Venus and Bloomer Girl.8 Musical director
Joseph Littau was the only major member of the team who had not collaborated on a previous Rodgers and Hammerstein production, although he had been musical director for Carmen Jones, Hammersteinʼs English-language adaptation of Bizetʼs opera. Most of this teamʼs contributions to Carousel went uncredited for decades. In May 2000 the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization completed a restoration of Carousel, faithfully reproducing a libretto, score, and orchestral parts that reflect the show as it was on opening night in 1945 and bringing to light the individual contributions of the creative team.9
Some members of the music staff contributed their work after the show had already opened. Albert Sirmay, an editor at Chapell, helped create the piano-vocal scores for
7. Steven Suskin, The Sound of Broadway Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) 358–59. For a detailed outline of how each of them contributed to the creative process, see also Bruce Pomahac, “Restoration Notes” in Carousel full score (New York: Williamson Music, Inc., 2008).
8. On Trude Rittman and Agnes de Milleʼs contributions to Carousel, see Kara Gardnerʼs forthcoming book currently titled Agnes de Mille on Broadway.
9. The appendix of the resultant Carousel orchestral score provides a detailed overview of many other source materials, including several versions of the orchestra pit parts.
every Rodgers and Hammerstein show (and many others of the 1940s and 1950s). Sirmayʼs published piano-vocal scores were arguably as critical as the cast album recordings in preserving the legacy of Carousel.10
Without a doubt, the entire staff contributed ideas all along the way, but the
orchestration of Carousel plays a central role in establishing the aural spectrum of the world in which these characters lived. Rodgers, weary of the sound emerging from orchestra pits in the early 1940s, was interested in the issue of scoring early on, particularly with the overture. Rather than use a medley of tunes from the show, he decided to skip the overture and make the audience pay attention by opening with a pantomime scene accompanied by a stand-alone instrumental piece, “The Carousel Waltz.” This helped to establish the mood and sound he wanted.11
Rodgers was careful to insist on proper balance between sections of the orchestra. He got what he wanted, and the Carousel orchestra had an original string count of five stands of first violins, two stands of seconds violins, two stands of violas, two stands of cellos, and two double basses.12 While this was an unusually large string section for a Broadway
theater, they were balanced out by proportionally large wind and brass sections. Scoring for saxophones in the 1940s was becoming more common in Broadway pit orchestras, and was a very quick way for the audience to know if it was listening to a musical
comedy. Carousel did not use saxophones, employing instead a woodwind section of two flutes (doubling piccolo), oboe (doubling English horn), two clarinets, bass clarinet, and
10. For a detailed explanation of Sirmayʼs role in the editing of Rodgers and Hammerstein piano-vocal scores, see Pomahac, interview, 68.
11. Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages (New York: Random House, 1975), 239.
12. Jon Conrad, Correspondence with Ted Chapin (New York: Williamson Music, Inc., 2008), 622.
bassoon―a common setup for operetta and book musicals in the 1940s. The group was rounded out by percussion (one player), harp, and a compliment of nine brass players— three horns, two trumpets, three trombones, and tuba.13 With a total of forty players, the Carousel orchestra came close to the timbrel capabilities of a symphony orchestra. The
first few rows of seats of the St. James Theatre had to be removed in order to
accommodate them. This many musicians in a Broadway show is almost unheard of today, yet Rodgers’s success gave him the clout to give the audiences the aural experience he wanted them to have, because in those days the “composer was king.”14
Don Walker, who until that point was known mostly as a jazz arranger, might have seemed a strange fit for so serious a musical play. But Walker was inspired by the story and by Rodgersʼs score, and thought it should have its own operatic “character and sound.”15 Robert Russell Bennett also praised Walkerʼs work on Carousel in his own
memoir (p. 196), and Walker himself thought of it as the pinnacle of his long career as a Broadway orchestrator, and said as much in a 1955 letter to Rodgers.16 Yet as Walker
says, his symphonic orchestration was inspired by Rodgersʼs music, and he was simply highlighting a rich score that already stood apart from other musicals of its time.
13. Every Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical after Carousel employs at least eight brass players, which is considerably larger than most brass sections of pit orchestras today.
14. Pomahac, interview, 48.
15. Conrad, Correspondence with Ted Chapin, 628–29. 16. Suskin, The Sound of Broadway Music, 360.
II
EARLY DRAFTS OF CAROUSEL
Given the economic pressures and deadlines of pre-Broadway tryouts, it would be easy to assume that many of the musical numbers in Carousel were the result of hasty decisions made on the fly during a turbulent rehearsal period. Yet a close examination of Rodgersʼs manuscripts reveals a finely honed musical structure from the earliest known drafts, well before rehearsals started.
The Richard Rodgers Collection, housed at the Library of Congress, contains holograph sketches, manuscripts, and rehearsal copies of each number. Full conductor scores were also available from the individual collections of Don Walker and Robert Russell Bennett. While many of Rodgersʼs earliest drafts and sketches had no date, the piano-vocal rehearsal copies (fashioned by anonymous employees) were dated with stamps around March and April 1945. Rodgers’s autobiography confirms that most of the early drafts of numbers were composed between November 1944 and February 1945.17
These next four sections examine the evolution of Carousel’s musical numbers at various stages of completion. A comparison of Rodgersʼs sketches, piano-vocal rehearsal copies, orchestral scores, Sirmayʼs published piano-vocal score, the newly restored score, and several recordings reveals several interesting details that document the compositional process. This section compares Rodgersʼs early drafts with the published versions of four numbers: “The Carousel Waltz,” Julie and Carrieʼs opening duet “Mister Snow,” Billy and Julieʼs duet “If I Loved You,” and Billyʼs “Soliloquy.” These four numbers portray
Carousel at its most sophisticated, highlighting Rodgersʼs aesthetic approach and
illuminating what made Carousel unique.
2.1. Prologue (“The Carousel Waltz”)
One of Carouselʼs major numbers—the most major in terms of how much plot it covers—isnʼt sung at all.
—Swain, The Broadway Musical
In 1944 Paul Whiteman convinced administrators of the NBC Symphony Orchestra to commission instrumental works from various composers in America. A concert was to be produced in Central Park that spring; composers would receive an advance on their commissions in exchange for performance rights by the NBC Symphony Orchestra for one year. Along with such notable composers as Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinsky, and Béla Bartók, Richard Rodgers was commissioned to write an instrumental piece. It seems that he accepted the commission but soon realized that the music was better suited for
Carousel so he declined the Whiteman project, since the performance rights would have
to be given up during any Broadway run.18
Although there are no drafts of the Whiteman commission, the composer left behind an early sketch, a draft, and an early piano-vocal copy of “The Carousel Waltz.” Don Walkerʼs full orchestral score still exists, but the only evidence of Robert Russell Bennettʼs original arrangement survives on the original cast recording, which cut two-thirds of the original piece so that it could fit on two sides of a 78-rpm record.
18. Some themes from “The Carousel Waltz” show up as early as 1934 in Rodgersʼs film musicals. It was not uncommon for Rodgers to recycle his own material, especially from film to stage. See Pomahac, “Restoration Notes,” 592.
Rodgers proved that the “overture can be a number unto itself rather than a collection of the later tunes.”19 The first fifty measures can be thought of as a prelude, until the
libretto instructs the on-stage pantomime to begin at mm. 51, when the main theme is played by the orchestra. The waltz accompanies the entire community bustling around on stage (which the libretto clearly distinguishes as pantomime and not choreography) as they enjoy the carnival atmosphere: jugglers, bear trainers, and a carnival barker.20
Eventually the pantomime shifts focus to Billy and Julieʼs brief interaction. Table 2 shows the complete structure of “The Carousel Waltz.”
Table 2. Form and Harmonic Structure in “The Carousel Waltz”21
Measure Section / Theme Key
INTRODUCTION
m. 1 intro (slower version of main theme) D (major)
m. 27 transition to main theme (same as m.83) G (over dominant pedal) EXPOSITION (pantomime begins on stage)
m. 51 main theme A D major
m. 67 main theme B F major
m. 83 main theme C G (over dominant pedal)
m. 99 main theme A D major
m. 113 transition to second theme D major SECOND THEME
m. 121 second theme – A (with spirit) G major
m. 137 second theme – B G minor / major
m. 153 second theme – A G major
19. Scott McMillin, The Musical As Drama (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), 128.
20. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Carousel libretto, (New York: Williamson Music, Inc., 1975), 5.
21. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Carousel piano-conductor score, ed. Richard E. Haggerty (New York: Williamson Music, Inc., 1978), 5–18.
m. 171 transition to variation 2 G minor DEVELOPMENT
m. 179 variation 1 – A (Broadly) F major
m. 195 variation 1 – B B-flat minor
m. 211 variation 1 – A F major
m. 227 transition to variation 2 F major m. 235 variation 2 – A (leggiero) G major m. 251 variation 2 – (extended version) G major
m. 271 variation 2 – B B minor
m. 291 variation 2 – A G major
m. 323 deceptive coda - transition to main theme A over D pedal RECAPITULATION
m. 353 main theme – A D major
m. 361 main theme – B F major
m. 377 second theme – A (with ritard) D over dominant pedal A
m. 393 second theme – B G minor
m. 409 second theme – A (transition to Coda) D major CODA
m. 423 true coda with variation 3 as fanfare D (lydian)
m. 447 stretto ending D (lydian)
Although the listener might first think of theme-and-variations form, Table 2 makes the case for a traditional sonata-form structure, which is not used often in Rodgersʼs music. Rodgers gives it a Broadway flavor by having all of the melodic themes built on clear sixteen- and thirty-two-bar phrases. The juxtaposition and harmonic vocabulary give the piece a style that is entirely unique to Rodgers and certainly sets the mood for the rest of the show, which “sounds a lot like Budapest or Vienna and a little like a hurdy-gurdy at the same time.”22
Yet a comparison of Rodgersʼs early sketch, full draft, and the final published scores
reveals no changes in harmonic structure or form. It is not surprising that no transposition was needed, since it is purely instrumental music, whereas almost every vocal number in the show went through several iterations of different keys depending on singers. What is notable is that the musical form and phrasing did not mutate over time. Most instrumental music (underscoring, scene-change music, dance music, and even overtures) suffers cuts and alterations—some major, some insignificant. It would be highly unusual for a seven-minute piece set to stage-pantomime not to have one measure cut from early drafts all the way through to the Broadway closing. The fact that Rodgers penciled in “Intro Liliom” above his first sketch (indicating a date before the title Carousel was chosen) confirms that the waltz came very early in the creative process, making it plausible that the majority of it had indeed been intended for the Whiteman commission, and that he refused to have any of it end up cut or altered.
One of the most interesting inconsistencies lies in the opening eighteen measures. All of Rodgersʼs early manuscripts have a single melodic line harmonized by tonic and dominant chords alternating every two measures underneath. Yet in Sirmayʼs published piano-vocal score the opening melody is coupled with the same melodic figure
transposed a minor sixth below. This coupling is then coupled again eight measures later when the phrase repeats, this time transposed down a major thirteenth. For 1945 this was a bold stroke indeed. The first coupling is played by the flute in D major and piccolo in F-sharp major. Together they use a set of five pitches at a time—D, E, F-sharp, G-sharp, and A-sharp in mm. 3–10. The bassoons and horn join in mm. 11–17, using the same set of pitches. This pitch-class set represents a whole-tone scale—creating augmented harmonies, which is a very distinct and eerie sound after two D major chords. This eerie harmony instantly evokes tension and drama, setting the stage for the opening pantomime
scene and for the show in general. The audience knows right away that this will not be the traditional lighthearted musical comedy. The original melody is beautiful in its simplicity, yet the augmented harmonies provide a lack of resolution, perfectly foreshadowing Billy and Julieʼs own tragic narrative.
Example 1. Rodgers, “Carousel Waltz,” from Carousel piano-conductor score, mm. 1–18.23
This not-insignificant addition made it into the original cast album and the 1945 published piano-vocal score, which we can assume to have been closely supervised and approved by the composer. But when did the change take place, and who suggested it?
23. © 2010 by Imagem, C.V. Material contained herein, in a different form. ©1945 by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
The history is complicated further by the fact that Littauʼs conductor score had the original melody printed with the couplings penciled in, but a perfect fifth above the original melody!24 This implies two possible scenarios for how the augmented
harmonization arose. It could have simply been suggested in rehearsal by a member of the music staff. But given the detail of Rodgers’s early sketches, as we see from the musical examples below, it seems uncharacteristic for so significant a change to have been added so late in rehearsals.
The more likely scenario is that the couplings were consciously added late in rehearsals to mimic the sound of an out-of-tune merry-go-around. The markings in Littauʼs conductor score confirm that they had experimented with different
harmonization, and although the augmented couplings can be heard in Bennett's
orchestration on the original cast recording, we don’t know how or when they made into Sirmay’s piano-vocal score or the pit parts. Pomahac makes the important point that “original pit [orchestra] parts … actually reflect the closing night of the show, and not the opening night.”25 While the current documents make it impossible to pinpoint the
moment of genesis of the melodic couplings, it seems certain that Rodgers himself regarded them as a signature discovery.
Rodgersʼs earliest sketches also reveal two different versions of the main theme. The first variation of the main theme occurs at mm. 67–82, when the tonal center briefly shifts to F major. In Rodgersʼs first complete draft there are clear dotted-eighth-and-sixteenths at the beginning of mm. 69, 71, and 72. When this figure is recapitulated in mm. 363, 365, and 366, the music is identical to the first iteration, yet the early draft uses two
24. Pomahac. “Restoration Notes,” 592. 25. Pomahac, interview, 70.
eighth notes instead of a dotted-eighth-andsixteenth. Was this deliberate on Rodgersʼs part, or a hasty oversight then replicated by copyists and arrangers?
Example 2. Rodgers, “The Carousel Waltz” of Carousel, mm. 67–81, melody.26
a. Early draft, mm. 67–81.
b. Published version, mm. 67–81.
In the earliest sketch, Rodgers uses the rhythmic figure in ex. 3b in mm. 67–81, but does not write out the recapitulation, leaving in its place instructions for repeating the same material from m. 51. Then in his first complete draft, he writes out the
recapitulation completely, where the rhythms in the recapitulation are clearly different from the first iteration. The inconsistency is further complicated in a rehearsal copy that has the rhythms as two eighth notes played in the exposition and recapitulation, which
26. © 2010 by Imagem, C.V. Material contained herein, in a different form. ©1945 by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
ultimately ended up in Walkerʼs full score and Sirmayʼs published piano-vocal score. But a close examination of the rehearsal copy will reveal a faint “dot” on the eighth notes in mm. 69–72, with what appears to be an even fainter second beam on the following eighth note, making it the dotted-eighth-and-sixteenth rhythm from the first complete draft. There is no such dot or beam in the recapitulation of this figure, leading us to believe that Sirmay and Walker got it wrong, and Rodgers intended the different rhythms.
But the question of motivation remains. Was he being deliberate? One possible solution is to assume that Rodgers wanted the tempo faster for the recapitulation. An increase in tempo would make the dotted-eighth-and-sixteenth rhythm barely
distinguishable from two eighth notes, and therefore unnecessary.27 This would certainly
be appropriate from a musical perspective, and fitting for the dramatic action onstage, which at that point is reaching a climax with Billy and Julieʼs first encounter. Even if Rodgers does not indicate this tempo change explicitly in the score, it would imply that his discrepancy in rhythm is not so much an error as it is a clue to the overall arc of the piece.
2.2. Julie and Carrie Sequence: “Mister Snow”
One might expect, for so operatic an opening as the fantastic music with pantomime, that a true song would follow in short order. Yet what follows is a lengthy and non-musical dialogue that re-introduces Julie, Carrie, and Billy, as well as Mrs. Mullin, Mr. Bascombe, and two policemen. Once the male characters have left, Carrie poses a series
of questions to Julie that flows right into song. At first their dialogue is spoken in rhythm over orchestral accompaniment, but when Julie declines to answer any specifics, Carrie starts singing with a verse of “Youʼre A Queer One, Julie Jordan.” After more
underscored dialogue, we hear Carrie sing about her own relationship in “His Name Is Mister Snow.” Yet this is merely an introduction to another song,“When I Marry Mister Snow.” Table 3 clarifies this structure.
Table 3. Form and Harmonic Structure in “Julie and Carrie Sequence”28
Measure Section / Theme Key: Draft Pub. scores Part 1: “Youʼre A Queer One, Julie Jordan”
m. 1 intro (Carrie speaking with music”) A G
m. 11 “Youʼre A Queer One” 1st verse D G
m. 26 “weaving” theme D G
m. 50 “Youʼre A Queer One” 2nd verse D G
m. 58 underscoring (Youʼre a Queer One) (did not exist yet) G Part 2: “His Name Is Mister Snow”
m. 66 “His name is Mister Snow” (1st verse) D G
m. 75 “An almost perfect beau” D G
m. 88 “The fust time he kissed me” (bridge) D G
m. 93 “Last night he spoke quite low” D G
m. 105 “Next moment we were promised!” D G
m. 113 “When I Marry Mister Snow” (refrain) D G m. 125 “Then itʼs off work to weʼll go” 2nd verse D G
m. 137 “Heʼll carry me ʼcross the threshold D G m. 145 “Then Iʼll kiss him so heʼll know” D G
Here two main songs are woven into one large musical sequence. By the end of the number the audience does not feel that itʼs been sitting through two songs, each with multiple verses, refrains, and bridges: the effect is one of effortlessness. One of the reasons the three sections of the song flow together so smoothly is the ease with which Rodgers navigates us in harmony and rhythm. The entire sequence does not stray far from its tonal center, and there is virtually no change in tempo or metrical modulation (except for the “mill weaving” section in m. 26). This lack of metric or harmonic variation, while pleasing to some, serves to establish a lack of dramatic tension with the character of Carrie and the fiancé she is dreamily describing. According to McMillin, singing “forty-some measures about ʻHis name is Mr. Snowʼ has been the verse to a chorus that this loquacious Carrie has been leading up to, Carrie and the orchestra. When it finally arrives, the ‘Mr. Snowʼ song has great piquancy. The way is prepared for something solemn and grand, which is how Carrie thinks her marriage will be, and yet the tune itself is slightly beautiful and utterly conventional―what the marriage will actually be, at best. Finally she has the AABA structure under control. The drama is about finding that structure as much as it is about these young people falling in love.”29
Besides the rehearsal-copy versions, Rodgers left behind one early draft that was sketched out in the key of D major, a perfect fourth lower than the key of G major, which was eventually decided on for the final published vocal score. For vocalists, this is a
significant change in key. This most likely was changed once the role of Carrie had been cast—a common practice in musical theater. Carrie had originally been envisioned as a mezzo-soprano, as was the custom for most comic side roles in musicals. Although Carrie and Enoch Snow provide the bulk of comic relief in Carousel, their relationship functions primarily as a contrast to Billy and Julie’s relationship, rather than just
lighthearted comic relief. Jean Darling—the original Carrie—was more a soprano than a mezzo soprano, and one possibility is that the authors wanted this contrast between Julie and Carrie to be more subtle, and by casting them with a similar vocal type, the
difference is more subtextual. Although seemingly genuine in spirit, Carrieʼs music does not carry the jolt that Julieʼs—and Billyʼs— does. Their numbers are much more
sophisticated, matching the complexity of their own inner turmoil and train of thought. Aside from the original key signature, the early draft is virtually identical to the published vocal score, with two minors exceptions. The first difference is that he did not include the underscoring in mm. 58–65, but left specific instructions for “dialogue to be inserted.” The other difference is that the final verse of Carrieʼs “When I Marry Mister Snow” contains a first and second ending in Rodgersʼs early draft. Although this implies a second verse for Carrie, there were no additional lyrics written underneath the
accompaniment to the first time through. Early drafts of Hammersteinʼs libretto also lacked a second verse, so one possibility is that the authors felt the number was long enough already (even with conservative tempos, the number clocks in at almost six minutes). While this is relatively long for an opening musical number, itʼs barely half as long as the next scene.
2.3 Scene Billy and Julie: “If I Loved You”
Probably the singular most important moment in the revolution of contemporary musicals.
—Stephen Sondheim30
Referred to by many as simply “the Bench Scene,” Rodgersʼs earliest known draft of this is simply named “SCENE: BILLY AND JULIE – IF I LOVED YOU,” which lets us know that he was thinking of these as musical scenes early on. Yet within each section the lyrical verses and phrases are structured so neatly that we canʼt help but feel weʼre listening to an old-fashioned, traditional thirty-two-bar Broadway song. Here is a chart of the overall structure of the scene.
Table 4. Form and Harmonic Structure in “Bench Scene” from Carousel31
Measure Section / Theme Key: draft pub. scores Part 1: Youʼre A Queer One, Julie Jordan (reprise)
m. 1 orchestral intro (“Youʼre a queer one”) F-sharp G m. 9 Billyʼs 1st verse (“Youʼre a queer one”) G A-flat
m. 16 Julieʼs 1st verse (“You couldnʼt take”) G A-flat
m. 26 Billyʼs 2nd verse (“Youʼre a queer one”) E-flat A
N/A Billyʼs 3rd verse (“Do you love me?”) D (cut)
m. 45 Julieʼs 2nd verse (“Iʼm never gonna marry”) G A-flat
m. 53 underscoring (“Youʼre a queer one”) (did not exist yet) D-flat
30. Meryle Secrest, Stephen Sondheim (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), 255. 31 . Rodgers and Hammerstein, Carousel piano-conductor score, 33–51.
m. 61 Julieʼs 3rd Verse (“When I worked in the”) D G
Part 2: If I Loved You
m. 1 Julieʼs Verse (“If I Loved You”) C D-flat m. 37 underscoring (“If I Loved You”) C D-flat m. 49 Billyʼs 1st verse (“You canʼt hear a sound”) C C
m. 81 Billyʼs 2nd verse (“Thereʼs a hell of a lot”) C C
m. 105 Julieʼs interlude (“Thereʼs a feathery cloud”) C (w/ lyrics) C (underscore) m. 118 Billyʼs 3rd verse (“Kinda scrawny and pale”) D E-flat
m. 146 Billyʼs verse (“If I Loved You”) C D-flat m. 182 orchestral coda (“If I Loved You”) (did not exist yet) D-flat
The scene has two large-scale divisions: the first half being a reprise (with variations) of “Youʼre A Queer One, Julie Jordan” (this time sung by Billy instead of Carrie) which ultimately leads into “If I Loved You.” Rodgers even designates in his early draft when we have reached the song proper, and his designation is faithfully copied into the published scores.
Underneath this large two-part structure lie many different verses and smaller divisions, each of which is perfectly constructed and balanced in its own right. The first half of the song functions much like “Youʼre A Queer One, Julie Jordan” earlier in the act. Instead of launching into his own monologue, Billy keeps cajoling Julie with the same tune for more information about her romantic history. Once she perplexes him enough with her quixotic views on life, she finally sings her conditional love-song “If I Loved You” (strikingly similar in poetic conceit to “People Will Say Weʼre In Love” from Oklahoma!). In the same way that “Youʼre A Queer One, Julie Jordan” served as a
prelude for “His Name Is Mister Snow,” here it serves as a preamble to “If I Loved You,” the centerpiece of the Bench Scene.
After Julie has bared her soul with “If Loved If You,” Billy finally opens up with his own innermost thoughts at m. 49, reflecting on nature and manʼs insignificant role in the universe. The paean he sings here “is the first insight into the complexity of Billyʼs character and the course that this relationship will take.”32 This section eventually and
inevitably develops into his own verse of “If I Loved You.” When Billy finishes singing, the orchestra continues underscoring the remainder of the scene, until he and Julie kiss. The final few moments are not what one expects: instead of a reprise of the tune with the two singers in climactic vocal harmony ending on a dominant-to-tonic chord progression, Rodgers finishes with an orchestral climax on an exciting Neapolitan cadence—a fitting finale to an epic scene that lets the audience know the fate of these two lovers is now sealed.
One way Rodgers deftly takes us through this long musical sequence is with
modulation. Each time he changes keys, he grabs the audienceʼs attention, suggesting a shift in content, narrative voice, or mood. Rodgers deals with this so elegantly that we realize only in retrospect that a new song is underway. Joseph Swain points out that the “harmonization of this song is not the only agent of its expression” and that the “subtlety of melodic phrasing … shows yet another advance from Oklahoma!, whose tunes are built on clear four-bar phrases through and through.”33
There is no major difference in overall harmonic and formal structure between Rodgersʼs undated early draft and the final published scores, but a number of changes
32. Swain, The Broadway Musical, 130. 33. Ibid., 123.
took place before opening night. When the copyist created piano-vocal scores of this number for the rehearsal pianist, most of the sections were eventually transposed up a half step. The strings begin in the key of G instead of F-sharp, and from there on maintain a similar key outline for most of the scene, save for a few interesting exceptions. At mm. 26, Billyʼs second verse was transposed up a tritone from E-flat to A. This creates a modulation from Julieʼs verse, now in A-flat, to A for Billyʼs verse, which gives a playful and jeering quality between the two characters, and has a feeling that the stakes are being raised throughout the scene.
Several sections of music and lyrics were cut and replaced. One of the differences between the draft and published score is that Billy originally had a third verse of “Youʼre A Queer One, Julie Jordan.” The lyrics were originally as follows:
BILLY: (singing) Do you love me? Julie Jordan. JULIE: (spoken) No.
BILLY: (sings) Then explain just what youʼre doinʼ here with me. Whyʼd you stay here in the first place?
JULIE: (sings) I like to watch [fermata] the moon upon [fermata] the sea.34
These lyrics and accompaniment were cut entirely before the Broadway opening, and the scene went straight into Julieʼs third verse “Iʼm never gonna marry.” However, after Julieʼs verse, a short stretch of spoken dialogue was inserted with another eight bars of “Youʼre A Queer One” for underscoring. Without Billyʼs third verse, we transition right into Julieʼs third verse at m. 61. Table 4 shows that this section was originally in the key of D major, and transposed up a perfect fourth to the key of G major. The equivalent
34 . © 2010 by Imagem, C.V. Material contained herein, in a different form. ©1945 by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
section in “Youʼre A Queer One, Julie Jordan” employed an identical transposition. This is not surprising, as the higher key is more naturally suited for the ingenue role of Julie. Both verses of “If I Loved You” were transposed up a half-step from C to D-flat, yet Billyʼs other verses at mm. 49 and 81 were kept in C. Although the key was not changed, when Billy sings “On a night like this I start to wonder / what life is all about” in m. 71 the vocal melody was altered and the accompaniment stayed the same—a rare occurrence for Rodgers. The original melody rather plaintively stays in his lower register, ending on a B below the treble clef. The melody in the final version dramatically leaps up a minor-seventh interval, and ends on a B in the treble clef. This final version certainly has a more dramatic arc, which seems to fit the epic nature of Billyʼs reflections.
Perhaps the most interesting alterations occur in m. 105, right after Billyʼs ode to nature. Julie answers his second verse with a verse of her own, closely mimicking Billyʼs melody.
Example 4. Rodgers, “If I Loved You,” draft, 11–12, Richard Rodgers Collection.35
35. © 2010 by Imagem, C.V. Material contained herein, in a different form. ©1945 by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
The original section exists in Walkerʼs full score, but presumably never made it to the New York opening. Rodgers also left behind a very rough sketch that was included with the early draft of the number. Written on a separate manuscript paper he maps out
twenty-seven measures of a melody with Roman numerals for chord progression beneath, titled “2 Little People.” Above the melodic sketch are six measures of what appears to be an even earlier version of Billyʼs verse at m. 49, but with a different accompaniment.
Example 5. Rodgers, “Two Little People,” sketch included with “If I Loved You,” Richard Rodgers Collection.36
None of Hammerstein’s records allude to any lyrics titled “Two Little People,” so it is difficult to ascertain whether Rodgers was intending to set the pre-existing lyrics to this new melody, or to expand the music to this scene even further.
One final difference between Rodgersʼs draft and the published scores is a variation
36. Rodgers was often inconsistent in sketches with his designation of upper- and lower-case Roman numerals. © 2010 by Imagem, C.V. Material contained herein, in a different form. ©1945 by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
on the lyrics that Billy sings as a lead-in to his verse of “If I Loved You.” Originally he sang “But I knew I would be / like you said youʼd be with me,” later changed to “Yet somehow I can see / just exactly how Iʼd be.” This is a subtle yet important change. The original lyric has Billy directly referencing how his conditional state of love would be exactly the same as Julieʼs. The final lyric simply repeats exactly what Julie sings before her own verse of “If I Loved You.” The difference is minuscule, yet the effect is
noticeable. Not only is Billy about to sing the same love song back to Julie, but the new lyric makes it ambiguous as to whether he is consciously deciding to repeat Julieʼs own song back to her, or if this song was just an expression of his views on love in general. This ambiguity lend a charming innocence to Billyʼs character, as well as to his song, and it ends up transforming the tentative beginnings into a full, unconditional love scene—a perfect example of Hammersteinʼs lyrical and dramatic brilliance at work.
After this moment, Rodgers draft simply instructs the copyist to take the refrain from “If I Loved You.” The orchestral underscoring and climax that concluded the scene must have been added in rehearsals.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect is this most famous of duets never has even a moment of vocal harmony. (In fact, thereʼs almost no duet harmonizing anywhere in the show.) For a musical with such operatic ambitions it is intriguing that Rodgers and Hammerstein seemed so disinterested in small-ensemble work. Being able to have two or more characters express thoughts at the same time is something unique to music.
Carouselʼs principal characters never express their thoughts at the same time—they only
alternate. Only the chorus is given the opportunity to sing together (and almost always in unison). This aspect seems fitting for these people, who live a simple lifestyle in a small New England coastal town.
2.4 “Soliloquy”
This musical scene has long been renowned for its elaborate form, changing textures, and its ability to reflect a number of emotional changes. While this is true of any of the extended scenes in Carousel, “Soliloquy” is exceptional only in that it is for a single character.
—Joseph Swain, The Broadway Musical
One of the functions of the Bench Scene is to build the action and music up to Billyʼs grand “Soliloquy.” This number is a prime example of the way Carouselʼs score so eloquently interjects itself into the action. In the “Rodgersʼs and Hammerstein tradition,” a character “had an emotion and sang about it … although the ʻSoliloquyʼ in Carousel is a study in ambivalence. It allows for dramatic contrast.”37
Rodgersʼs first known draft of this number is titled “Soliloquy” and consists of mostly melodic sketches, with occasional harmonies written in. He also left a more complete draft with lyrics and accompaniment fully realized. Table 5 chronicles the evolution of the various drafts of “Soliloquy.”
Table 5. Form and Harmonic Structure in “Soliloquy”38
Measure Section / Theme Key: Sketch 2nd Draft Pub. Scores Part 1: “My Boy Bill”
(insert) orchestral intro39 N/A N/A F-sharp
37. Secrest, Sondheim, 256.
38. Rodgers and Hammerstein, Carousel piano-conductor score, 104–18.
39. This introduction (which was lost at some point) is the first five measures of “Youʼre A Queer One, Julie Jordan,” arranged for string quartet. See Pomahac, “Restoration Notes,” 599.
m. 1 “I wonder what heʼll think” A minor A minor B minor m. 21 allegretto “Iʼll teach him” A minor A minor B minor m. 37 “My Boy Bill” 1st verse G major G major G major
m. 73 con moto (6/8) G major G major G major m. 109 “My Boy Bill” 2nd verse G major G major G major
m. 147 Piu mosso “Iʼll be damned” A minor A minor A minor m. 162 “I can see him when heʼs 17”F (mixolydian)F (mix.) F (mix.)
Part 2: “My Little Girl”
m. 185 reprise of 1st verse (dialogue) A minor A minor B minor
(insert) “When I have a daughter N/A F major F major m. 205 “My Little Girl” F major F major F-major m. 228 Coda “I gotta get ready” C major C major B-flat major
Like the Bench Scene and Julie and Carrieʼs Sequence, “Soliloquy” is constructed on two passages that could be detached as separate songs. One is about the possibility of his “boy Bill” and the other about his “little girl.”40 We have seen now this two-part structure
in more than half the musical numbers in Carousel. It is present in Julie and Carrieʼs Sequence, the Bench Scene, “June Is Bustinʼ Out All Over,” “When The Children Are Asleep,” “This Was A Real Nice Clambake,” and the sequence leading up to “Whatʼs The Use Of Wondʼrinʼ.” The exceptions are Jiggerʼs ode to the sailorʼs life, “Blow High, Blow Low,” Billyʼs solo in the afterlife, “Highest Judge Of All,” and Nettie Fowlerʼs anthem, “Youʼll Never Walk Alone,” which all fit snugly within the traditional thirty-two-bar structure.
One of the main differences between the early and later versions of the number is a short verse between mm. 204 and 205 that was inserted and then removed from
Rodgers’s second draft.41 After Billy comes to the realization that his chances of having a
daughter are equally probable, he sees himself as boasting about his girl to his drinking buddies. Only twelve measures long, this insert serves as connective tissue between the two main sections of Part 2: the reprise of first verse and “My Little Girl” proper.
Although the vocal line does not have the same melodic lilt as the rest of the number and the accompaniment is harmonically and rhythmically static, on a larger scale it adds more weight to the second half of the number, creating a better of balance.
41. The section, sung by John Raitt in the original Broadway production, is included as optional in the restored version of the show.
Example 6. Rodgers, excerpt from “Soliloquy,” insert included with sketch, Richard Rodgers Collection.42
This material is completely absent from the sketch, the second draft, and the piano-vocal rehearsal score. Rodgers included a separate insert into the second draft with
42. It is unknown when the harmony on the fourth beat of m. 3 was changed from A-minor to a G-A-minor. © 2010 by Imagem, C.V. Material contained herein, in a different form. ©1945 by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
instructions to the arranger and copyist to “leave space for 24 new bars.” Walker does not recall ever seeing the middle section of the “Soliloquy,” and it is not clear exactly when it was added or removed in the pre-Broadway try-out period.43 However, it was included in
the original cast recording, and consistently used by John Raitt (who created the role of Billy Bigelow) in later productions. Raitt recalls “that neither Rodgers nor Hammerstein gave him a reason for inserting or removing it.”44
“Soliloquy” is the only vocal number in Carousel to make frequent use of minor modes.45 Rodgers originally wrote the introduction in A minor and had it transposed up a
whole step to B minor for Raitt. This transposition resulted in an interesting harmonic relationship, because the end of the first two verses now arrives at a D-major cadence at mm. 35, which acts as a dominant to the upcoming verse of “My Boy Bill” in G major. This would not have happened had the introduction remained in A minor. This was surely intentional on the composerʼs part. Rodgers possessed an uncanny ability to change keys deftly in the middle of a number and not have it feel forced.
For the remainder of the number, the three versions of “Soliloquy” do not differ in key structure until the coda, which was lowered from C major to B-flat major for tryouts. The driving bass line and unusual harmonic progression starting in mm. 228 of the coda bears a marked resemblance to the end of Jud Fryʼs song “Lonely Room” from Oklahoma!. The similarities are not just musical: both characters sing a determined and hair-raising coda after soliloquizing about their dreams and desires. Although Jud Fry is a
misanthropic villain and Billy Bigelow an anti-hero, the manner in which Rodgers sets
43. Conrad, Correspondence with Ted Chapin, 629.
44. Pomahac, “Restoration Notes” from Carousel full score, 599.
45. The purely instrumental “Carousel Waltz” has many themes that frequently modulate in and out of minor modes. See pp. 13–14 for more detail.
their problems to music is similar. As Jud becomes even more determined to win Laurey’s hand, the music climaxes to a B-minor chord with a C-sharp suspension (realized with chilling orchestration by Bennett). Billy has a more heroic, yet desperate, resolution to provide for his unborn child, and his song ends with a brass fanfare in B-flat major. Both characters meet their fate by self-inflicted knife wounds—Jud accidentally and Billy intentionally.
Example 7. A comparison between endings of “Soliloquy” and “Lonely Room.”46
a. Rodgers, “Soliloquy” from Carousel, mm. 228–30.
b. Rodgers, “Lonely Room” from Oklahoma!, mm. 44–47.
46. © 2010 by Imagem, C.V. Material contained herein, in a different form. ©1945 by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, renewed. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
"Lonely Room" is the only number in Oklahoma! to begin in a minor key; likewise, “Soliloquy” is the only one in Carousel to begin in minor. Both of these numbers immediately distinguish themselves from other songs by using a clashing minor-second interval in the opening vamp. This lack of harmonic stability lends uncertainty as to where each song might venture, and the many different scenarios Billy psychologically projects have an equivalent musical landscape, wandering through many different keys, meters, and styles. Ultimately, though, Hammerstein deserves equal credit for the
dramatic scenario he provided for Billy, which Rodgers’s music perfectly reflects. By the end of the song he is not an inherently different person than when he started, but the journey he takes in just 253 measures is electrifying.
III
THE LEGACY OF CAROUSEL
While the evolution of Rodgers’s score is interesting from a compositional
perspective, it also highlights the problems of preservation and authorial intent. There is no exact moment when the details of Carousel were “set in stone,” and like most
Broadway musicals, many elements changed not just before opening night, but also during the run of 890 performances. Well after the closing of the first Broadway
production, the show remains in a fluid state of change, and performers and audiences are as important as the original authors in the process of preserving Carousel’s history .
3.1 Carouselʼs Afterlife
Writer and director Jonathan Miller describes a phase for a work of art once it has “outlived [its] original creation and performance.”47 He calls this the “afterlife.” In his
book Subsequent Performances he applies this concept mostly to plays—particularly Shakespeare—but also suggests that it applies to any art. Once the people who saw an original performance have passed away—authors, performers, audiences—the work enters its afterlife. No living witnesses can describe the context in which the piece was
47. Jonathan Miller, Subsequent Performances. (New York: Elisabeth Sifton Books / Viking, 1986), 23.
created and existed. Written notation cannot preserve the precise contextual meaning and intention behind certain aspects of a piece.
Miller focuses on plays because they traditionally rely on texts not always intended for publication or later performance. Broadway musicals are particularly interesting
examples of this concept because they include multiple notations: music, dialogue, dance. This results in a collection of artifacts that rarely agree, and yet are the sources future generations must contend with. Regardless of their inconsistencies these texts and their living counterparts help us understand the context of a piece and the setting within which it was created and performed. The concept is particularly appropriate for Carousel, just now beginning to enter its afterlife.
But a Broadway show leaves the all-important original cast recording. Here story, characters, and ambiance can all be preserved in a single entity, and the recording gives the listener a rare glimpse into something that is not easily notated on page: style. In many ways a recording is all thatʼs left of a show after it closes. The unparalleled success of Oklahoma!ʼs original cast recording brought Rodgers and Hammersteinʼs songs into the living rooms of millions of Americans, setting a precedent for many other musicals. Rodgers and Hammerstein continued this trend with Carousel. The recording (although subject to cuts) did much to capture the most unique moments of Carouselʼs score. Table 6 lists the numbers included on the original record.
Table 6: Musical Numbers included on Carousel : Original Broadway Cast recording48
No. Title Length
1 Waltz Suite: Carousel 4:25
2 Youʼre A Queer One, Julie Jordan / Mister Snow 4:27
3 If I Loved You 4:23
4 June Is Bustinʼ Out All Over 3:50
5 When The Children Are Asleep 4:16
6 Blow High, Blow Low 1:28
7 Soliloquy 7:30
8 A Real Nice Clambake 2:27
9 Thereʼs Nothinʼ So Bad For A Woman / Whatʼs Use Of Wondʼrinʼ 4:24 10 Highest Judge of All / Youʼll Never Walk Alone 4:32
In 1945 the original cast album was first preserved on 78-rpm records, limiting the amount of music to 7:30 per disc (3:45 per side), thereby necessitating several cuts of entire numbers and significant cuts within numbers. The dance music was omitted. The first half of the Bench Scene (everything before “If I Loved You”) was cut. “Geraniums In The Winder” was cut as an introduction to the stone cutter sequence.49 The “Carousel
Waltz” had significant cuts as well, and almost every number recorded employed small cuts here and there.
The notable exception is Billyʼs “Soliloquy,” which is recorded without any cuts, clocking in at 7:30, exactly enough for two sides of a 78-record. It even reinstated the “When I have a daughter” verse that was ultimately cut from the production. This decision allowed the recording to feature Raitt as Billy Bigelow—easily the strongest voice of the cast—while simultaneously highlighting the number that sums up Carousel. Despite using cuts in many other numbers, the album featured a large portion of the
48 . Carousel Featuring Members of the Original Cast (John Raitt / Jan Clayton / Joseph Littau), MCA CD reissue MCAD-10799 (1945).
score. Although it was not as lucrative as Oklahoma!’s cast album, Carousel set the high standard for Broadway recordings to come.
Published scripts and scores present us with the authorsʼ basic instructions. But cast recordings provide a very different experience: interpretation. This adds a layer of nuance to a showʼs afterlife, and has the capacity to create expectations with an audience or performer. Audiences familiar with a cast album come into a live performance expecting the show to sound a certain way. This is certainly true of Carousel, which has generated over twenty cast recordings in the past six decades (including a film). The cast recording can provide a window on the original performersʼ interpretations of Carousel, but it cannot provide us with the motivations behind those interpretations.
3.2. Operetta or Broadway musical
Carousel is a Big Sing, the piece that truly tells us what a Rodgers and Hammerstein
show was: operetta by other means, those gala voices put to serious use.
—Ethan Mordden, Beautiful Morninʼ
The beauty and craft of Carousel are apparent. But does the show transcend the conventions of the genre? Although genre might seem irrelevant, it can signify many things—it tells us who performs the piece, who listens to the piece, and what values those people are assigning to a piece.
Carouselʼs original Broadway run ended 24 May 1947, and it wasn’t long until opera and light opera companies began producing the work. Since the 1950s there have
