Sondheim is famous for saying "Content dictates form," and he's especially good at complementing (or contrasting, if necessary) the lyric with the music. In this case, when a woman is worn down and weary, admitting to someone whom she's only just met that "times is hard," it certainly wouldn't much work for a big triumphant note at the final moment, would it?
I don't think so. And I agree with you, Chromolume, a Db would be the most logical -- and singable for Ms. Lansbury within her chest register.
But I remember hearing SWEENEY TODD for the first time as a teenager, and being so struck by the way the song ended. It was one of the first Sondheim scores that I'd ever heard and... well, I just wasn't used to endings like that. Right away, I knew that I was in the company of an unconventional storyteller who had tricks up his sleeve, and it set up a series of expectations for me that shaped the whole experience of listening to the score.
Yeah. All through that one E flat.
- GMB |
