Analyzing "Hurricane" from Hamilton
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ต.ค. 2024
- An analysis of one of the less famous but equally brilliant songs in Hamilton, "Hurricane," which features a hidden leitmotif: the same chords as The Battle of Yorktown (AKA The World Turned Upside Down), which are the reverse of the chords in My Shot. It also features a motif from "Wait For It," sung by Leslie Odom Jr as Aaron Burr. Music & Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
If you're interested in Hamilton, I'm teaching a three-week course on the impact of Hamilton over at the Broadway Maven! Check it out:
www.thebroadwa...
------
LINKS:
Patreon: / mateochavezlewis
Mailing list: www.mateochave...
Coaching: www.mateochave...
Contact: www.mateochave...
------
ABOUT THE CHANNEL:
Hi! My name is Mateo, I'm a professional musical theatre composer, splitting my time between Toronto & NYC right now.
On Thursdays on this channel, I post a video analyzing the music theory behind some of the great Broadway musicals of all time! In the past, I've analyzed works by Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown, Pasek & Paul, Jeanine Tesori, and Stephen Schwartz, just to name a few.
On Sundays on this channel, I post a video update of the progress I'm making on my writing projects, so you can follow along with the process as I create new musicals from scratch.
On Tuesdays on this channel, I post a video reacting to a performance by a star of musical theatre, discussing what makes them so amazing. For example, I recently recorded a video reacting to Aaron Tveit being cast in Sweeney Todd, despite the fact that he's not a baritone.
If this sounds like your vibe, don't forget to subscribe! ✨✨✨
------
Usually a TH-cam lurker but I had to take time to write a full length rambly comment on this video because it's such a geek out one for me.
Let me say you seem like a really incredible music director to work with, it's so refreshing to see somebody absolutely GEEKING OUT over the music they're playing! It's just got the spirit and joy for musical theatre that I love to see that is definitely infectious and makes a whole production better. If it weren't for the love of music and storytelling, nobody would be doing theatre - it certainly isn't the easiest area to make a living.
I grew up on rap music and have no formal music training - any music theory I know has been absorbed from doing shows after discovering musical theatre in adulthood. I found theatre via Hamilton, having come across the music incredibly randomly without realising it was a staged musical until after the fact! I fell in love with theatre enough to end up performing myself, and I'm now on the path of teach of teaching myself piano and how to read sheet music, and I'm finding theatre music is all I want to play when I'm learning this.
Even for a relatively uneducated person musically, you make the actual music theory concepts here really easy to understand.
You say Hamilton definitely has musical theatre language, and it's funny because having grown up on hip hop and rap music, I look back and realise some of my rap songs were the ones that really leaned into the drama of the art form - rappers really have a way of giving their voice so much character and dynamic range , even over the most basic of chord progressions. I think the joy of Hamilton is that it doesn't just do the incredible music theory, but it really leans into its form - the inflection, timbre and attack on all the notes tells so much, and it's why so much of the shows drama is readable on the cast album itself - the way each character attacks their notes can show aggression, desire, comedy, caution, patience and so on. The syncopation is so important as well - it's incredibly common for a rapper to syncopate their rhythm until the BAM BAM BAM!!!! moment when rapper and the instruments hit right on the beat together and it's sooo satisfying (can you tell I'm no good at music theory?)
I think that has a lot to do with how well Hurricane comes across, to the point where I'd actually be more hesitant to tell others to add it to their repertoire just because the vocal range isn't large - since rap uses so many unpitched notes, the other aspects of the voice become so much more important to give the music dynamic range. Its why some very talented musical theatre performers really struggle to sell performance Hamilton music in the same way. The buildup of Hurricane really requires the performer to sell the building tension in their delivery, and then absolute LET IT OUT on the words during the climax. The notes don't need to be high when they're giving so much emotion just in delivery! It's like a really levelled up version of the recitative - since you're not pitching you can really lean into the conversational aspect and show some incredible emotion in your voice that you can't really do the same when you're belting out a high A. Much incredible respect for the performers who absolutely BRING IT in the professional productions!
So so cool to hear your insights at the end here!! your analysis really reminded me of another video by the incredible TH-camr Sideways analysing the music of Sweeney Todd, and how the Dies Irae melody it gets chopped up and flipped upside down and backwards all throughout the show. We know Lin Manuel Miranda was very inspired by Sondheim, and I agree that the My Shot/Hurricane chord progressions being inverses of each other is definitely intentional! Such a great insight, props to you on your research.
Love to see your passion in making this videos! Always looking forward to more - if you want my suggestions I'd love to see something on the very underrated Amélie musical. "Halfway" from the London version (specifically the London one! ) shows such a heartbreaking amount of emotion while still being in a relatively simple song in C Major. "Stay" from the Broadway version is also incredible and has a really effective use of 6/4 and 5/4 meter to sell the moment of being just on the edge of something you really desperately want but feel like is JUST out of your reach.
Thanks again and all the best!
All I'm going to say is I'm glad I watched til the end
Just casually dropping the most insightful analyses. These are epic; you are so talented. Thank you!!!!
Thank YOU for watching!
Funny. I'm writing a musical about the wives of the American Revolution with a young Aaron Burr
GREAT ANALYSIS, Mateo! Never noticed how that motif is the melodic inverse of my shot. Great catch!
As a music tutor and harmony nerd, (4:27) - I'd like to respectfully disagree and perhaps bring up a perspective you haven't hear before. The B natural is far more at home in a D minor ( F = tonal centre) chord. Bb on the other hand, is what I call exoharmonic (outside the harmonic space) of F/Dm. Bb crucially, is the point of modulation. Try and play a Bb in a Dm chord, and it's no longer a Dm chord, is it?
The thing about Dorian is it's a vertical scale. A harmonic scale. A MODAL scale, meaning every note works to support the tonal centre which is F in this case. Look up tonal vs modal music or George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organisation if this seems interesting.
I totally agree that the B natural fits better as an extension of the D minor *chord*, especially in jazz theory -- but with regards to the *key signature* of D minor, playing a G major chord is definitely a depature from expectation, especially in a pop context where diatonic triads are the meat & potatoes of the style.
I'm not familiar with George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organisation though -- very curious to check that out!