Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim's SOMEWHERE Explored
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2019
- Producer/Composer EDWARD BARNES takes a deep dive into the song SOMEWHERE from “West Side Story”, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Featuring vintage film clips, recordings and an animated explanation of the music and lyrics, Barnes shows how the song was first created and why it’s become one of the most iconic songs of the American musical theater.
Songbook Station Host EDWARD BARNES is a composer/lyricist/producer whose work has been seen around the world, including productions on and off-Broadway, at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, L.A. Opera, Royal Welsh National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Children's Theater Company of Minneapolis, on the Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight and Parma/Naxos record labels, shows for SiriusXM and WYNC radio and many more. A Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, he is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School.
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Beautiful! "Somewhere" has always been one of my favorite pieces of music mainly because, as a gay kid growing up in the 1950s, I totally resonated with the aspiration of a time and place for us, someday, somewhere. I never knew this was a ballet in the original production, and sung by Reri Grist offstage. Amazing! And not to forget that Bernstein, Robbins and Sondheim were themselves gay and perhaps composing to express their own aspirations.
When you are so good at what you do your phone in song becomes the emotional center of the whole show.
Thanks very much for this. I found it because I'm a Sondheim fan, but your use of the Beethoven, Strauss, and Tchaikovsky elements frankly blew me away. It's still Bernstein's song, but I can appreciate it more now knowing about those.
Thanks Mike! It's really an amazing song, and glad you enjoyed learning more about it in the video. Appreciate the comment too!
So Bernstein took these melodies from the 3 classic composers to create Somewhere? Bernstein must have had extensive knowledge of the classics. Just trying to visualize all this.
I especially loved Tchaikovsky's progression.
How about the most obvious antecedent….Schumann
About Strange Lands and People (Von fremden Ländern und Menschen) kinderscenen op._15: it’s all about reclaiming a child’s innocent dream of a perfect world, a place of perfect love and acceptance implicitly very far from the brutality and cruelty of the real circumstance. Not only is the music nearly exactly the same as Bernstein’s, Schumann’s explicit programmatic content matches precisely the programmatic content of the West Side Story theme.
@@colleenwood2487 Yes!!
Brilliant analysis, without detracting from WSS creators. Like a wedding, "something old, something new, something borrowed." It takes genius to make it sound fresh.
The Beethoven, Strauss, and Tchaikovsky connection was truly mindblowing. I've known and listened to all the pieces mentioned dozens of times and never made the connection. Genius!
I always thought the slow movement of Bruckner's 6th Symphony (also conducted by Bernstein) was the source, but the connection was always somewhat unsatisfying because it only explained the 1st phrase, and the rhythm was different in the second measure.
Yours is so much better! It explains almost everything - most notes and all the rhythm.
How about the most obvious antecedent….Schumann
About Strange Lands and People (Von fremden Ländern und Menschen) kinderscenen op._15: it’s all about reclaiming a child’s innocent dream of a perfect world, a place of perfect love and acceptance implicitly very far from the brutality and cruelty of the real circumstance. Not only is the music nearly exactly the same as Bernstein’s, Schumann’s explicit programmatic content matches precisely the programmatic content of the West Side Story theme.
So great to have Mme Grist acknowledged as the first singer to sing this song!
gorgeous work! thank you so much! i remember my young teenage girl loving this incredible vocalizing of "Somewhere"! I so wanted to be a singer! Alas, was not to be!! I will watch and listen to your classes! Thank you, again! Tears touch my eyes hearing this masterpiece.♥️
Ohhhhhhhhmygod I can’t believe I caught onto something like this! I studied the Emperor Concerto at A-Level music, and had just the year before performed as Riff in a school production of WSS; I brought up the similarity of the motif with my music teacher (also the orchestra conductor) and she told me that I was completely off-base! Vindicated after 21 years…!
Hearing the song while seeing the original choreography is intensely moving. Thank you.
(Reri Grist made her operatic debut a little while after West Side Story and had an international opera career, one of the first African Americans to do so. I saw her at the Salzburg Festival in 1967; she was wonderful. I think it's significant that Bernstein chose a Black soprano to sing "Somewhere". The song resonates is so many ways, for so many people, and always will.
😅
Bbb😅v😅v😅😅g😅😅v😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅 BB😮😢😮😢😅😅😅😅
What a perfect way to show how this magnificent song was built. To realize what was behind the song makes it even more beautiful. Thank you.
also idk why but "Let's find a house in Scarsdale" got a chuckle out of me.
pssst ... me too but don't tell anybody, please?
When I was a young music student (decades ago), I asked one of my professors what he thought of Leonard Berstein's music. "Not much", he said, "He's an eclectic..." I was very disappointed, because I enjoyed his music, so much. Years later, after composing my own music and conducting and playing in hundreds of concerts, I realized we are all eclectics. We are the product of all we have experienced. Composers have been openly borrowing good ideas from other composers, just as when we do research and write, we filter through the ides we have assimilated and combine them with our own thoughts. I see nothing compromising about the incorporation of the musical thoughts of great composers or great writers or philosophers or anyone, for that matter. It is up to us to use what we have learned honorably (give credit where it is due) and contribute as artistically as we are able.
By the way, I enjoyed your presentation very much,
Fascinating. I didn't know the singer was a black opera singer until I saw 4:35 her and heard her sing. She has a beautiful voice. Reri Grist has had a standard-setting career in opera. All of this is amazing to have happened in the 1950s. Kudos to her and to Leonard Bernstein.
Finally, a WSS musical analysis that isn't just "look, there's a tritone! And there's another tritone!"
I guess it's true when they say "A good composer does not imitate; he steals." I've always loved Bernstein's music, haha.
It was Igor Stravinsky who said this. And he did! The Rake's progress is filled with ideas from Mozart.
Bernstein famously told Michael Tilson Thomas, only steal the good stuff.
I was wondering why nobody here was saying this. At least you had the guts. I often listen to old Star Trek music and wonder how Speilburg got away with stealing the music for his movie "Jaws".
I was enthralled by your brilliant exposition of this beautiful song, long a favourite of mine. I do wonder, though, how much Lenny was consciously aware that he was combining these fragments. I now have even more respect for Sondheim"s mastery of the English language. Thank you, a most informative and entertaining post.
Fascinating! I'm a Sondheim and Bernstein fan and this was wonderful to watch particularly now, trying to come to terms with Sondheim's passing.
That was really good. Leonard Bernstein once famously said, "It is impossible to write music that doesn't sound like something else." This is certainly no exception.
As a ballet dancer I know the music to Swan Lake well. I once got to be part of a stage production of West Side Story at La Scala in Milan, Italy and during rehearsals I would always say those three bars of Somewhere sounds like Swan Lake! I was sure it was Bernstein's inspiration. This confirms it for me and it's so interesting to learn about his other inspirations. There is a big difference between outright plagiarism of a piece of work and being inspired by parts of other people's work. Classical composers have been sampling long before sampling became a thing.
The deconstruction of the Somewhere is brilliantly illustrated and insightful. I never realized this phrases contributed to the main theme. Thank you!
This was such a great analysis and very interesting history! One of the things I love most about the song is just how absolutely simple the lyrics are. Sondheim is a true wordsmith and poet with a large vocabulary, but this song's lyrical simplicity just adds to the timeless aspect of it, in my opinion.
Edward Barnes - You're a genius.
For over sixty years I have known the song but for the first time you managed to get Leonard Bernstein's mind on how it was created and of course on the lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim's.
In one word - thank you
Actually that’s two words.
@@adscri
.....boooooo
😎😎😎
Bahaha@@adscri
Even after these many years, I think Somewhere has yet to find the best singer for it.
Loved seeing the original cast performing the dance. Very moving…thank you!
THANK YOU. this is why LB wouldn’t change one note to accommodate Sondheim’s lyrics. your analysis is so smart and respectful
I am 67 and heard this song for the very first time at 16. Through all these years it has been one of my favorites. Your analysis only proves that part of their genius came from a solid musical foundation. You made me feel as if I was taken on a voyage exploring the genealogy of this song by its makers. Thank you for enriching our lives.
Wow! " I've said repeatedly that I believe teaching is a sacred profession and that art is a form of teaching..." - Stephen Sondheim.
Winning formula! Please make more
This still makes me cry today! Edward Barnes, you are quite the genius.
First part: mind blown. Second part: as a singer, I ALWAYS appreciate when songs are singable. So many songs in a variety of genres are difficult simply for what vowels or parts of a word are expected to be sung well on certain notes. It’s a gifted person who can do that well to let the singer’s voice be at its best.
Thank E.B. for a great, insightful essay. Lenny's music was great, SS's lyrics were great but together they made magic.
I echo all the laudatory comments below. I was 12 years old when the Broadway show opened. We bought the cast album and I must have sung it a million times, knew all the songs by heart. I saw the 1961 movie when it first came out at Radio City Music Hall, and I saw Spielberg's magnificent version the first weekend. But I've never seen it on stage, and I'm so glad you not only gave us the background on the creation of the song, but also included a clip of it being danced to, not sung. That gives a whole different meaning to the song. I have to wonder why the films didn't place it there. Thank you so much for this.
YES!!! ANOTHER reason why these older "musical theatre" composers have it ALL OVER the current bunch... they knew theory inside and out... and they knew the GREAT composers works inside and out... heck... Leonard could play Stravinsky's Petrushka...
What a brilliant analysis, indicating how the mysterious creative process works sometimes. Hail to Leonard Bernstein's imagination aka talent.
A wonderful dissection on the song, and very interesting to see a fragment of the original ballet. You can tell Mr. Barnes really loves the source material.
My favorite song from WSS. It never fails to move me...
This is like acting out every composer's nightmare. The fear you're merely repeating what you've heard before is constant.
I’ve always felt those bars of Beethoven were just like Somewhere but didn’t think there might be a direct connection. Every composer is influenced by or unconsciously adopts what went before and, inevitably, snatches of music sound like others as there are only so many notes and chords and there are limits as to what can be sung or what works for an audience. West Side Story itself is a retelling of Romeo & Juliet, it’s an age old, universal story of thwarted first love. It is a classic itself in that it both borrows much from great, classical works while at the same time being highly innovative. It’s both cerebral and intellectual, and popular and emotional as well, the fusion of new American and classical European culture.
Of course ! tottaly agree with you
I'm two years late, but this probably showed up in my recs because I've been watching Sondheim stuff nonstop. I don't need to explain why.
I LOVE in depth explorations of music like this and this was so well done and enjoyable! New subscriber!
That was so interesting. One of my very fave songs of all time. Thank You
Thanks for this wonderfully executed video. On all levels. I'm a pianist, and the first time I heard the WSS score, in 1961, my ear said: Beethoven #5. Your video presentation was seamless. A total pleasure.
Absolutely brilliant analysis. I had noticed the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky melodies before. Your inclusion of the Strauss and the emphasis on the fact that it also includes undeniably Bernstein parts is fascinating. Thank you so much.
I always recognized the phrase when listening to the Emperor Concerto, but the addition of Strauss and Tchaikovsky was such a gift to fulfill the mystery. Thank you so much!
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants”.
How about the most obvious antecedent….Schumann
About Strange Lands and People (Von fremden Ländern und Menschen) kinderscenen op._15: it’s all about reclaiming a child’s innocent dream of a perfect world, a place of perfect love and acceptance implicitly very far from the brutality and cruelty of the real circumstance. Not only is the music nearly exactly the same as Bernstein’s, Schumann’s explicit programmatic content matches precisely the programmatic content of the West Side Story theme.
Edward, an excellent analysis. I have loved this song for decades but your analysis shed some new light . Thank you
I love this song! RIP Stephen Sondheim & Love this Theatrical Genius
Wow! Wow, wow, wow. Thanks so much for this.
Edward, you are an excellent teacher. I felt as if this was a logical, cohesive follow through of a “Young People’s Concert at Lincoln Center” hosted by Leonard Bernstein himself. Delightful and informative. Thank you. Be safe, and well!
That 's very interesting, thanks a lot for sharing!
Thank you so much for this wonderful analysis, and the video of the original show. !!!!!!
Bless you. and keep you. This is something else.
My favorite song from my favorite movie, and it’s been that way since I first saw it in 1960. The most beautiful melody ever written
Brilliantly exposed & makes me love it all more!!!
Wow! Fascinating. Edward, thank you! So enlightening and informative and helpful. And in a way, validating, or "giving permission" to me. (I'll explain.) I've been composing music for over 40 years, but so often I would hear parts of songs from others in my music and think, "Oh, I stole that part (subconsciously), I'll have to scrap that." I even majored in music in college--in one class I wrote what I thought was a pretty nice melody with a nice classical-sounding arpeggiated accompaniment in the bass. When the class critiqued it, someone said, "That's Neil Diamond's Song Sung Blue, just in a classical style." It was note for note, and I hadn't even realized it! I felt mortified, embarrassed, humiliated. Well, now I think I can give myself a little more freedom and not beat myself up so much and throw so much music away. I've written almost a whole musical, but have not played it for anyone for fear of them saying, "That's just so-and-so..." Thanks for giving me a new sense of belief and confidence. (I'll have to try and remember some of the many things I've scrapped now, too.)
But Song Sung Blue is itself borrowed from (or at least very similar to) Mozart's Piano Concerto 21, middle movement! Maybe that's actually where you got it.
This analysis made my evening! Thank you 🙏🏼
So moving. Thank you.
Enjoyed your analysis and Ms. Dench’s performance very much!
This is the one song i can almost play on the piano , and then i give up so i need to go back to just play 1 minute a day instead of none for months, so it is amazing how well you play all of this and sort out where this comes from , and it encourages me again, The depth of dissection of this one song with your whole deal is , fascinating, fun, stellar incredible wonderful
Excellent! Thank you!
This is a brilliant analysis. I learned so much from it. Many thanks!
Thank you. Loved it. More please. Please!!
That was amazing. Thank you.
brilliant, thank you so much!
Thank you for creating this and sharing it. I loved it. It makes so much sense to me.
Most excellently done. Thank you, Edward Barnes!
Thank you. That was amazing.
Super cool you did this , I love it! Thank you
Awesome, Amazing and lovely. Thank you!
Wonderful, thank you!
Fabulous! Thankyou so much for clarifying
My favorite song of my favorite musical. Thank you for this!
Brilliant! Thank you so much!
Brilliantly and flawlessly done. Thank you, Edward.
That was really terrific. Thank you very much.
Thanks for this precious lesson!
Thank you for this - while the new Spielberg film omits the somewhere ballet (sadly, because it is such a beautiful scene), having the icon Rita Moreno sing it on camera rather than off embues it with the universality that Bernstein intended - it is different, but it works. I hope all lovers of musical theater and WSS in particular see the new film and understand the message - needed now, more than ever. Music and dance, theater and film, draw us together. Just as Bernstein drew together these diverse phrases to create a song of peace. Bravi!
The 2021 movie did not do the song justice as it was supposed to encapsulate Tony and Maria's feelings for each other and not for an old widow of a minor character. Perhaps that's why the 2021 flopped because West Side Story is supposed to be centered around Tony and Maria just like Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and not on all the other supporting characters which Spielberg gave background stories, more screen time, more unnecessary dialogue.
@@rcbrascan Totally agree. The new movie, and especially "Somewhere" is so "woke" it's painful. Because Somewhere belongs to Tony & Maria (speaking universally), the theme ends the play, but why should it end the Spielberg movie, having been sung by Moreno's character?
🎹 So beautiful.
Wow, this is amazing! Thank you!!
Great teaching and musical insight! You have explained so much. Thank you.
Fascinating! Thank you Edward.
Plagiarists lifts parts from one artist; great masters steal from several artists; thanks for the background on this music. What a master class on music song composition. Somewhere sounds awesome it comes from amalgamation of several musical geniuses.
Fascinated by this..I’m not a musician but I think sub consciously I definitely was aware of the Tchaikovsky element. Somewhere is my favourite song of all time and I play it at least daily. As a Streisand mega fan, I obviously love her live version with Il Divo best but also like Michael Feinsteins version with the Israel Philharmonic. Thank you for this video…I love it even more now!
That was so great!
This was not only enlightening, but so much fun as well. Thank you 😊
Excellent analysis
Thank you for this such an amazing breakdown !!!
Excellent analysis! I have loved this song for most of my live, and now I have learned such a lot about it.
WOW THANK YOU FOR THIS! INCREDIBLE!
This is SO BRILLIANT! I loved the show and so much wanted to go backstage and get in the minds of these original geniuses. You made my day.
Made me cry ,❤️
Awesome video, thank you so much!
Excellent job.
Every young composer should watch this. It opens your eyes in so many ways.
Wonderful background info about a perfect and timeless song. Thanks.
Your incredible presentation brought the musical alive in a new way, and the creative collaboration of genius underpinning it all.
Amazing how, with all the notes out there, some melodic fragments come together in a way that the creative mind of one who has worked with those notes in other ways feels them emerge with even greater power and meaning now they they have become something beyond themselves....like people.
Fascinating!
Brilliant!
So glad I found your site. I look forward to seeing all your content.
Fascinating! I am sitting here bawling at seeing the original ballet.
Mind blown. Great video!
Thanks very much for this, seeing and hearing the original was beautiful, one of my favourite songs ever, small but perfectly formed
THANK YOU for this! In my time of troubles.