Since the Hallowe’en party is still fresh in my mind I’m going to point out that there is a certain modern appeal for this kind of musical blending. It can be found in DJ mash-ups and mixes where two compatible songs (same chord progression, same key) are played either in sequence or together. It can also be found in sample-heavy music, often rap, where the backbeat of one song is laid in the background of some other kind of foreground sound.
The only difference that I can see is that some songs are written this way by a talented composer; the others are put together by people who are talented technically but who are not necessarily musically skilled.
But I think the best one in Gilbert and Sullivan is the Act I finale from Iolanthe. The Lord High Commissioner, the Queen of the Fairies, the Fairy Chorus, the House of Lords, Iolanthe, Strephan and Phyllis are each singing a separate song, and they all work together perfectly. It’s wonderful to hear on a recording, but live it just makes me break out in goosepimples. It’s an indescribably wonderful effect.
To the OP - Yes, I think you’re the only one. Maybe you just can’t hear more than one part, and it is too busy/confusing rather than blending perfectly?
And you both beat me to it. I love any opportunity to mention Chess (and know that Misnomer and I have both done so in any number of previous Musical threads).
For a few more examples, I’ll put forth “Christmas Bells” from Rent (which goes to at least four parts of carols and original music without breaking a sweat), as well as some two-line use in “Another Day” and “What You Own” . And though we’ve ruled out that it’s not what was intended, Rent also has a very beautiful round in “Will I?”
Also from Jonathan Larson in tick, tick… boom! is the neurotically sweet and tortured “Therapy,” a two-line counterpoint.
I think the greater challenge is going to be finding a major, valid, successful musical (thus ruling out some hack that had ten shows off-off-off-Broadway with a real lifeless dud that nonetheless somebody on this board has a printing of) that does NOT have some contrapuntal duet. It’s a great device that sounds cool and advances the story remarkably well.
(As to my favorite, it’s already been mentioned. “Confrontation” in Les Mis. That song makes the show for me)
I don’t mind the effect in music, it’s when it’s done through lyrics that get to me. Then again, I don’t usually like songs with lyrics in general. I prefer plain old instrumental music, so in that respect I’m also weird. I just find songs where two different sets of lyrics are sung at once to follow along with.
The one from Call Me Madam is called “You’re Just In Love,” I think. Irving Berlin was big into that kind of thing.
I’m kinda with the OP on this one. Sometimes it’s done well and works, but mostly I just find it vaguely annoying. I was listening to the soundtrack for Oliver! recently (dug it out after seeing the recent Polanski movie) and at the end of the song “Oom-pah-pah” they do it, and it just kinda bugged me.
I do, however, like singing rounds. Or at least I did when I was a kid and we did that kind of thing. On one memorable occassion in elementary school we sang “Brother John” (I think that’s what it’s called – Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Brother John, Brother John) in about four different languages. That was cool.
What I really hate in watching musicals live is when the audience feels like it has to clap along to the beat of every damn song. It just feels dumb, and everyone gets confused when the beat changes, nobody knows when to start or stop, someone always tries to start it up again, etc. I really hate that. Just listen to the damned song.
The stupidest use of music in a musical I ever saw was when I saw “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” in London. (Don’t ask – a girl I was with wanted to see it.) They made the title song so bloated that they actually did that thing where they slowed it down to half speed and brought a full chorus and orchestra in to sing it like it was some dramatic anthem or something. For Chrissakes, this is a story about a flying car, not the French Revolution. :smack:
As long as we’re listing examples, here’s my favorite: “Kiss Me” / “Ladies in their Sensitivities” from Sweeney Todd, the very best piece of musical theater ever written, and that will ever be written, and don’t you forget it.
Seriously, the way these hugely different melodies and orchestrations suddenly collapse together into one swirling miasma of musical climax is simply astonishing. It’s announced when two separate paired scenes synchronize on a point of introduction (“the name’s Todd” / “Antony!”) and spins off from there. It doesn’t really work on the album; in the theater it’s utterly mind-blowing.
And I’m seeing a production on Friday. Envy me.
By the way, my own brother, who posted above in this thread as Fish, wrote one of these himself in a musical adaptation of Henry IV Pt 1 called Hotspur! that’s very, very, very cool. I would love to see the production remounted for a lot of reasons, but tops on the list is getting to hear this bit performed again.
I know that show backwards, and could busk the entire Act 1 finale, so I’m guessing the bit you mean is where the Chancellor and Peers are singing “Go away, madam”, the Fairies are singing “Let us stay, madam”, the Queen is singing “Bearded by these puny mortals” and Phyllis is singing "Surely these must be immortals. Can’t remember Strephon or Iolanthe having a lot to do at that point though. The earlier bit, “When darkly looms the day”, isn’t at all contrapuntal. Maybe I’m not thinking of the part you’re on about. (And don’t you just love it at the end of the finale where Sullivan suddenly breaks into an oompah-oompah military march, “With Strephon as your foe, no doubt”? )
Hmm… must be time I did Iolanthe again. I’ve been Strephon at age 16 and Mountararat eighteen years later, and it’s past time I sang the Chancellor.
Ah, and the song Coalhouse Demands from Ragtime (an angry and threatening song when Coalhouse becomes a vigilante) uses the multiple characters singing the same song at different temps and pitches device to absolutely wonderful effect. “Somewhere in the city there’s a madman waiting…”
An example of counterpoint from The Music Man: Pick a Little / Good Night Ladies.
Meredith Willson seemed to enjoy musical parlor tricks like that – like the fact that “Good Night, My Someone” is the same melody as “76 Trombones”. My kinda guy.
Another example of this sort of thing - the Astaire & Rogers film Swing Time has a great score, including “A Fine Romance” and “The Way You Look Tonight” by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. Lovely songs, but quite different, or so you might think while watching the film. But right at the end Fred and Ginger sing both songs simultaneously and they somehow match with Bach-like precision! Clever stuff.
)