Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim's SOMEWHERE Explored
116,007
Published 2019-02-06
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.
WEBSITES:
songbookstation.com/
www.edwbarnes.com/
All Comments (21)
-
When you are so good at what you do your phone in song becomes the emotional center of the whole show.
-
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.
-
I saw the West Side Story movie in 1961. "Somewhere" is sung by artists today and it moves me no matter who sings it.
-
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.
-
Brilliant analysis, without detracting from WSS creators. Like a wedding, "something old, something new, something borrowed." It takes genius to make it sound fresh.
-
Loved seeing the original cast performing the dance. Very moving…thank you!
-
Finally, a WSS musical analysis that isn't just "look, there's a tritone! And there's another tritone!"
-
So great to have Mme Grist acknowledged as the first singer to sing this song!
-
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!
-
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.
-
My favorite song from WSS. It never fails to move me...
-
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.
-
That was so interesting. One of my very fave songs of all time. Thank You
-
also idk why but "Let's find a house in Scarsdale" got a chuckle out of me.
-
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.
-
This still makes me cry today! Edward Barnes, you are quite the genius.
-
I guess it's true when they say "A good composer does not imitate; he steals." I've always loved Bernstein's music, haha.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
