Broadway musicals - response journal

Broadway Musicals Response Paper 2. a) In the song “ That Terrific Rainbow” the connotative meaning is suggested by words such as ‘ happy,’ ‘ unhappy,’‘ blue,’ ‘ anger,’ ‘ envy’ etc and as for the orchestration’s connotative meaning, as far as I am considered, it seems like a seductive song, where the singer tries to put on a show to attract her lover. The orchestration seems seductive with its repetitive melody and rhythm which go on loop when the trumpet plays. The vocal quality of the song is denoted by both low and high pitch of the trumpets. In the starting the song is very slow and with low pitch as the singer sings that her life had no color. However, as she starts singing about the mix of feelings she goes through and the different colors she has become after meeting her lover, the orchestra’s pitch rises and the overall song becomes a bit faster in its rhythm and tempo. Furthermore, the orchestra is much more louder and filled with sounds just like the singers life is filled with colors after meeting her lover.
b) The ‘ Pirates of Penzance’ basically is a comic opera, thus it consists of songs which are basically comic or funny in nature. The song ‘ Major General’s song’ of this opera, has a scurrying type of melody played on the xylophone, which makes it seem silly and funny. Thus, the orchestration of this song in comparison with ‘ That Terrific Rainbow’ seems to be very comic and jovial.
c) The popular music form suggested by the song is musical revue, as the musical consists of “ combined skits, songs, dance numbers” etc and it “ used a single cast to perform interconnected skits” (“ American Variety Stage” 1). Thus, since these characteristics are typical of the revue form, it can be said that this song or musical belongs to the same.
2. a) ‘ What is a man’ is the song performed by the character Vera Simpson in the musical ‘ Pal Joey.’ The song basically represents her deliberation about what exactly a man is. In its denotative form, one can see that Vera wonders deeply about what a man is, comparing him to an animal, wolf, mouse, champagne etc. In the beginning of the song itself she says that there a lot of fish in the sea, and that she still wants the one not meant for her. The denotative information suggested here is that the lady keeps wondering what a man is and tries to reach a conclusion after the various comparisons she makes.
b) In terms of connotative meaning, one can see that by fish, Vera means means men, she means through the phrase that there a lot of men in the world and yet she wants the one who is not meant for her. When she compares man to an animal, wolf or mouse, she may mean that they are uncontrollable or unpredictable like an animal, strong like a wolf, but at the same time weak like a mouse etc. Thus, the connotative information suggested by the song is that she is lonely and still yearns for someone who is not meant for her. She is shown ringing up two three men and saying that she cannot make it, thus again showing her lack of interest in rest of the fish in the sea.
Works Cited
“ American Variety Stage.” American Memory from the Library of Congress. N. p., 1996. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.