Way to the woods music professional#

He explained, “We did what’s called “asymmetrical meter” in it, which makes it feel like it’s a little bit off-kilter. In a behind the scenes video about the Choir’s new Hallelujah! album, which features “Over the River and Through the Wood,” associate director Ryan Murphy discussed his new arrangement of the song. Traditionally “Over the River and Through the Wood” is sung as a Thanksgiving song, in which the original lyrics say, “Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!” rather than “Hurrah for Christmas Day!” Another lyrical change was that the original poem read “Grandfather’s house” rather than “Grandmother’s house.” The original poem also contained 12 verses. The poem was published in Child’s book of poems Flowers for Children, Volume 2, and was originally titled “The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day.” In time, Child’s poem was set to music by an unknown composer, and over the years many children have grown up singing the song in school or community holiday programs. 'I was perfect,' the witch sings, 'I had everything but beauty, I had power, and a daughter like a flower in a tower.“Over the River and Through the Wood” was originally published in 1844 as a poem written by Lydia Maria Child. But what I love about it is partly that Sondheim had a way of writing these absolutely devilish, almost tossed-off melodies that I think of as Bernadettes - as in, 'I'm pretty sure only Bernadette Peters can sing that exactly right.' And 'Ever After' has a bunch of them, mixed with playful rhyming that came to mind when I first saw Hamilton. Unfortunately, you begin to sense that something is not quite right. In fact, it is explicit on this point: 'Journey over, all is mended, and it's not just for today/but tomorrow and extended, ever after.' 'Ever After' is the bridge between these sections, coming right at the end of the first act, and if you don't pay too much attention to it, it really does seem to be a conclusion of sorts. The genius of Into The Woods is that the first act is like a regular fairy tale with happy endings, and the second act complicates them all: people become unfaithful and get killed and stop loving each other in the same way. Along the way, it delivers little stunners like 'someone to crowd you with love.' And about that bridge? 'Make me confused/mock me with praise/let me be used/vary my days'? It's an especially effective combination of a big, big moment in a song and a superficially mundane sentiment like 'vary my days.' 'Someone to need you too much/someone to know you too well/someone to pull you up short/to put you through hell.' Although it does have a bridge, this song mostly repeats and builds as Bobby is urged on by his friends - unlike a lot of Sondheim songs that weave and change. The story of Bobby, a man surrounded by couples and terribly skeptical about marriage, ends with this climactic admission that what is terrifying about intimacy is the same thing that is precious about it. I am, more than anything, a Company person. I invite you to hear mine, but to love yours, however you first heard them.Ī lot of the Sondheim faithful see themselves as devotees of one show above all others: they are a Sweeney Todd person, a Sunday person, a Follies person.

Way to the woods music professional#

I sent another friend a clip from Sunday In The Park With George after he had a professional disappointment. I watched a VHS tape of Into The Woods when I was babysitting in high school, and I never stopped loving it. I wasn't so much a Sweeney Todd person - it freaked me out. I can offer only the fact that, almost always, on some level, there is Sondheim music in my head it takes almost nothing to nudge it from sleep and get it tripping across my lips as I do the dishes or drive my car. Sondheim died at 91, and I encourage you to read every obit, every snippet of historical context.

On the day of Stephen Sondheim's death, creating a list of his songs you will never stop playing is to invite an argument - and I do. Bernadette Peters leans forward to discuss the recording of the 'Sunday in the Park with George' album with Stephen Sondheim and producer Thomas Z.