If you think about the melody of "Cool," it goes [melody played] and it's not just this with the chords [music with chords] its more than that. He's written a counter melody that goes like this [yet more music with a lot more going on]. You've got all that going on underneath and it's like a drum solo going on at the same time. Also it's real composition -- he's developing small ideas. He's got the same type of "motivic" development going on in the melody, in the accompaniment.
As a matter of fact...the musical building blocks of "Cool" are actually the building blocks for much of the score. Something pretty interesting about West Side Story is that he's using that tri-tone--that is the octave split directly in half [music with tri-tones] -- a very violent interval. He uses the fifth too [more music]. Well, if we listen to this we have that very violent motive from the opening prologue which goes [three very violent notes]. If you invert that you get [three notes inverted]. Pretty interesting. That's real composition and of course he makes the tender ballad "Maria". And if you invert that you get [three more inverted notes] and the seventh and you get [more notes] and so you have "Somethings Coming"
Speaking of musicals, and in the spirit of our up-and-coming 25th anniversary of our first date, here are some photos of Paul (fair is fair...if he puts old photos of Michele online....) in his high school's 1984 musical presentation of "Guys and Dolls." This actually was a big deal at the time (believe it or not), his high school would rent the Rome Capital Theatre for the muscials and routinely fill it to capacity. Paul never got a lead in a musical, he was always in the chorus or had small speaking parts. For the Guys and Dolls musical, he was a member of the much envied super-cool "gamblers." For the productions, the high school would actually rent costumes and backdrops from Broadway production rental companies.
Bill R., Paul, Dirk R, and Ken M...
in the "Fugue For Tinhorns" opening scene...
...no, Paul was not Nicely, Benny, nor Rusty...
...we suspect the baseball cap worn by the guy on the right was not rented...
in the "Fugue For Tinhorns" opening scene...
...no, Paul was not Nicely, Benny, nor Rusty...
...we suspect the baseball cap worn by the guy on the right was not rented...
"Luck be a Lady"
"Luck be a Lady Tonight"...
...shuffle-ball step, shuffle-ball step,
...front, cross, back, step...
...front , cross, back, step...
...shuffle-ball step, shuffle-ball step,
...front, cross, back, step...
...front , cross, back, step...
