AA 2010 Volume 42 Issue 2

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2490

Browse

Browsing AA 2010 Volume 42 Issue 2 by Subject "Opera"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The raised fourth in Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story
    (University of the Free State, 2010) Viljoen, Nicol; Visagie, Johann
    English:This article traces the functions and applications of the raised fourth-scale degree in Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story against the background of the work’s precarious positioning between a Broadway musical and a modern opera. It attempts to demonstrate how the raised fourth operates in a variety of ways as a coherent tonal motive with distinctive tragic undertones. While it relates the main songs and musical sequences to one another, it also effects a poignant relationship between the lyrics, music and dramatic action. In this regard it represents a powerful instance of musical symbolism, its tragic quality being closely intertwined with the story’s disturbing theme of gangsterism.