Loverly:The Life and Times of My Fair Lady (Broadway Legacies) McHugh, Dominic (snow like ashes series txt) đ
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The next number was much slower in coming. As noted previously, the song originally intended to fill the spot after âThe Rain in Spainâ was called âShy.â A solo for Eliza, it speaks overtly of the characterâs love for Higgins and was certainly in place by the early autumn of 1955. On Outline 4, it is named as both the âThird Songâ of act 1, scene 5, and the piece of music intended to end the musical. It was eventually replaced, of course, by âI Could Have Danced All Night.â A musical synopsis of the second act of the show, kept in an envelope in the Warner-Chappell Collection, refers to the reprise of a song for Eliza called âThe Story of My Life,â which is crossed out and replaced by âI Could Have Dancedâ in Loeweâs hand; presumably this was an intermediate replacement for âShyâ before âDancedâ was composed.12
Lerner admits the problems the collaborators had with this song in his autobiography. He says they had tried to give Eliza âa lyrical burst of triumphâ after âThe Rain in Spain,â which would also reveal âher unconscious feelings for Higgins.â But all their attempts âemerged with her true feelings on her sleeve.â13 Lerner goes on to explain how he managed to come up with the title of âI Could Have Danced All Nightâ during the final week before the start of rehearsals.14 He says that âFritz set it in a dayâ and that he finished writing the words in twenty-four hoursââbut not to my satisfaction.â He admired Loeweâs melody, but âblushedâ when singing him the line: ââAnd [sic] all at once my heart took flightâ. I promised Fritz I would change it as soon as I could. As it turned out, I was never able to.â15 None of this confirms Marni Nixonâs claim that she first heard the song in âthe early spring of 1954,â when it âwas in 3/4 time with a very European operetta sound,â16 but it is true that the title of the song was at one point âI Want to Dance All Night.â Curiously, this was an afterthought rather than the original version. The rehearsal script, Loeweâs autograph, and Bennettâs full score all use the words âI Could Have Dancedâ as does a copyistâs score in Levinâs papers.17 However, a photocopy of this copyistâs score is headed âI Want to Dance All Nightâ in Loeweâs hand,18 and another typed script in Levinâs papers replaces âCouldâ with âWantâ in the final scene (where âI Want to Danceâ is heard in the orchestra).19 A further script also has this, and on both the list of musical numbers and the pages of the actual song (1-5-52 to 1-5-55) the title is shown as âI Want to Dance All Night.â20 Strangely, the lyric itself still reads âI could have danced.â The playbills for the tryouts in New Haven and Philadelphia use the word âWant,â as did early pressings of the showâs Original Cast Album (though Julie Andrews sings âcouldâ throughout).21 It seems that Lerner briefly considered a change but finally decided to leave the lyric alone.22
The autograph manuscript of the song follows precedent in being a fluently written fair copy of the published version. In two respects, the score postdates the initial composition of the score. First, the verse (âBed! Bed! I couldnât go to bedâ) follows the published edition in indicating âAllegro moltoâ as the tempo, in putting mf for the introduction and p when the voice enters, and in writing the melody and accompaniment in quaver beats. By contrast, the copyistâs score (used in rehearsal) has two bars of quarter note beats for the introduction (rather than one bar of eights), has âAllegroâ as the tempo, and indicates only mf by way of dynamic through the whole verse. Furthermore, âBed! Bed! I couldnât go toâ (and so on) is set to quarter notes rather than eights; in other words, the copyistâs score of both verse and refrain is half the speed of Loeweâs score. The second difference between the scores involves the Maidsâ countersubject during the second refrain. The rehearsal script and full score have a bridge passage (starting âNot one word more, dearâ) and counterpoint for Mrs. Pearce (without the Maids). This was all replaced in the published version with a part for the Maids (who sing âItâs after three, nowâ). They follow the original counterpoint for Mrs. Pearce for the first four lines of the counterpoint thereafter, and also take up her final four lines, but the middle of their part was replaced. Mrs. Pearceâs only part in the definitive version of the show is to sing three brief lines to connect the second and third verses.23 Perhaps Philippa Bevansâs prowess as a singer was not sufficient to give her the whole of the countersubject; perhaps Lerner and Loewe wanted to make sure that the words of the countersubject could be heard by allotting more singers to it; or perhaps the intention was to create a feeling of bustle around Eliza as she continues to repeat the refrain. Whatever the case, the copy of the song in the Loewe Collection represents the final version of the lyric, rather than that shown in the rehearsal script and copyistâs score. Bennettâs full score confirms that the Loewe autograph was a late creation: although Bennett adopts the final version of the music in terms of rhythm (eighth notes rather than quarter notes), he uses the earlier lyric from the rehearsal script.24
Loeweâs accomplishment in this much-heard song is easy to overlook. The verse is brief but functions brilliantly: after
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