Over this chord progression, Berlin writes two complementary melodies – longer phrases with a wide range for the lovesick Kenneth Gibson, and shorter, syncopated phrases with a smaller range for Kenneth’s brash boss Sally Adams. If this is technobabble to you, don’t worry: the most important thing to know is that Berlin has given himself, with these chord choices, a vast range of options for melody-writing. After this, the next eight bars sit on the dominant, before returning to the tonic. If you know your harmony, you’ll recognise right away that this is simply a long stretch of tonic, moving away to the dominant. Irving Berlin writes to this chord progression: This is probably, in most people’s minds, the classic form of the musical theatre quodlibet: You’re Just in Love, from Call Me Madam is a witty and graceful example. The Berlin Quodlibet (aka Double Song, or Counterpoint Song) – Two Different Melodies Written to the Same Chord Progression After that, I’m going to suggest some types I haven’t heard yet, and hope everyone gets to work writing them. So, I’m going to lay out the main types of musical theatre quodlibets and how they work. Some of those are quodlibets, but not all are. Lastly, we’re not talking about what’s known as the Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number. We’re also not talking about leitmotifs, although – as you’ll see in the later Les Misérables example – leitmotifs are sometimes used in quodlibets, as if to announce “Hey, remember this person’s tune? It fits over this other one!”
![quod libet definition quod libet definition](https://sharonpaulger.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/alastair-gordon-arts-for-health-mk-1.jpg)
In musical theatre, specifically, the word has come to mean the practice of laying out one vocal melody first, followed by another vocal melody later, only to reveal, finally, that these melodies work when sung together.Īs for my use of that key word – that the melodies ‘work’ – I desire much from a musical theatre quodlibet. Terminology first: in music, generally, a quodlibet (from the Latin, meaning “what pleases”, and it’s pronounced just as it looks) occurs any time previously-heard melodies are played at the same time. There’ll be three parts, dedicated to what I’m calling The Berlin Quodlibet, The West Side Quodlibet, and The Dancin’ Quodlibet (this last will contain Ideas For the Future).
QUOD LIBET DEFINITION SERIES
This is going to be a pretty geeky series of posts, with a necessary amount of music theory included, but, I hope, no more than necessary.