Summary

Brief Introduction to Main Theme Songs part 2

        Hello readers! In my last informative article, I‘m going to introduce another one of the most renowned theme songs, that is, the One Day More theme song.

        This theme song has only one prime occurrence in the musical; however, interestingly, it's the style as well as composition of the song that makes it so important as other recurring theme songs, and worth writing an essay for it alone.

        At the end of Act I, voice of discontent from the people spreads through the whole Paris (Look Down), and the students are preparing for the revolution like a raging fire (Do You Hear The People Sing?); the city is definitely on the verge of breakdown. In the song, every character declares their stands, and all the lines are woven together into a perfect piece of music. What the most intriguing is that the melodies in this song are all selected from previous songs, such as Jean Valjean sings Who Am I? for his appearance, Marius, Cosette and Éponine sings the rhythms from I Dreamed A Dream, Javert sings the recurring theme from Fantine’s arrest in a major key, and the chorus sings Do You Hear The People Sing? 

        

        This kind of composition can be categorized into a genre called Quodlibet （混成曲）, which combines several different and independent melodies in counterpoint. This song fuses the melodies so perfectly that every rhythm can match with each other, and I think that’s what makes this song so fascinating.

        Then, turn up the volume and enjoy this majestic masterpiece! Hope you like it!

(Song lyrics: One Day More)

(The video is found on the Internet)

Brief Introduction to Main Theme Songs part1

        In several musicals, there is a shared characteristic of their music, which is that throughout the whole musical, there may be some similar rhythm recurring repeatedly, but comes out in different lyrics and is sung by different characters. Generally, though it differs in many factors from its every occurrence, it passes on identical emotions and feelings, such as suspicion, anger, or passion, etc.

        Today I’m going to talk about one of the main theme songs in Les Mis, and since its first appearance in this musical is The Work Song, I call it The Work Song theme song in the sake of convenience.

        This song takes on a trait of suspicion, opposition, and judgment; every time the rhythms are played, Javert is usually present in the scene, which implies Javert’s characteristic traits and illustrates him as a man who never allows or even believes anything obeying his creed.

The song The Work Song manifests the officers’ mistrust of the guilty, which indicates the cruelty and corruption of the government and the turbulence in society.

        And in the songs, The Confrontation and Javert’s Suicide, they both present the opposition of two sides, love and ruthlessness, hope and distrust, which conveys the main contradiction of the story. And in the end, it tells us that love will always win.

(All the video clips are found on the Internet)

Figure Profile— Marius, Cosette and Éponine

        Today I’m going to talk about some secondary characters— Marius, Cosette and

Éponine, whose sad but beautiful love story is well known and reduces many audiences to tears.

        Cosette, Fantine’s illegitimate child, after being adopted, she is sent to a convent school and leads a regular but blissful life with her career planned already by Jean Valjean. In the beginning, Cosette sticks to her orderly life pattern and spends her time as much as possible in companion with Jean Valjean. But one day she encounters Marius by chance, and the couple fall in love at first sight; Jean Valjean comes to know that later and feels anxious, since that something is gradually out of control, and he can envision that some day his child will leave him. However, after a long term of meditation, Jean Valjean finally lets go and approves of their love.

        Marius is a descendant of a wealthy but monarchist family. However, Marius is a passionate young man possessing lofty ideal and liberal views. Hence, he’s in total disagreement with his conservative grandfather and thus being alienated from his family. Despite that, he joins a student party, which is conspiring against a government and preparing for a revolution. However, just few days before they launch their scheme, Marius meets Cosette and feels his soul longs for her; Marius is bogged down to a dilemma and finally decides to fight with his brothers.

        Éponine is the daughter of the Thénardiers, and a secret admirer of Marius. After losing their inn, the Thénardiers sinks into dire straits and makes a living by fraud and begging, but Éponine is quite simple-minded and heart-kinded. Though being envious of Cosette, she frequently saves her family from the Thénardiers wicked intrigues. After the revolution breaks out, she resolutely joins the crusade in order to follow as well as accompany her crush. Finally, to protect Marius, she is shot by a gun; being at her last gasp, she confessed her love and, before Marius can response more, she dies in peace and satisfaction.

Figure Profile— Fantine

        Hello! In the past few weeks, I’ve finished my article on the two main characters, and today I’m going to profile the first female character, Fantine, who is a factory worker under Jean Valjean’s charge. Though she dies young and thus accounts for little proportion of the story, she is fairly pivotal to the development of the plot; her dismal fate together with her interaction with Jean Valjean both motivate his afterwards epic life story.

        Fantine is born in poverty and brought up under harsh circumstances. In her youth she has fallen in love deeply with a student; tragically, the student abandons her while her pregnancy as he attribute their love to youth ignorance and regards it as sort of fun. Though utterly mournful and heartbroken, Fantine strives to provide her illegitimate child, Cosette, who is lodged at the Thénardiers, a selfish and greedy innkeeper couple.

        However, Fantine’s beloved child is labored and tortured by the cruel couple without her knowledge. Moreover, the couple is so grasping that they demands more and more money under the excuse of needs for living and medical care; unfortunately, meanwhile, Fantine’s scandal is held up to view ruthlessly by her coworkers, and hence she is driven out the factory.

        Her sole financial source being cut off, Fantine gets bogged down into endless despair, and resorts to prostitute to pay her debts. After then, Jean Valjean knows this poor woman by chance, and feels guilty about what he has done. To make up for his fault, Jean Valjean takes care of sick Fantine and commits himself to the union of the family. However, Javert intercepts Valjean in order to bring him to justice; Fantine eventually dies in sorrow.

        Though Fantine might not be so important as the previous two I’ve mentioned, when it comes to this figure, we are sure to think up I Dreamed A Dream, a representative song of Les Mis. This song conveys her greatest despair about the plight she is trapped in, and the mourning for her elapsed youth; there’re lyrics go like this, ‘I had a dream my life would be/ So different from this hell I'm living/ So different now, from what it seemed/ Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.’ I think it not only illustrates Fantine’s grief, but also reflects the suffering of all man in the ages of chaos and turbulence; I think the lyrics fit well to the title as well as the main idea of this book, Les Misérables, and stimulate us to weep for their pain and sympathize with the wretched. I think that’s the reason why this song can attain universal praise.

(All the video clips are found on the Internet)

Figure Profile— Javert

        Hello, readers! Last week I’ve just finished my article about the most important figure, Jean Valjean; then today I’m going to introduce another key role, which is my favorite one, inspector Javert.

        Generally, Javert is referred to as the main villain of the story, due to his ceaseless persistence in bringing Jean Valjean to justice and stern treatment toward those who ‘commit a crime,’ Javert is sort of depicted as a man of cruelty, lacking sympathy and compassion. In the songs Prologue: Work Song, and Fantine’s Arrest, Javert explicitly shows his thorough distrust against the guilty, whether they are framed or not; hence, to most audiences, he seems to be rather unreasonable and partial to those in power in this respect.

(start from 2:07 to 4:14)

        However, it is not until the story develops to The Confrontation of both sides, that we can look into the deeper aspects of his background and personality. In fact, Javert is no other than those miserable people; he has a despicable past as well, yet rather than becoming corrupt and rotten, the humble background molds him into an upright man, with relentless pursuit for perfect discipline. He’ll never allow anyone violating the principles, including himself, which is manifest in his solo, Stars. Through his soliloquy, Javert conveys his fearless and determination; by the witness of the stars, he swears his life and commitment to complete devotion.

Song lyrics: The Confrontation

        During the revolution, he infiltrates into the student party and tries to crumble them down from inside; however, his identity is seen through and thus he is captured, waiting for execution. However, unexpected, he is saved and freed by his greatest enemy, Jean Valjean, without any cost or bargains. Javert is astounded, broken down, and confused, along with his outlook on life and value scattered into debris. Everything once he thought was wrong seems right, and the man once he considered evil now becomes a saint; his life together with the order he sticks to are totally subverted and mess up. Unable to tackle the overwhelming sense of guilt, Javert resorts to suicide at last.

        Javert is a man who lives out the true meaning of perfect rectitude and rigid self-regulating, though it leads to the drawback of being narrow-minded and stubborn, resulting in his tragic end, his persistence, his responsibility, his courage and his determination are fairly impressive as well as admirable.