giving voice to the same music the orchestra is leading into,
this long series of segments that promises a song and then fi-
nally delivers one, the woman the first voice, the man the sec-
ond. The orchestra builds the length of the episode, using its
underscoring ability to link the segments together, changing
the key to suggest that something important is approaching,
then leading the soprano into the formal structure of “Make
Believe” or “If I Loved You” so that she can declare the musi-
cal resonance of her character and so that the man can respond
with his own musical character in the same song. That is the
drama of the moment, the song.
Dance
The same thing can happen in dance. We have seen that in the
previous chapter, in the example of A Chorus Lineas it builds
to a dramatic climax in the formation of the dance line. But
the issue is more complicated than that, now that we have the
orchestra under consideration. Dance can be fully performed
without words, for example, and the immediate connection
that results between performer and the orchestra insists on be-
ing formally recognized. Wordless performance raises further
thoughts about the drama that results from the achievement of
song, for songs can exist without words, but they cannot exist
in their full intricacy without words. With words, the systems
of overlapping repetition that coordinate in a song are fully en-
gaged, especially when the melody has already been danced.
That is what happens in West Side Story, the show that brought
dance to the forefront of the musical and presented us with a
demonstration of what can happen with that kind of beginning.
Here is the beginning of West Side Story. The orchestra sets
out a dangerous 6/8 meter at the curtain (there is no overture),
an unbalanced riff coming in on the anacrusis and crossing
hard to the downbeat of the next measure, ta-da. There are
male dancers snapping their fingers in some angry ritual. They
punctuate the measures on the second beat, the orchestra on
the anacrusis/downbeat, ta-da, then the orchestra has an odd