CHARACTER AND VOICE OF THE MUSICAL 75
of plot are all sung to the same tune, a standard AABA struc-
ture in fast 6/8, which allows every character to join into the
same music no matter the differences among their motives and
attitudes. In terms of plot, the relationships are reaching an
impasse, but in terms of the number, all four characters are
singing one tune, even rhyming with one another, and we
know that they are going to end harmoniously. That is not to
say they will end as married couples. I left Henrik, Anne’s step-
son, out of the description a moment ago. He wants to go for
the weekend too, keen on observing these “devil’s compan-
ions” as he puts it (Henrik is a Lutheran), but actually keener
to stay close to his stepmother, whom he adores (he is a
Lutheran who would rather be a lover). So three plot strands
are being sung simultaneously, and I have also not mentioned
Petra, the maid, or the five lieder singers—these people join in
too, at the end of the number. There are many reasons for go-
ing to this weekend in the country, some are not connected to
the book, contests abound among these characters, and yet
everyone is singing in harmony and rhyme. They will work out
their plot relationships. Anne will run off with Henrik, her
husband will settle in with Desiree, Charlotte will recapture
her husband, Petra will have a romp in the hay with the butler,
and the five lieder singers will go on singing. But the point is
that they have alreadyworked out their musical and lyrical re-
lationships by performing this number in which the plot seems
at sixes and sevens. It is not so much that the plot is being ad-
vanced. The plot is being transformed into a musical version
which lets eleven characters express their interests simultane-
ously, as though they all respond to one voice—coherently.^13
Many issues follow once the musical is understood to have a
voice of its own. There is a drive for ensemble performance in
the musical that sets this form of drama apart from realistic
prose drama and its focus on the psychology of individualism.
(^13) This is not the first time such musical simultaneity occurs in the show,
nor is it the last. The waltz of the principal characters before the action begins
and the waltz at the very end are two other occasions. Musical simultaneity has
a long standing in opera, of which the leading example must be the concluding
garden episodes of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.