One Song to the Tune of Another
One Song to the Tune of Another
#1One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/20/13 at 11:29pm
What are some theatrical examples of "one song to the tune of another?"
I have long known that you can sing the main sections of "Tomorrow" from Annie against the Jean Valjean theme in "Who Am I" or "One Day More" of Les Miserables.
Today, I realized that you can hum the Doctor Who theme song against "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," and vice versa. If you're curious how to line it up, it should go "whoosh... DOO-WEE-attend the tale of Sweeney Todd... DOO-WOO"
Do you have any other examples?
sassylash3s
Stand-by Joined: 7/5/11
#2One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 12:10amNot sure if this is what you mean or not, but you can sing the lyrics of "All That's Known" (and I suppose, by extension, "Those You've Known") from Spring Awakening to the tune of "On My Own."
#3One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 12:28am
You're looking for rhythms that fit another tune, right? (Not tunes that show up in the middle of another song).
It's not a show tune, but there's a running gag about the Jewish prayer "Adon Olam." Not only does it have about 456 different tunes, but the first line (Adon olam asher malach, v'terem kol, yatzir nivrah) fits just about anything. I did a medley once that included "Hail to the Redskins," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Hernando's Hideway," and the "Star Spangled Banner," among others.
You alone can make my song take flight.
Updated On: 5/21/13 at 12:28 AM
#4One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 12:59amThe first line of "My Time of Day" from GUYS & DOLLS sounds like "A New Town is a Blue Town" from THE PAJAMA GAME.
#5One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 1:06amPieces of "All I Ask of You" can be sung to "Music of the Night" and vice versa. I'm assuming that ALW did it on purpose, but I'm not sure.
You alone can make my song take flight.
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#6One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 1:22am
Jule Styne re-used CALL ME LORELEI from FADE OUT FADE IN,as DOUBLE, DOUBLE in HALLELUJAH BABY.
And you can sing SOMEWHERE THAT'S GREEN with PART OF THIS WORLD.
#7One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 1:25amALW reused an earlier song as "Love Never Dies."
You alone can make my song take flight.
#8One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 7:24am
I Dreamed A Dream and the Marius/Cosette section in One Day More:
I dreamed a dream in time gone by....
(I did not live until today)
When hope was high and life worth living...
(How can I live when we are parted)
...but a lot of Les Mis is like that...
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#9One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 7:42amNImue's Song from "Camelot" and Come Back to Me from "On A Clear Day"? (btw same lyricist, different composer)
#10One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 12:46pm
Are you talking about a tune being repeated (as the thread title suggests) or what you describe in your first post, which is one tune sung over another song? In the latter case, what is usually shared is the chord progression, not the melody. There's a good chunk of AMERICAN IDIOT that can be sung to the harmony of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire".
But if you want reused melodies, Jerry Herman's "There Is No Tune Like a Show Tune" from an early 60s review quite famously became "It's Today" in MAME. On her Jerry Herman album, Paige O'Hara sings a medley of the two together.
Updated On: 5/21/13 at 12:46 PM
#11One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 1:01pmWhen some of the subway trains go rumbling out of a station, some mechanical part within the train "plays" the first three notes of "Somewhere" ("There's a place..."). I always find myself humming the song after I hear that.
#12One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 1:04pmThere is of course the 'Unlimited theme' in wicked which has the first few notes of 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'!
CalebMeyer
Understudy Joined: 8/1/12
#13One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 1:06pmIn "Just You Wait" from My Fair Lady, right before Eliza sings, "One day I'll be famous..." the strings have a little solo that sounds exactly like when Fantine sings, "But the tigers come at night..."
bwaymizfit2
Understudy Joined: 5/19/06
#14One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 1:17pmThe fact that The Diplomats Song from CHESS ("Difficult and Dangerous Times") can be sung in counterpoint with the "Inspector Gadget" Theme Song amuses me greatly. It was the 80s, I suppose :)
#15One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 1:33pm
There is of course the 'Unlimited theme' in wicked which has the first few notes of 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'!
As do the first three notes of "Bali Ha'i".
But there are only 12 tones, so it is to be expected that short passages will be repeated from song to song, probably more often than we realize.
The Jerry Herman example above and "Be A Clown"/"Make 'Em Laugh" are examples of entire tunes repeated in new contexts, the latter case apparently accidental.
Updated On: 5/21/13 at 01:33 PM
#16One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 2:08pm
I'm gonna go ahead and guess that darque might be a fellow anglophile, as the title of the post seems to suggest a familiarity with I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, as this is one of their great games. If you've not heard it before, it's truly a lot of silly fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaHqxD3W2e4
Off the topic, though, slightly: one of my favorites is always that a number of trains in the NYC subway, most notably the A train if I recall correctly, when rolling out of a station will squeal the first three notes to "Somwhere" from WEST SIDE STORY perfectly, before screeching off into some atonal nightmares... I always thought it would be fun for a cabaret performer to start "Somewhere" with that continually-upward screech as a gag, but it is admittedly a very small target audience who would get it or enjoy it.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
#17One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 2:14pmThe other fun one that often comes up is the tritone resolving upward that famously makes up both "Maria" and "The Simpsons." It's many a West Side Story cast member who have sung "The Simpsons, I just met a girl named The Simpsons!"
#18One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 3:16pm
I have long known that you can sing the main sections of "Tomorrow" from Annie against the Jean Valjean theme in "Who Am I" or "One Day More" of Les Miserables.
You mean a mash-up? I imagine there are millions that work. It's all about matching chord progressions (or tweaking a minor chord progression to match a major or vice-versa). Much of the score to Les Mis was composed using the same chord progressions so the melodies could be combined.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
BewareTheUndertoad
Chorus Member Joined: 4/26/13
#19One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 6:48pmIn the dance break in "We've Got It" from Seesaw, the horns are playing "It Needs Work" from City of Angels ('Now take a closer look at you, I oughta throw the book at you!)
#20One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 7:00pmThe last however-many-bars of "Two Of A Kind" (Lippa's WILD PARTY) and the last however-many-bars of the title song from ADRIF IN MACAO. In rehearsals for the former, I would always take that play-off and sing the latter's lyrics. :P
#21One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 7:57pmYou can combine "You're Just in Love" and "An Old-Fashioned Wedding" into fourt-part counterpoint extremely easily.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
millie_dillmount
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/22/04
#22One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 8:35pm
"Pieces of "All I Ask of You" can be sung to "Music of the Night" and vice versa. I'm assuming that ALW did it on purpose, but I'm not sure."
Well considering those are two songs from the same musical, Andrew certainly reused melodies throughout songs.
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#23One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 10:11pmIn the movie musical version of LES MISERABLES, the new song SUDDENLY is Valjean's stirring and hopeful declaration of his second epiphany ( the first being the one of redemption, with the Bishop) - the discovery of love for another human being for the first time. Towards the end, when Cosette discovers that her father has left ( showing the scene where the weakened Valjean tried to lift a trunk to the carriage), she reprises the melody of SUDDENLY as she sings of her sorrow of possibly losing her adoptive father. Quite a poignant and evocative moment!
#24One Song to the Tune of Another
Posted: 5/21/13 at 10:37pmAlthough neither of them is a show tune, two of the more well-known duplicates are Smetana's "Moldau" and "Hatikvah," the Israeli national anthem. The time signature changes from three-four to two-four or four-four, but the melody duplication is clear.
You alone can make my song take flight.
