ABSTRACT
Into the Woods (ITW) Sondheim's melodies have simple structures and do not exceed a length of 8, 16 or – at the most – 32 bars. The whole score is founded upon three basic musical ideas: the rhythmic 'journey' motif, the 'magic beans' motif and the chord that accompanies the witch's spells. Throughout his oeuvre, Sondheim rarely makes use of one of the main staples of Broadway song types, the love duet. This kind of ballad is often one of the highlights of traditional musicals, and that is also true for fairy tale musicals, with examples ranging from Cinderella's 'Ten Minutes Ago' and Once upon a Mattress'. Many people were surprised and even irritated by the songwriter's choice of source material. Fairy tales are known and beloved for their stereotypical simplicity and customary happy endings, and Sondheim is an artist with a clear inclination towards stories whose prevailing mood is bleak and which feature primal emotions.
