Five years lyricsx11/26/2022 ![]() ![]() ![]() So until she actually opens her mouth, we (who are used to "Ten Minutes Ago" and "I've Never Been in Love Before" and all those other standard love duets) subconsciously expect her to sing a second verse of Jamie's melody. Brown maintains Jamie's distinctive accompanimental figure right up until the moment Cathy begins to sing. What I love about that shift is how it truly comes out of nowhere. But when Cathy begins her portion of the duet, she takes it in a completely different direction. Jamie begins the number (more on that strange opening tag later) and clearly establishes a particular melody and accompaniment ("Will you share your life with me."). In the case of "The Next Ten Minutes," we need to consider what they are singing, not just when. ![]() That's pretty straight-forward, right? Well. So how does "The Next Ten Minutes" fit within this traditional model? Well, on paper it looks pretty good! First Jamie sings. (On a side note, if you're interested, you should go to YouTube and check out Laura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan singing a mash up of "Ten Minutes Ago" and "The Next Ten Minutes." It works surprisingly well!) It's no secret that composers often have characters sing together in unison to demonstrate how in sync they are, or in this case, how in love. First, the prince sings, then Cinderella, and then finally he joins her on the last phrase and they sing in unison (this means they are singing the same notes, as opposed to singing in harmony). In keeping with our "Ten Minutes" theme, consider "Ten Minutes Ago" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella for an example of a typical love duet. You see, a lot of musical theatre love songs stick to a specific tried-and-true blueprint: first one person sings, then the second person sings the same thing but maybe with some new words, and then they sing together. But does the music really reflect this happiness? Or does it perhaps indicate a different reality? Let's find out!īefore we get to "The Next Ten Minutes," we need to first establish the traditional formula for a love duet. In fact, this is probably the happiest moment of their life together. But for this one moment, Cathy and Jamie are together, and though we as the audience know that this relationship is doomed, they of course do not. "The Next Ten Minutes" marks the intersection of the two stories, after which Cathy crosses into the earlier days of their romance and Jamie moves into the latter half of the relationship. For those of you unfamiliar with The Last Five Years, it is the story of a failed marriage with a double narrative structure: the husband, Jamie, tells the story of their relationship in chronological order whereas Cathy begins at the end and moves backwards through time. In the case of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years, the love duet is quite literally a pivotal moment as it is the only intersection of the two narratives. No matter what musical you're working on, the love duet is always a pivotal moment of the show. ![]()
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