TRITONE






The initial vocal line of “Something’s Coming” ("...could be / who knows...") looks like this. The interval of D to G-sharp forms the tritone.


"Something's Coming"
mm 7-8





Exactly the same melody is formed by the opening notes of The Dance at the Gym, notes struck even while Maria is on stage ("...the real beginning of my life as a young lady of America.") Here B-flat' (on the third line) and B-flat" (above the staff) are played together, so the tritone to E is completed from both above and below.


The Dance at the Gym: "Blues"
pick-up & m 1

Special thanks to Ann






Probably the best known tritone occurs when Tony has completed the introduction to "Maria," negotiates the key change, and begins the first chorus. The tritone goes from D-sharp to A-natural.


"Maria"
mm 8-9



The interval in "Maria" so closely matches the recurring tritone in "Cool" (C to F-sharp)


"Cool"
mm 7-8



that for his recording of the "Symphonic Dances from West Side Story," Mr. Bernstein was able to segue seamlessly from "Maria" to "Cool," masterfully linking two songs that couldn't be less similar in style and presentation.




The tritone returns to its origins as a signifier of imminent danger or death in the E-flat-to-A interval that signals the stabbing of Riff.



The Rumble
mm 80-82





Listeners of the Original Broadway Cast recording of West Side Story are treated to what is perhaps the most prominent tritone in the presentation, one that doesn’t appear in the score at all. (?!?!?) As an opening for the Original Broadway Cast recording, Columbia Records producer Goddard Lieberson re-inserted an orchestral version of the Jet whistle (which includes the inverted tritone C-sharp to G),


Prologue
mm 1-2 (studio recording score)

effectively kicking off the recording with a brassy flourish that the actual stage production lacks. This fanfare is not a part of most subsequent recordings (it is absent from Mr. Bernstein’s own Deutsche Grammophon presentation, as well as from such noted offerings as Leicester Haymarket 1993 and Broadway revival 2009), nor is it included in the Conductor’s score. According to Nigel Simeone, in the piano-vocal score of the Prologue used in rehearsals this passage is annotated in red ink: "optional curtain music." However the full score and almost all the printed scores, with the exception of Mr. Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances omit this familiar introduction.



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Highly recommended reading
  • Joseph P. Swain, The Broadway Musical
  • Scott Miller, From Assassins to West Side Story
  • Nigel Simeone, Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story





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