GIGI
Gigi, am I a fool without a mind or have I merely been too blind to realize? Oh, Gigi, why, you've been growing up before my eyes. Gigi, you're not at all that funny awkward little girl I knew. Oh no! Overnight, there's been a breathless change in you. Oh, Gigi! While you were trembling on the brink was I out yonder somewhere blinking at a star? Oh, Gigi! Have I been standing up too close or back too far? When did your sparkle turn to fire and your warmth become desire? Oh what miracle has made you the way you are?I was speaking with a classmate about French names and mentioned Gigi, so I'm sending this handout.
Gigi was a musical written directly for the screen by the famous Broadway team of Lerner and Loewe, who had previously graced the Broadway stage with the legendary My Fair Lady (1956), then the longest running musical in Broadway history. Hollywood was desperate for a film musical from the team and My Fair Lady was still too profitable on stage to risk losing business with a film version. So the team wrote Gigi (1958). The film won ten Oscars, including Best Picture.
The musical was based on the famous French novella by Colette, also a stage drama that starred a then unknown dancer named Audrey Hepburn! Like its illustrious predecessor, almost every song from the musical became famous, including "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" and "The Night They Invented Champagne."
Below is the title song, sung as a pop record by Vic Damone. (For some reason I couldn't find the song sung in the film on youtube though nearly every other song from the musical is available! Actually Damone has a better voice.)
The Broadway show musical (though Gigi was written directly for the screen it was written by Broadway show composers) was almost a benchmark of literacy and musical quality in the years between 1920-1960. In the two songs included here, the listener will immediately hear the greater literacy of the lyrics from a Broadway musical, compared with the average pop or radio tune: a richer vocabulary, clever metaphors, more sophisticated cultural references, wordplay (puns, etc.), and complicated rhyme schemes.
In the musical, Gigi is a young French girl who has suddenly matured before the eyes of Gaston, who had previously treated her like a child. The song is sung as a soliliquy (monologue) by Gaston as he realizes this. Note the clever rhyme on brink/blink-ing, with the memorable: "Have I been standing up too close or back too far," as if Gigi were a picture in a museum. Then there's the wonderful contrasts: sparkle/fire, warmth/desire.
Gigi was a musical written directly for the screen by the famous Broadway team of Lerner and Loewe, who had previously graced the Broadway stage with the legendary My Fair Lady (1956), then the longest running musical in Broadway history. Hollywood was desperate for a film musical from the team and My Fair Lady was still too profitable on stage to risk losing business with a film version. So the team wrote Gigi (1958). The film won ten Oscars, including Best Picture.
The musical was based on the famous French novella by Colette, also a stage drama that starred a then unknown dancer named Audrey Hepburn! Like its illustrious predecessor, almost every song from the musical became famous, including "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" and "The Night They Invented Champagne."
Below is the title song, sung as a pop record by Vic Damone. (For some reason I couldn't find the song sung in the film on youtube though nearly every other song from the musical is available! Actually Damone has a better voice.)
The Broadway show musical (though Gigi was written directly for the screen it was written by Broadway show composers) was almost a benchmark of literacy and musical quality in the years between 1920-1960. In the two songs included here, the listener will immediately hear the greater literacy of the lyrics from a Broadway musical, compared with the average pop or radio tune: a richer vocabulary, clever metaphors, more sophisticated cultural references, wordplay (puns, etc.), and complicated rhyme schemes.
In the musical, Gigi is a young French girl who has suddenly matured before the eyes of Gaston, who had previously treated her like a child. The song is sung as a soliliquy (monologue) by Gaston as he realizes this. Note the clever rhyme on brink/blink-ing, with the memorable: "Have I been standing up too close or back too far," as if Gigi were a picture in a museum. Then there's the wonderful contrasts: sparkle/fire, warmth/desire.
{Instrumental break}
Oh, Gigi!
While you were trembling on the brink was I out yonder somewhere blinking at a star? Oh, Gigi! Have I been standing up too close or back too far? When did your sparkle turn to fire and your warmth become desire? Oh what miracle has made you the way you are?
WALTZ AT MAXIM'S
The other song from the musical included here is "Waltz at Maxim's" (also called, "She Is Not Thinking of Me"), another of Gaston's soliloquies (monologues), this one filmed as if he's thinking to himself, while a date shows interest in everyone but him! The lyrics are included in the video. Study the rich vocabulary, the intricate rhymes, the culture references (note the superb rhyme: "Ther'es a glow / tonight / They're so bright / They could light / Fontainebleau tonight." Or: "She's a treat tonight / You could spread her on bread / She's so sweet tonight!" Or: "So devoted / Sugar-coated" (these are called "feminine rhymes," with accents on other than the last syllable, in which case the rhyme is called "masculine"). Another example of a feminine rhyme is "Oh she's simmering with love /oh she's shimmering with love!" Yet another intricate feminine rhyme: "She's so gay tonight! A gigantic romantic cliche tonight!" (ClichE pronounced clee-SHAY, with an accent acute on the final "e.") Then, of course, there's the delightful neonastic (made-up word) rhyme on the French interjection (oooh-la-la): "She so oooh-la-la / So untrue-la-la!"The sequence has a surprise comic ending. Watch for it!
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