Music Examples
7.1Page of leitmotifs for West Side Story that Bernstein wrote at some point. Typescript version produced by Adrian Hartsough. (Library of Congress, Leonard Bernstein Collection, 1079/19.)
7.2‘Balcony Scene’, mm. 51–54, with opening ascending perfect fourth in the melody and beguine rhythms in eighth notes of the right hand.
7.3‘Ballet Sequence’, mm. 86–89, ‘Somewhere’, with opening ascending minor seventh in melody and various accompanimental voices.
7.4‘Ballet Sequence’, mm. 45–54, ‘Transition to Scherzo’, with various evocations of short–long rhythms, later heard in the title text of ‘Somewhere’.
7.5‘Prologue’, mm. 9–17, with a wide-ranging theme starting in anacrusis to m. 4 also heard in the B section of the ‘Jet Song’ and blues third C-natural in m. 17.
7.6‘Jet Song’, mm. 28–35, with melody in triple meter against syncopations in the right hand and bass line in 6/8.
7.7‘Jet Song’, mm. 190–199, with tresillo rhythm in the vocal line and walking jazz bass like that heard in sections of ‘Prologue’.
7.8‘Meeting Scene’, mm. 1–8, with tritone and ‘Maria’ motive heard four times in ascending eighth notes of mm. 2–5.
7.9‘Maria’, mm. 9–14, with tresillo in bass line and A′ as a tritone over E-flat in bass in mm. 9, 10, and 12.
7.10‘America’, mm. 5–12, with combination of half-note and quarter-note triplets, tresillo in a clave rhythm (bass line), and alla breve (m. 7, voice).
7.11‘One Hand, One Heart’, mm. 112–116, with ‘Maria’ motive stated four times in eighth notes in the third stave.
7.12‘Tonight’ (Quintet), mm. 1–9, with changing meters, triple meter outlined by the ascending bass ostinato, and bitonal use of C and E major.
7.13‘Ballet Sequence’, mm. 84–88 of ‘Procession and Nightmare’, with ‘Somewhere’ motive stated three times in mm. 86–88 and F sounding in mm. 86–87 as root of the chord.
7.14‘I Have a Love’, mm. 1–9, with movement from conjunct to disjunct motion in the melodic line.
7.15‘Finale’, mm. 24–28, with ‘Somewhere’ rhythmic motive stated three times in mm. 26–28, resolving to C major triad and tritone F♯ stated in bass in mm. 26–27.
