Judge Turpin

The Judge is a man torn apart by guilt over what he has done to Todd on the one hand, and on the other, about the fact that he finally got what he wanted. In the show he has only one song to himself, not much to characterize such a complex personality.

His linguistic repertory is, like Todd's, written in iambic meter. But contrary to Todd his speech is posh:

Maybe I've been a bit hasty with my morning ablutions

. His words are chosen with care and have a more extended vocabulary than do Todd's. His phrases are longer, generally speaking and he's is portrayed as a well-educated, upper-class man.

To describe how the Judge is portrayed in music, I will analyze the Judge's only solo-song. This song was originally cut from the show^5.15. Or as the score indicates:

The following scene was cut from the production during previews for reasons of time. It took place immediately after number 10B(i.e. the Ballad of Sweeney Todd) and is included here because the authors feel it help particularize the character of Judge Turpin.

The piece begins with a confession of guilt:

JUDGE: Mea culpa, Mea culpa, Mea maxima culpa,
Mea maxima, maxima culpa^5.16

This is proper liturgical form, enunciated by the congegration at the beginning of Mass as a confession of sin. The whole song seems to develop as a prayer, first to God, than to Johanna. The music of the above two phrases consists mostly of repeated notes, remindful of plain-chant (the psalm-formula with its flexa) (figure 5.4 on p. .). In m. 2a we observer once again the Dies Iræ-motive.

Figure 5.4: Johanna(Judge)

Why is the Judge feeling guilty? We learn more of the cause of this feeling as the song continues:

JUDGE: God, Deliver me!
Release me!
Forgive me!
Restrain me!
Pervade me!
(He peers through the keyhole of the door to Johanna's room)

Apparently, his guilt is related to Johanna's presence in his house. The melody he sings consists of large leaps which are accompanied by dissonant chords on an organ-point e-flat. His exclamations form an ascending sequence, as though the pain of his yearning is growing.

In m.11 we see an accompaniment motive not totally unlike that of the Ballad. The words to this accompaniment are:

JUDGE: Johanna,
Johanna,
The light behind your window,
It penetrates your gown.

Instead of the large melodic leaps we saw in the previous section, we note here a melody with an extremely limited range: a minor third. And the same sequence is repeated up a major third with the following words:

JUDGE: Johanna,
Johanna,
The sun,
I see the sun through your...

At this juncture the judge realizes that his yearning basically is wrong. His exclamations:

No! God! Deliver me! Deliver me!

which are accompanied by dissonant chords which in my view symbolize the whiplashes indicated in the stage directions: Naked to the waste, he picks up a scourge from the table. While he says the word "Down" three times, his melody, quite predictably, has a descending character. The accompaniment remains still extremely dissonant.

Then there is a reprise of the limited range melody from m.14. The Judge explains more of his yearning. It becomes clear that the limited ambitus of this melody is a symbol of the restraint of the Judge in opposition with the wide melody leaps which suggest unbound lust. The Judge continues to explain his yearning:

JUDGE: Johanna,
Johanna,
I watch you from the shadows,
You sigh before your windows,
And gaze upon the town

What now becomes clear is that the erudition of the Judge is has disappeared and that the Judge is speaks more directly. There may be two reasons for this: the first is that the Judge thinks no-one can hear him; the second is that he talks about his innermost feelings, and therefore has no need for mask of erudition. His fantasies turn more erotic:

JUDGE: Your lips part,
Johanna,
So young and soft and beautiful^5.17

Once again he cries out:

JUDGE: God!
Deliver me!
Filth!
Leave me!

The Johanna motive is now transformed into a melody with a much wider range. The motive now shows a remarkable resemblance to the Maria-theme from West Side Story with one major difference: in the Maria-theme, the tritone is resolved to a perfect fifth, while here a perfect fourth is ''resolved'' to a tritone(see figures 5.5 on page  and figure 5.6 on page ). This marks the difference between Tony, who sings Maria, and the Judge. While Tony's love is pure and innocent, the Judge's is little more than perverted lust with somewhat of diabolical atmosphere to it. That is why Sondheim probably used the tritone, the diabolus in musica. What strange is in the lyrics, is that Judge seems to blame Johanna for his lust:

JUDGE: Johanna!
Johanna!
I treasured you in innocence
And loved you like a daughter
You mock me
Johanna
You tempt me with your innocence
You tempt with those quivering...

Figure 5.5: Johanna(Judge)

Figure 5.6: Maria from West Side Story (Bernstein)

It seems as though he is trying to justify his yearning by lying to himself. The Judge sees Johanna as a seductive woman, which she is not as we have seen in the previous section. The melody re-assumes the same limited range as earlier in the song, as the Judge tries to restrain himself further. Again lust gets the better of him:

JUDGE: No!
God!
Deliver me!
It will!
Stop!
Now!
It will
Stop
Right
Now
Right
Now
Right
Now

The melody oscillates with by a major second and as the judge slowly becomes calmer, the melody develops into a descending chromatic scale. The limited range of the first part of this section may have something to do with the Judge flailing himself: extreme self-restraint. This flailing appears to have the desired effect: the Judge regains his sense of reality and sees what Johanna is up to:

JUDGE: Johanna,
Johanna,
I cannot keep you longer
The world is at your window
You want to fly away

In the judge's mind it is Johanna who now needs restraining. One hears the same sort of protracted melodic live, but the mere thought of Johanna systematically arouses the Judge's lust:

JUDGE: You stir me, Johanna
So suddenly a woman
I cannot watch you one more day

Restraint is heard through the judge's melody. As he again flails himself, we can hear an inversion of the Johanna-theme:

JUDGE: God!
Deliver me!
God!
Deliver-
God!

The last ''God!'' is sung on a high ''f'' which for the its four beats, must be sung triple forte and after that must be sustained for another 12 beats at mezzo-piano level. Since the role of the Judge most probably will be sung by a bass or a low baritone, the last twelve beats most probably will be sung using the falsetto-register. This simulates a cry for help, and the judge's anguish, is effectively expressed. The accompaniment with this note is an ostinato-pattern with an f-c organ point, including some subtle dissonances. The whole tone becomes milder as the judge reaches a decision:

JUDGE: Johanna
Johanna
I'll keep you here forever
I'll wed you on the morrow
Johanna,
Johanna,
The world will never touch you
I'll wed you on the morrow
As years pass,
Johanna
You'll tend me in my solitude
No longer as a daughter
As a woman

Now, the melodic line in this section shows the same narrowness of ambitus, while the melody works sequentially towards a climax. As the judge gets fully dressed, he reaches a climax of decisiveness:

JUDGE: Johanna,
Johanna,
I'll hold you here forever then
You'll keep away from windows

But the lust that burns inside the Judge is too strong:

JUDGE: You'll
Deliver me
Johanna,
From this,
Hot,
red,
devil,
With your,
soft,
white,
cool,
virgin,
palms

The Judge is portrayed in this song as a man with two completely different sides. The first of these, is that of the well-educated magistrate, the other is a man consumed by lust. This reflects the duality of the human nature as most extremely reflected in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by R.L. Stevenson.