Poor Thing

This piece is an example of a monological dialogue. Mrs. Lovett takes most of the time, with short interruptions from Todd. She tells him what happened in the room Todd has pointed and asked about. Again she reveals herself to like gossip. The way she narrates the story has a conspiratory tone. This piece has a ballad-like construction, and is in that aspect a parallel of the first Ballad. And like the first Ballad it is a retrospective. Again, like the first Ballad, it is not immediately clear whether we have an epic communication structure here. I think not, since the piece fits in perfectly with the dramatic action.

In order to analyze this piece it is necessary that we take a look at the dramatic context of this song. After Mrs. Lovett has drawn Todd into her pie-shop, he asks her:

TODD: (Spoken) Isn't that a room up there? If times are so hard, why don't you rent it out? That should bring in something.
MRS. LOVETT: (Spoken) Up there? Oh, no one will go near it. People think it's haunted. You see - years ago, something happened up there. Something not very nice.

The last phrase arouses the interest of Todd and, I expect, that of the audience as well. Fortunately for the audience Mrs. Lovett needs little encouragement to tell the story:

MRS. LOVETT: There was a barber and his wife
And he was beautiful.

``And he was beautiful'' is the first expression of affection towards Sweeney. He shows no reaction to this. The music can be said to be ominous, not to say foreboding. The e-b pedal point which is sustained for several measures, provides (see figure 6.2, p. ) us with some haunting dissonances. The undertone of impending doom may be detected.

Figure 6.2: Poor Thing: m. 28-31

Mrs. Lovett continues with the same musical motive:

MRS. LOVETT: A proper artist with a knife
But they transported him for life
And he was beautiful

For the second time, she airs her feelings towards Benjamin Barker, but Todd still seems impervious to this. She tries to remember his name:

Barker his name was- Benjamin Barker

The following exchange of words can hardly be dramatically motivated:

TODD: Transported? What was his crime?
MRS. LOVETT: Foolishness

Did Todd not already know this? However, this works quite well as an expository note for the audience. Since Mrs. Lovett can not possibly know anything about Todd's life after his deportation, she now concentrates on those who have been left behind:

MRS. LOVETT He had this wife you see
Pretty little thing
Silly little nit
Had her chance for the world^6.2 on a string.

Her tone of voice reveals true femininity here: short phrases with only a single longer phrase at the end. A reminiscence of the ``e-b'' pedal point is still maintained. At the end of this musical phrase is a ``b-e'' sound, an inversion of the original pedal point (figure 6.3 on page ). After this the ``b-e$\downarrow$'' interval is sung. It appears that this interval is one of the pivotal intervals of this number. If we take a look at the harmonic progression from m. 28 to m. 31 (figure 6.4 on page ) we still see the ``e-b'' organ-point with a ``d'' added in m. 29. In this way not only the verbal, but the musical construction is held together. This factor alone helps keep the narrative consistent.

Figure 6.3: Poor Thing

Figure 6.4: Poor Thing

From m. 29, the previous phrase is repeated with the same words but with two important changes in the music. The first is the melodic line in the middle voice. In the previous phrase one had ``a$\sharp$--g$\sharp$--f$\sharp$''. Now this is transposed a semi-tone lower to ``a-g-f$\sharp$'', instead of the ``f$\natural$'' one would expect. Apparently this sets the tone for the events yet to happen:

MRS. LOVETT: There were these two you see
Wanted her like mad
One of'em a judge
One of'em his beadle
Everyday they'd nudge and they'd weadle
Still she wouldn't budge from her needle

The music accompanying these words is the same as that which Mrs. Lovett used to describe Todd's wife. In this way a relationship between Todd's wife and the Judge and the Beadle is implied. The following two exclamations are descriptive of Todd's wife:

MRS. LOVETT: Too bad, Pure thing

Especially 'Pure thing' has some descriptive music. The chord used on ``Pure'' is an E-dominant-seventh without any additions. In other words: it is pure. This kind of descriptive music only amplifies the referential function. The ``a$\sharp$'' on 'thing' can be seen as an anticipation of the ``b'' (see figure 6.5 on page ).

Figure 6.5: Poor thing

As Mrs. Lovett continues, the dramatic tension heightens:

MRS. LOVETT: So they merely shipped the poor blighter off south they did,
Leaving her with nothing but grief and a year old kid
Did she use her head even then, Oh no, God forbid
Poor fool!
Ah, but there was worse yet to come, poor thing

In this section we see a third reference to Todd's deportation. Within the framework of the referential function, this fact appears to be very important. Apart from the anacrusis at the beginning, we see a cluster of five notes in this section: ``g-a-b-d-e'' (figure 6.6, p. ). An attempt to explain this cluster must begin with an examination of the action, that is: we must examine the activity on stage.

The stage directions are very clear:

In the shadows of the stage, people appear dimly lit. They wear formal clothes and the masks of animals and demons. Barker's wife takes an imaginary baby from an imaginary cot and sits on the floor, cradling the child and sobbing

Figure 6.6: Poor Thing

This reference to the child is very important. If we analyze the melodic line we note that the first two measures the melody oscillate around the notes ``g-a-b''. One of the characteristics of children's songs is their limited ambitus and a tendency towards repetition and oscillation of patterns. So this kind of melody is both a reference to the child and to the somewhat childish naïeveté of Barker's wife. Even more indicative of this is the pentatonic structure of the material used: ``g-a-b-d-e'' is a pentatonic scale on e. Pentatonic structures are quite common in children's songs^6.3. Furthermore the sharp cluster-like dissonances in the accompaniment sound ominous. We can observe that not only the content especially the referential content of the lyrics, is evoked in the music, but also a reference to events yet to come:

Ah, but there was worse yet to come

One could say that the music has the role of a mediator in an epic communication structure.

After the last line has been sung, dissonances become even sharper, as they fit into a single chord, that is c$\sharp$-major-$7^{\rm th}$. Because this chord is played in a high pitch and in 2-position, it is made to sound sharper. This chord is sustained for a number of measures with the ``d$\sharp$'' and the ``f$\sharp$'' as anticipations for the ``e$\sharp$'' (figure 6.7, p. ).

Figure 6.7: Poor Thing

As Todd urges Mrs. Lovett to continue the story, the key shifts. Not to f$\sharp$-minor as one would expect after a c$\sharp$-chord but there is a short transitory passage in D-major and after that the song modulates to E$\flat$(m. 124). At the same time the time signature changes from 3/4 via 3/2 to 6/8.

Dramatic tension heightens as we now approach the climax. In the accompaniment we see a motive not totally unlike that of the ballad-accompaniment, and an ostinato in the bass. The lyrics are:

MRS. LOVETT: Well^6.4, Beadle calls on her all polite
Poor thing, Poor thing^6.5
The Judge, he tells her, is all contrite
He blames himself for her dreadful plight
She must come straight to his house tonight
Poor thing, poor thing^6.6

In the fourth line there is a modulation to ``D'', a semi-tone lower than E$\flat$. Is this an indication of the motives of the judge or more likely is it pointing forward to the final disaster? If we look at the accompaniment we observer the ballad motive is retained throughout this section. This would suggest that the Judge's intentions were probably not as sincere as Todd's wife believed them to be.

The ostinato-motive in the bass gives this section a special 'drive'. This has more rhythmic function than a harmonic function, but more a rhythmic function. This drive (and therefore the dramatic tension) seems to break down when the Minuet begins. This break, or interruption could be called a reversal, and makes the contrast between Todd's wife's innocence and the Judge's evil plans even greater. And even as the ostinato resumes playing the Minuet is still heard^6.7. The lyrics describe the masked ball:

MRS. LOVETT: Off course when she goes there,
Poor thing, Poor thing
They're having this ball all in masks
There's no-one she knows there
Poor dear, poor thing
The Judge has repented
She thinks poor thing
Oh, where is Judge Turpin, she asks

Mrs. Lovett's narrative points to the future. During her speech Mrs. Lovett's and probably our emotions, are aroused. This higher emotional tension is reflected in the melody by an almost complete absence of step-wise motion in the melody (figure 6.8, p. ). All this leads to the following exclamation:

He was there all right!
Only not so contrite!

Stepwise motion has been replaced by broken chords. If we analyze the following three measures we see a Tonic-Dominant movement. Otherwise stated, one experiences an increase in tension. The ensuing text represent to a greater or lesser degree the climax of the song: the rape of Todd's wife by the Judge.

Figure 6.8: Poor Thing

At that moment, the music is a combination of cluster-harmonies and ostinato. The sharp dissonances provoked by this combination are also indicative of this climax. We see now that the referential and the emotive functions can overlap as Mrs. Lovett continues:

MRS. LOVETT: She wasn't no match for such craft, you see
And everyone thought it so droll
They figures she had to be daft, you see
So all of'em stood there and laughed, you see
Poor soul, Poor thing

In this section Mrs. Lovett tries to generate compassion for Todd's wife. Her utterances are therefore directed more towards the audience than towards Todd, already quite emotionally aroused. At this point the perspective is sufficiently heightened as to understand the actions which are to follow.

Furthermore it is necessary to state that although at the moment this song is heard we already witnessed a fair amount of action in Act I. I consider this song to be part of the exposition. Without it, the audience would not be able to understand the background of some of the actions.

Most noticeable in this song is the shift in predominant functions: from referential to emotive. Also the fact that it changes from a monological dialogue to a real monologue. Todd's interruptions stop after a while. We see the same shift in function as in The Worst Pies in London.