posted 08-04-2005 01:33 AM               

It's not giving up hope. It's recognizing the truth of her humanity, which is also a kind of liberation. The second reference is already a step in that direction, when Elphie sings, TOGETHER we're unlimited. She is already aware that no one can do it alone.

posted 08-11-2005 12:49 PM            

It is his homage to Harold Arlen the composer lyricist of MGM's "OZ."

posted 08-11-2005 02:37 PM            

Perhaps Stephen Schwartz was just confused when he wrote these songs, but given a choice, I’m going to go with Mr. Schwartz, who says that they are the same notes, and Idina Menzel, who was asked in an interview about the development of Wicked whether or not she had noticed and said that she definitely had (as the one who sings all the “unlimiteds/I’m limiteds” she should know, especially since she, like most professional singers, has also sung “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”)

From an interview with Stephen Schwartz (emphasis added):

quote:

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Schwartz was happy to speak about the ways he peppered his score with homages to Harold Arlen, who wrote the music for the movie THE WIZARD OF OZ. "What I thought was amusing and I wondered if people would get it, and of course people did, is that it's the first seven notes of 'Over the Rainbow.'" He plays from the section from "The Wizard and I" with the lyrics "Un-li-mi-ted, my fu-ture..."

"The reason that that's a joke is because according to copyright law, when you get to the eighth note, then people can come and say, 'Oh you stole our tune.' And of course obviously it's also disguised in that it's completely different rhythmically. And it's also harmonized completely differently so that it's not [he plays the familiar opening phrase]...It's over a different chord and so on, but still it's the first seven notes of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'."

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Wicked's Web of Musical Themes

I play only guitar and am not at all good at transposition, so here’s a better explanation from an old post (not mine) that is musically correct:

“Same notes, same melody - we're not talking key, we're talking intervals. Pick a note, up an octave, down a second, down to the 5th, then step wise back up to the octave. (for Sound of Music fans): do, do, ti, sol, la, ti, do.”