Ranked from worst to best ...

The biggest songs in West Side Story

Picture: United Artists

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM

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It has possibly the greatest musical score of all time, and it’s all based around that ominous, uncomfortable tritone… but which songs are really the best? Here’s our definitive ranking* of Bernstein’s songs from West Side Story.

*Tears were shed and friendships ruined in the making of this listicle.

1. A Boy Like That

   A duet between Anita and Maria, this is Anita’s final piece of wisdom for her sister-in-law, before Tony’s (spoiler alert) sticky end. The tempo constantly flits between 3/4 and 4/4 time, creating a feeling of unease. More than anything, it just makes us think: why didn’t Maria just listen to wise old Anita? It would have saved her a lot of upset.

2. Cool

   The tritone, also known as the devil’s interval, is frankly everywhere in West Side Story – so this is by no means the only example of it on this list. ‘Cool’, like ‘Maria’ and ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’, is based around the devil’s interval, and it creates a dark, stilted atmosphere to tell the audience that something is up. (It’s not that we don’t like ‘Cool’, by the way, it’s just Bernstein wrote too many bangers.)

3. I Feel Pretty

   In eighth place, it’s Maria’s solo ‘I Feel Pretty’. It’s a bit twee, but the song will always be charming, sweet and one of Bernstein’s most memorable melodies.
   Lyricist Stephen Sondheim described the idea behind this song as “simple’. The New York Times elaborated, saying that Sondheim “said he was never particularly fond of his lyrics in ‘West Side Story’, especially ‘I Feel Pretty’.”

4. Jet Song

   Tritone klaxon! In the ‘Jet Song’, the juicy interval appears prominently, but is never resolved. By leaving it unresolved, Bernstein builds that uncomfortable, ominous atmosphere that will set the tone for the rest of the musical.

5. Gee, Officer Krupke

   ‘Gee, Officer Krupke’, the great comic number in the musical, is a perfect example of Bernstein and Sondheim’s incredible teamwork. It kicks off in a light, vaudeville style, before launching us into another whopping great tritone in the first interval.

6. Tonight

   Ah, those sweet teenage dreams of finding a Shakespearean man to sing to us on our parents’ balcony... In their first love duet, Maria and Tony are suspended in time, while the rest of the world fades away. Oh, and there are no tritones here – only nice, loved-up fourths and fifths. *swoons*

7. Maria

   There’s no greater example of the tritone than in ‘Maria’. After that echoed build-up (which makes it sound a bit like poor Tony is lost in a train tunnel somewhere) a great big tritone comes in as Tony exclaims Maria’s name aloud for the first time.
   But the mood here couldn’t be further from the menacing feeling the tritone normally creates – and that’s because it’s only there for a moment, before it resolves to create a lovely perfect fifth interval.

8. Something’s Coming

   In third place, it’s the musical’s tagline. Full of jumpy rhythms, ‘Something’s Coming’ is based on a syncopated ostinato, which is repeated throughout. It sets the tone for Tony becoming disillusioned with gang violence, and his desire to leave the Jets.

9. America

   Grab your castanets! ‘America’ is the biggest dance number in the musical, and Sondheim’s rhyming game is exceptional here. Beginning with triplets, it paints a nostalgic picture of Puerto Rico, before moving into 6/8 time and that earworm-y C major melody.

10. Somewhere

    ‘Somewhere’ has probably found the most fame outside of the musical – and at least a smattering of our Bernstein-shaped tears can be attributed to this final, heartbreaking love duet.
    It borrows the tune from the slow movement of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto, but the final note is shifted a tone higher, hinting at a brief moment of hope for the star-crossed lovers.

Te Deum is performed at the opening ceremony of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

Why did Bernstein build West Side Story around 'The Devil's Interval'?

West Side Story is based on a very unusual interval. Picture: Getty Images

By Sofia Rizzi, ClassicFM London

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West Side Story is one of the world's most famous musicals. It's packed with great tunes and catchy rhythms, but there's an interval with a dark history at its heart.

Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story is based on and built around music's most unsettling interval, the ‘Devil's Interval’. Why would a composer do that?

First things first:

What is the Devil's Interval?

If you're a classical music buff, you'll know that ‘The Devil's Interval’ is a nickname for a musical interval called a tritone.

What is a tritone? Picture: Classic FM

In a nutshell, a tritone is an augmented fourth interval (between C and F sharp). It's an interval between two notes separated by three whole tones.

For an in-depth explanation, have a look at our tritone analysis:

What is a tritone and why was it nicknamed the devil's interval?

Why is it called the Devil's interval?

The interval is so dissonant that it acquired the nickname diabolus in musica – the devil in music.

Instinctively, the human ear looks for harmony in music, and this jarring interval does the exact opposite of this. When used in music it frequently resolves itself by jumping to the nearby perfect fifth (one semi-tone away) for a musical resolution.

It seems a bit odd that Leonard Bernstein decided to use this ugly interval as one of his main motifs in West Side Story. But this was no accident: he knew exactly what he was doing.

Where do we hear the Devil's interval in West Side Story?

Frankly, it's everywhere. Blink and you'll miss a tritone.

It forms the basis of some of the music's most iconic motifs. The most identifiable use of the tritone in West Side Story is in ‘Maria’. At 0.32 you'll hear the recognisable tritone jump:

‘The Jets’ gang also have their own motif that pops up throughout the music. Unsurprisingly, the tritone takes centre stage.

Why does Bernstein use the tritone?

He uses this interval as the central idea that ties the whole score together.

It's worth noting at this point that Bernstein did something very different with West Side Story – he revolutionised the art of writing a musical. He wrote it as if it were an opera, with character motifs, musical foreboding and a musical narrative running through the score.

The tritone forms the basis of romantic songs, conflict songs, and the themes that intertwine the score together. It's also famously used in the unresolved ending of the musical, where two alternating tritones play out against each other.

Conductor Marin Alsop described the tritone as: “An interval that requires a resolution, and without resolution it just hangs there and makes you uncomfortable.”

In theory terms, it therefore serves two purposes:
1. It creates dissonance
2. When resolved, it creates one of the most satisfying harmonic resolutions.

This is Bernstein's tool to create a truly evocative score.

Why does it work so well?

Not only does Bernstein use this interval to tie the entire musical together, but the interval itself tells a story, and it adopts different meanings in different situations.

In different instances Bernstein will decide to either resolve the tritone or leave it unresolved. Leaving the tritone unresolved hints at violence and the danger around the corner, but resolving it hints at optimism and a different outcome for the characters. For example:

Resolved tritones: Tony's tritone in ‘Maria’

The tritone resolves straight on to the perfect 5th. Picture: Classic FM

In ‘Maria’, the music couldn't be further away from the discordant sound that the tritone normally creates. This is because the tritone is only there for a moment before it moves up a semi-tone to create a perfect fifth interval.

Tony is filled with wonder having just met Maria, and his optimistic jump up from the tritone seems to brush away any unharmonic sound that comes with the tritone. The reality remains however, just like Tony's unfortunate end (spoiler), so the tritone is an integral part of the melody.

Even in the most optimistic and romantic of moments in the music, Bernstein keeps the tritone present as an ominous reminder of darker things to come.

Unresolved tritones: Jets motif and finale

The Jets motif doesn't resolve its tritone jump, it sits unresolved and does exactly what a tritone is known to do, create dissonance. From its first appearance, these unresolved tritones create the jarring harmony that mirrors the trouble to come in the plot.

The Jets motif. Picture: Classic FM

At the end of the musical, after Tony's death, two tritone intervals sit next to each other, again with no resolution. It defines the plot's incompleteness: an unresolved interval, yearning to reach up to a musical resolution that it never quite gets. It's subtle, but packs a big punch.

Bernstein, you're the boss.

via GIPHY

Did you know Bernstein borrowed a tune ...

...from Beethoven for West Side Story?

Beethoven - 5th Piano Concerto 'Emperor' (Zimerman, Bernstein, Wiener Philharmoniker)

41:25

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

Here’s the proof that 'Somewhere', one of the most beautiful tunes in this Bernstein musical was very much inspired by Beethoven…

West Side Story is the 1957 Broadway musical that broke all our hearts – and at least a smattering of our Leonard Bernstein-shaped tears can be attributed to its poignant ballad, ‘Somewhere (There’s a Place for Us)’.

But did you know that its main tune (‘there’s a place for us’) was taken from the second movement (Adagio un poco moto) of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto No. 5?

That's this bit, in the Beethoven: 

In Beethoven’s version, the ‘us’ sinks back down to the F sharp, returning to the note on which the phrase began. But in Bernstein’s composition, the ‘us’ is slightly higher – like this:

'Somewhere' appears in West Side Story at a moment when Tony has just stabbed Maria’s brother Bernardo to death at the rumble. Maria realises she still loves him and the problem is not them, but what is around them.

Considering the subject matter, perhaps Bernstein’s choice to move the ‘us’ a little higher is a moment of hope in amongst the painful longing of the song.

There’s also the minor seventh between ‘there’s’ and ‘a’ – an interval Bernstein took directly from Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto. It isn’t quite an octave, and the fact that it just falls short of that neat, satisfying interval means the melody captures a feeling of despair. The ‘place for us’ is a utopia Maria and Tony long for, but it’s just out of arm’s reach. [cries forever]

> 10 reasons why Tony from West Side Story is the most perfect man ever

It’s perhaps less noticeable, but ‘Somewhere’ also takes a longer phrase from the main theme of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

Here’s the tune to Swan Lake:

And here’s the third line of ‘Somewhere’:

Despite the difference in rhythm, the ascending line moving up to the dotted quaver (a dotted crotchet in the original) is a clear nod to the heart-breaking theme of the Russian composer’s ballet.

Bernstein knew what he was doing with his nods to this great works for Romantic music. And they are a small but important part of the emotional impact of his famous musical. 

Want to know more about the pure brilliance of West Side Story? Here’s how it bridged the gap between opera and musical theatre.

Leonard Bernstein conducting using only his eyebrows

Watch Leonard Bernstein conduct an orchestra using only his EYEBROWS

Conductors are influential people, but usually they have to at least use their hands a little bit. Not Leonard Bernstein, apparently…

The great Leonard Bernstein was such a showman of a conductor that he didn’t even need to use his baton to coax a great performance from the Vienna Philharmonic in this concert.

Watch Bernstein use only his eyebrows (and the odd bit of smiling and grimacing) to give the orchestra all the information they need about tempo and dynamics for Haydn’s Symphony No. 88. Amazing stuff:

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