I’m back, I’m stuck on No One Mourns the Wicked.
Like first of all HELL YEAH to the score for the entire movie but especially this track. The music theory is music theory-ing for sure. I’m too tired to google all the appropriate terms but y’all get it.
But energetically and lyrically, especially with Ariana’s choices for Wicked (2024)? ((Yes I know I keep specifying but I feel that’s important considering how many iterations there are and I’ve only consumed this one so far))
Like… Glinda is on crowd control. Love her or hate her (I’m a Glinda apologist make no mistake), she consistently throughout the track steers the ensemble back to her in the spotlight. So much talk of “good” throughout act one when it comes to Glinda. She’s clearly goodness personified for this number.
Which can be selfishly triumphant or veiled grief, depending on your view of her character.
Yes, her higher notes are canonically less sincere according to the creators. But that doesn’t mean her messaging is wholly insincere? throughout act one she uses her operatic high notes to bring attention to herself (and the only time she’s silenced/allows herself to be silenced is when she comes to the Emerald City with Elphaba to support her).
So especially the last note of NOMTW to me, when Ariana opts up, is an indication of her insistence that the crowd look at HER and remember HER. And if you’re a Glinda apologist, we can read that as an attempt to redirect the focus of the celebration of death to the triumph of goodness, right? Because that keeps the crowd from focusing on the death of her best friend, and keeps her from needing to hide her grief among throngs of Munchkins burning an effigy of Elphaba…
Anyway I’m staying on my bullshit and will be back to scream into the ether later