Defying Gravity from WICKED

Melody:
● Syllabic (One note per syllable) throughout
● Melody begins stepwise (notes are close together)
● Verse and Chorus combine stepwise movement and big leaps (disjunct)
● Syllabic lyrics and speech like rhythms makes word clear to understand
● Vocalisation at the end (aaaaaahhhhh)
● Leaps often feature rise in perfect 5ths
● Big leaps described as angular
● Melody mostly described as Legato

● Word painting shows freedom in her thoughts: “I’m through with playing by the rules
of someone else's game.”
● Hexatonic Melody (Melody that spans over six notes)
● Some parts of the melody have been taken from other places: “unlimited”
(somewhere over the rainbow) and “i can’t want it anymore” (west side story)

Harmony:
● Intro uses chords that are unrelated and chromatic
● Most chords are in simple root position
● Use of Dissonance eg. bar 30
● The end includes a pedal note
● Bar 127 thirds create warm sound

Texture:
● MAIN TEXTURE IS HOMOPHONIC
● Intro has a sparse texture with Chord Stabs and some monophonic bars
● Elphaba and glinda usually sing separately
● The outro is polyphonic
● Ostinato (a repeated rhythm section) accompaniment at Bar 88

Rhythm, Metre and Tempo:

● Lots of tempo changes throughout the song
● Song slows down at the end
● Frequent syncopation (playing off beat) throughout
● TEMPO TIMELINE:
1. Intro Starts: 3/2
2. Changes to 2/2
3. Verse 1 starts 4/4
4. At bar 115 goes back to 2/2 until end
● Lots of rallentando (where the tempo slows)
● Dotted rhythms are used throughout eg: in the word “gra-vi-ty”
● Use of lots of triplets
● Mostly Crotchets and Quavers used in the vocal melody
● Rests break up phrases, and phrases often start with rest

Tonality:
 ● MAIN KEY OF PIECE: D major
● Start of piece: tonality is ambiguous. It uses unrelated chord sequences and
chromatic
● Intro briefly modulates to B major in bar 20 before moving to F major at Bar 22, and
finally moves back to the tonic (D major) at the start of the verse.
● The ‘unlimited’ section is in G major and then goes back into D major
● The following andante section (‘Well, are you coming!’) returns to the chromatic
melody similar to the intro.
● It returns to D major for the final verse and the maestoso (ending) is in B minor
before finishing on a D major chord.

Structure and Tempo

● The piece has a verse/chorus form/
● At the beginning the tempo is very free
● Up until the first chorus - the tempo is andante
● The chorus is in Allegro
● The contrasting section (‘unlimited’) in G major is in Moderato
● Chorus is in Allegro
Up until the end it switches between andante and allegro

Motifs
● There are 3 motifs which are repeated throughout the piece
● Motif A and B are normally together for example in bars: 32/33 and 22/23
● Motif C can be seen in bars 49/50 at the intro to chorus 1

Instruments/Sonority
● Defying Gravity is a duet for characters Elphaba and Glinda
● They both utilise a very large vocal range
● The 2 singers either speak, sing or perform their lines half sung-half spoken
● The song uses a big orchestra plus 3 keyboards, drum kit and electric guitars to
create a modern sound.
● Vocal parts cover just under 2 octaves
● The orchestra includes instruments that would not be stereotypically included - for
example: Piccolo, bass clarinet and cor anglais in woodwind. The strings section
includes a harp. The percussion includes a drum kit, tubular bells and a timpani.
● Synthesisers and glockenspiels are used for high pitch ‘magical’ sounds
● The brass plays homophonic chordal music, like a fanfare
● Rhythmic Momentum with a repeated hi hat
● There is a cymbal roll moving into the chorus - adding excitement
● The strings use tremolo to add tension.

Background Info
● From the musical “Wicked” which uses characters and ideas from the Wizard of Oz
● Written by Stephen Schwartz
● First performance in 2003