Jonah Seigler 

Tuesday, August 2, 2022 | Academia

Bernstein uses the tritone in West Side Story to evoke a number of emotions and ideas, such as love, violence, and racial discrimination. In the “Prologue”, the tritone is used throughout the scene when both gangs walk up to each other or are fighting. In “Maria”, the tritone is used to symbolize the forbidden love between Tony and Maria. In “Somewhere”, the tritone represents the sadness and longing for Tony and Maria to be together (Laird & Schiff). In “America”, the tritone is used for the overglorification of American in reference to racial discrimination that the characters experience. As the tritone is placed on the word, America and not on the racial lines of text and negativity, but rather to dilute the connotation, almost to hide it. 

Before we begin, a quick overview of West Side Story. West Side Story is a retelling of Shakespear’s Romeo and Juliet. Instead of two families, there are two rival gangs and a boy and a girl from the opposing gangs fall in love, causing a fiasco (Hanning). Throughout the work Bernstein uses the tritone. The tritone or diminished fifth/augmented fourth is an interval of six semitones. It is one of the most dissonant intervals in music because of this, the interval used to be called the Devil’s Interval. This evoked the negative connotation, in the situation of Berstien’s West Side Story, He uses it thematically for negative topics, such as violence (Laird & Schiff).

The tritone is used throughout the “Prologue”. The first place we hear this interval is in the alto saxophone and vibraphone, in a swung, descending line from F-sharp to B-sharp (Bernstien 2). This is being played as the Jets, one of the rival gangs, are standing menacingly intimidating the others people around them. This first instance is used to establish dominant presence by the dissonance of the interval. The same phrase is played adding the interval again ascending from B-sharp to F-sharp (Conrad), as the Jets intercept a ball from a nearby game being played, just to cause trouble. The Tritone is heard again through this same melodic phrase, but also in accompaniment to provide an accent on the situation. As the Jets dance we hear the Tritone as accompaniment, with the rhythm being played the music and tone sound corrupted, and lop-sided, as if something bad is about to happen. We hear the Tritone again the first time the Jets come in contact with Bernardo, the leader of the rival gang, The Sharks. In this situation the French Horn holding out a G-sharp then ‘resolves’ it to a D, as the Jets look over to Bernardo (Bernstien 10). We continue to har the interval Spread throughout the orchestra, most times followed by a pause, each time the Jets and Sharks meet each other in this scene. In measures 108-109, the tritone appears in the brass with a syncopated rhythm (Bernstien 12), At this moment [11:01], both gangs look at each other with tensions building from this last interval, as it has not resolved. When the actual fight begins [12:00] The style of the music changes to this more aggressive upbeat jazz feel (West Side Story). However, the tritone is still present in each phrase that is played, most of the time at the end of the phrase, mostly in the piccolo and upper strings. One Of the last times that we hear the tritone is when both gangs begin a full brawl [14:53]. We hear this in a chord on the offbeat, paralleling some of the punches being thrown in the brawl. Soon after in the “Jet Song”,  we hear some of the same motives from the “Prologue” that have the tritone, but some of the new motives have the tritone again placed inside of a chord accentuating the text being sung, “We’re hanging a sign/ ‘Visitors forbidden’, this is in reference to The Jets taking out the Sharks. Everytime that we have heard the tritone there has been some element of strife happening in the scene, whether that be actual fighting or just a standoff. Bernstein uses the tritone to express other ideas. The next idea being love.

The Tritone appears again in the orchestra during the Meeting scene just after Bernardo pushes Tony away from Maria. The tritone placed here symbolizes the love and longing between Tony and Maria [42:29]. The next time the interval appears is in the song “Maria”. Bernstein uses this to portray the love between Maria and Tony. The interval for Maria should be consonant, as we hear Tony sing “I have just met the most beautiful girl I have ever seen” (Bernstien).  However, their love is forbidden, as Tony and Maria  have relations to the two opposing gangs, the Jets and the Sharks (Hanning). Tony begins the song with tonality, mostly diatonic until we get to the text [44:53] ‘Maria’ where the tritone is placed. Tony is still star struck, infatuated with Maria and we move back to tonality (Bernstien). After this we hear the same motif in the strings accompanying Tony. The same motive is sung two more times before a key change. Finally, we end the song with the text ‘Maria’ [46:57] starting with the interval of a perfect fifth, and actually resolving to a tritone in the next chord (Bernstien). The tritone is here to symbolize that this relationship between Tony and Maria should not be.

In the song “America” the tritone is used, but it is hidden. The text is about the good in America from the Puerto Rican girl’s point of view, while the Puerto Rican boys point out the bad things of America. The tritone is in the girls chorus during this song. It appears the third time the girls sing “America” [50:37].  The Girls begin singing about how great of a country America isThe tritone placed here is alluding to the racial bias the Puerto Ricans are facing now. The Tritone is placed on the second syllable of the word “America” which places a negative connotation towards America showing how bad racism is, rather than placing it on the actual negative phrases, for example “... For a small fee in America” or “One look at us and they charge twice” (West Side Story). This is how Bernstein has hidden the tritone, rather than placing it on the negatively connotated phrases placing it on the positively connotated words. Bernstein writes similarly in the song “Somewhere”.

In “Somewhere” the tritone appears in accompaniment and the vocals. First it appears in the piano during an eight and sixteenth note pattern leading to the key change [1:52:06], while the piano is the only instrument that has this pattern and interval it is not too noticeable. Once the Modulation is complete we hear the tritone again in the new key between the violins and the piano. The text that is happening here is “We’ll find a new way of living” and it happens on the word “living”, as it gives the idea of Tony and Maria’s love for each other, but alluding to Riff and Bernardo’s death, while also foreshadowing Tony’s Death. The tritone appears again when a similar passage is played in the orchestra. Finally, on the last chords of “Somewhere” the tritone appears between the vocals and the orchestra. This suspends the chord note giving it any resting point. Again, foreshadowing Tony’s death, as Tony and Maria will not have this happy ending they were just singing about. However, the tritone in this case can still serve as a symbol of Tony and Maria’s love. 

As we have seen Bernstein uses the tritone in West Side Story to evoke a number of emotions and ideas. We have seen the tritone used between Tony and Maria to portray an idea of forbidden love in the songs “Maria” and “Somewhere”. While “Somewhere” also uses it to portray death, and the violence that had been associated with the interval. The tritone was used in the “Prologue” to portray violence between the Jets and the Sharks. Lastly we hear the tritone in association of racial discrimination agains the Sharks in the song “America”.

Works Cited

Bernstien, Leonard. West Side Story. Amberson Holdings, LLC; Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company, LLC. Boosey & Hawkes Inc. 1994. Print. 

Conrad, Jon Alan. "West Side Story." Grove Music Online. 2002. Oxford University Press. Date of access 14 Oct. 2020, <https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.databases.msutexas.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000009114> 

Hanning, Barbra Russano. Concise History of Western Music. W.W. Norton and Company. New York. 5th Edition. 2014. Print.

Laird, Paul R., and David Schiff. "Bernstein, Leonard." Grove Music Online.  July 30, 2020. Oxford University Press. Date of access 14 Oct. 2020, <https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.databases.msutexas.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002223796>

West Side Story. Directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, Performances by Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, Music by Leonard Berstien, The Mirisch Corporation. Netflix. 1961.