Listening Descriptions for Chicago

                 For my first official musical description of Chicago, I am going to describe “The Cell Block Tango.” This song one of the more well known songs of Chicago and there is a lot to discuss with this song.

                 First, the title. “The Cell Block Tango.” Here are some definition of the tango, “a ballroom dance of Latin American origin; music is written in duple time for dancing the tango.” (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn) Interestingly enough, in the beginning a man announces “the six merry murderesses of the Cook County jail.” According to one site, the tango is a style of music that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina. It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as a orquesta tipica, which includes two violins, piano, doublebass, and two bandoneons.” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tango). 

          Perhaps it is a bit of a stretch, but I believe that the six female criminals may represent the six instruments that are played in a traditional tango. Also, because the tango is a dance, it is meant for two people. The tango has various connotations, most of which are sexual in nature. It is a very fiery and intimate dance, and this plays into the meaning of the song in itself. In terms of the text, it is basically various stories from the criminals’ perspective. They explain how the men did them wrong, and how “you would have done the same.” Because the tango is such an intimate and passionate dance, it also suggests the impulsiveness of the crimes committed. 

               The tango sums up their relationships with the men in their lives; primitive, sexual, and passionate. However, there is also that theme of independence, of their desire to stand alone as women. However, during the chorus, all of the women sing together, which suggests their unity not really as criminals but rather, as women who have been wronged.

              When the song begins, there is a huge brass crescendo, there is also castanets to set the rhythm. A man introduces women (as stated earlier) as this happens. Then each woman rhythmically says a word. The sequence is  “pop, six, swish, uh-huh, Cicero, lipshitz.” Then there is another brass conjunct series of notes. These are not only used as rhythm within the piece, but they are part of their personal stories of why they killed their men.       

       During the first two stories, the chorus underneath is the same. When there is a woman telling a story, underneath you can hear the other women with that chorus, “he had it coming, he had only himself to blame.” At a certain point, the music stops as the woman states how she killed him. Then is followed by a loud blast of trumpets. This just really adds emphasis, in a similar way that an exclamation point helps an imperative sentence.

             When one woman tells the story of her jealous husband who believed she was having relations with the milkman, the layers underneath changes and it just returns to “pop, six, swish, etc.” During that story, there is more percussion used to layer the music and it has more a dancing rhythm. The actual way she killed him (stabbing) worked with the quick percussion, and in some regards, one could almost picture the jealous husband tapping his foot at her.

         After her story, a hungarian woman tells about her relationship. Granted, it is in hungarian and the details of the story are not really understandable to English speakers, the music still conveys a lot of meaning. The music is much sweeter and the accompaniment is higher in pitch and more heavenly essentially. There seems to be more string instruments in this segment of the song.

      Then there is an almost pause as the women sing very softly “he had it coming, he had it coming, he only had himself to blame, if you had been there if you had seen it, I bet you, you would have done the same” repeatedly as Velma tells her story overtop of it. 

          Then the piano increase in dynamics a bit in an almost triumphant tone.Velma leads the chorus, in a call and response format. After the final story is explained, there is a loud chorus with two distinct groups. The way that the two groups work, they almost push each other musically, and this is aided by the rhythms and accompaniment. As the song winds down and the dynamics become softer, you can hear the series of sounds (pop, six, squish, etc.) clearly, as there becomes less accompaniment and it is strictly rhythms (you can still hear castanets, a bass line, and their voices.) Then also have key words that were used in their stories as well such as “you pop that gum one more time!” “Single my ass!” and “Artistic differences..” all of these and more add a bit of rhythm and layers. In the last line, “I bet you would have done the same,” the brass sections ascends up the scale, and drops dramatically on the final note. This disjunct gap between the climatic note and the final note adds intensity to it.  

               Overall, most of the dialogue is conjunct naturally, and the chorus is more disjunct. This makes the chorus more dramatic and intense. The dynamics, articulation, and phrasing in combination helps enhance the song greatly. There also seems to be some synopation in the song as well.