Music and the Fictive Dream: The Last Five Years

 

One afternoon I walked into my choir class and our teacher told us that today we would be watching The Last Five Years. It was the end of semester so usually the class periods were filled with watching movies. Watching this movie adaptation of the musical was life changing for me. I literally recommend this to anyone I meet. 

    The musical The Last Five Years was originally an off broadway musical in 2002, that went on broadway and in 2014 was turned into a movie. This musical was written and composed by Jason Robert Brown. The story is told in a non-linear fashion. Cathy tells the story of their five year relationship from end to beginning, while Jamie tells it beginning to end. Jamie and Cathy are both in their early twenties, and are living in New York City. Jamie is a rising writer and Cathy is a struggling artist. 

    Throughout the musical there is very little dialogue, the majority of the story telling is through the songs. The story touches on the highs and lows of their relationship, the good, the bad and the ugly. The highs of Jamie becoming a published author to the lows of him cheating Cathy. Everything from the sweet honeymoon phase of a new relationship to the bitter ending of the divorce. 

    The work I want to touch on is called The Next Ten Minutes. This video is from the movie adaptation from 2014, starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan, directed by Richard LaGravenese.

    I chose this because I feel like it is such an important part of the musical. This song takes place in the middle of the story. This is the only part of the musical where both sides of the story intersected, where both sides of the story are happy and content. The song takes you through their engagement and their wedding. It is also the only song in the whole musical that they are singing to each other and not about the situation. The song talks about how they are both mutually excited for their future together, talking about spending the next million summers together. This is one of the only times we will see both people happy and excited to be together. Since the stories are told from opposite timelines, you are usually seeing one person being upset or another. However in this one split second (or 8 minutes) you see both of them feeling happy and excited for their future together. 

    In this song the music starts off soft and airy, it feels like you are walking through central park with them. As time goes by and we get closer to the wedding the music crescendos during their wedding, signifying how important this moment is for their relationship. At the end the music becomes softer again as they settle into their new lives together. It takes you through all the emotions of starting a new and what should be an exciting part of a relationship. 

    I think one of the big social commentaries we can take away is that there are always two sides to the same story. This musical takes that to the new extreme of watching it play out from two perspectives over two different timelines. As the outsiders looking in it can feel hard to watch a relationship unravel not once but twice. However this shows how many different ways a relationship can go south. Each song shows a new aspect of their relationship and how it affected them long term. While this musical takes place over the course of 5 years I wonder if the problems that they were having would have stayed the same or changed? 

     I think that this musical is filled with a ton of loss and heartbreak. Constantly flipping between two emotions, it can be a roller coaster at times. The song The Next Ten Minutes allows the audience to take a break and feel how the main characters felt for just a moment. Happy, in love and ready to take on the future.

references

Anastasia Brown - Dreams of the Screen. (2024, April 18). The music of ’the last five years’ - analysis and Review. Medium. https://anastasiabrownn.medium.com/the-music-of-the-last-five-years-analysis-and-review-2d63d0a2569b

Poliandro, R. (2021, February 17). The last five years - relationship analysis. Medium. https://itsonlyintermission.medium.com/the-last-five-years-relationship-analysis-62e1a75928ed

Role of the Performer: Pentatonix

 

The acapella group Pentatonix got their start in 2011. Three friends from Arlington Texas auditioned to be in the show “The Sing-Off”. When Scott, Kristen and Mitch learned that in order to be considered a group they need five members they recruited Avi and Kevin. In the end, or should I say beginning they won season 3 of the Sing-Off. 

While Pentatonix has a few original songs they are absolute pros at making acapella covers of popular music. Some of my favorites are God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Mary Did You Know? . As a theater kid and choir kid I was and still am obsessed with Pentatonix. In order to sing acapella you have to have incredible control of your voice, not to mention all 5 of them having to have that control. In order to sing acapella we look for a clear tone of voice, your pitch and your breath control. In typical choirs you have multiple people singing the same notes with you so there is room for error. However in this setting they are incharge of themselves. A lot is riding on their own individual performances as well as how they perform as a whole. The blending has to be perfect so it will sound how they intended it to be.

I think that the Pentatonix have a really important role as the performer, to expand our understanding of what music can look like. I think acapella is so fascinating. When you listen to music we often focus on the instrumental parts. Citing how much we love the piano or the guitar or the drums. When you are acapella your voice is the instrument. It really gets to show off how amazing the human voice can be. How it can morph and change to fit the song. I often forget that they are singing acapella and I have to relisten because my brain thinks that there's instruments, when in reality it is all the voice. As performers they bring light and a new sound to familiar and unfamiliar songs. 

Pentatonix are still making acapella covers. On their youtube they updated their cover of Bohemian Rhapsody.

References

Alan Sculley, Last Word Features. “Pentatonix.” The State Journal-Register, State Journal-Register, 7 Aug. 2019, www.sj-r.com/story/entertainment/music/2019/08/08/pentatonix/4516136007/. 

Greenburg, Zack O’Malley. “Pentatonix: Everything You Need to Know about the World’s Biggest a Cappella Act.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 30 June 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2016/01/05/pentatonix-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-worlds-biggest-a-cappella-act/.