Review Assignment: Feel Them Bewitch You (with an analysis)

My favourite song from this movie is "God Help the Outcasts".  Although "Out There", as sung by Quasimodo, packs a powerful emotional punch, it is essentially a plea for his own personal fulfilment, whereas in "God Help the Outcasts" Esmeralda is asking for fulfilment for other people: all the outcasts of the world, including the other gypsies and Quasimodo.  Here she is protesting against the racism and discrimination suffered by people who are different from other people – gypsies and people like Quasimodo with physical deformities – and also poor people – at the hands of villains like Judge Claude Frollo and ignorant people like most Parisians were at that time.  She also criticizes those who pray for personal fame and fortune rather than for the welfare of those less fortunate than themselves.  She shows herself to be selfless and empathetic, since, although she is imprisoned, she asks for nothing for herself.  She also shows herself to be a little naive.  Although she's not sure that God even exists or, if so, whether He will listen to a gypsy's prayer, she follows the Archdeacon's advice and prays to God to help the outcasts rather than suggesting that people do so.  She appeals to God on the grounds that all the people, even the outcasts, are His children, and to Jesus on the grounds that he too was an outcast, but ultimately it isn't Jesus or God who saves the day, it is Quasimodo and Captain Phoebus.  In this respect, the song Someday, which was discarded in favour of God Help the Outcasts, is superior, but it doesn't pack the same emotional punch because it simply isn't as beautiful a song, musically speaking.  There really isn't any other song in the Disney repertoire that shows quite the same degree of concern for other people as God Help the Outcasts.  The one that comes closest is the title song from "The Beauty and the Beast", another musically beautiful song in which the enchanted teapot encourages Belle and Adam to love each other.  That was my favourite Disney song until I heard God Help the Outcasts.

In analyzing this song, I'll stick to what I know best – the music – rather than attempt to discuss literary devices.  The lyrics were written by Stephen Schwartz and the music was composed by Alan Menken.  In the movie it is sung by the contralto Heidi Mollenhauer, who covers a vocal range of an octave and a perfect fifth from the F below middle C to the C above middle C (Bette Midler's version is a perfect fourth higher).  The time signature is 3/4, the tempo indication is 63 quarter notes a minute and the key is originally B flat major, modulating to C major.  Aside from the haunting melody, which is beautifully sung, Alan Menken uses a wide variety of chords to add to the emotional effect, in particular, the chord C, E flat, G flat, B flat alternating with the B flat major chord.  The solo violin provides a melody of its own above the singer's voice – a descant that adds to the beauty of the song.  I'm thinking of arranging it for bass recorder and piano for a friend of mine who plays the recorder to perform with his accompanist at his music teacher's student recital.  (Added later: He didn't like the song; so I didn't arrange it.)

Some of the information for this analysis came from the web site

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Help_the_Outcasts.