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Decent Quality Since 1847

Les Miserables Goes Classical

12/13/2014

24 Comments

 
A few years back, I was listening to what is known as the Humming Chorus from the opera, Madame Butterfly, by Giacomo Puccini, and had one of my occasional revelations.  It's that the song "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables is based on it.  I was particularly convinced since the people who wrote Les Miserables -- Claude-Michael Schonberg and Alain Boubil -- also wrote the musical Miss Saigon -- which is based on... Madame Butterfly.  So, clearly they were well-acquainted with the material.

(I don't say this pejoratively.  I like it when composers work other pieces into their work as homages.  Beethoven used what's now known as "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" in his Wellington's Victory.  That hardly diminishes Beethoven.)

I just now have become even more convinced that composer Jean-Michael Schonberg likes to work classical music into his pieces.  The other day I was listening to "Gavotte with Six Variations" by Jean-Philippe Rameau -- and it's clearly the inspiration for the song "Castle in the Cloud" from Boubil-Schonberg's Les Miserables.

And given that they are French as was Rameau, it makes it even more likely that a trained musician would know his country's musical heritage.

For those who might forget how "Castle in the Cloud" goes, here's a short version --

And here is Rameau's Gavotte.  No need to listen to the whole thing, only about the first minute.  After all this is "Six Variations," so after the first go-round the melody gets deeply adapted.  The piece is written for harpsichord, but this is an orchestral arrangement, which I decided to use since it more closely approximates the sound of the stage musical.  And to be clear, it's not the full piece of Rameau music that's the basis of the song, but the main theme, which Schonberg then built on.
By the way, as long as I brought up "Bring Him Home" and "The Humming Chorus," which are what first made me aware of the team's interweaving classical music into their shows, I figure I might as well toss those in here, as well.

To refresh your memory, here's the original Jean Valjean, Colm Wilkinson singing "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables.

(Side note: in a nice touch, when they made the movie of Les Miserables the filmmakers had to good sense and decency to get Colm Wilkinson into the film.  He played the priest at the beginning who takes in Jean Valjean as an escaped prisoner.)

And here is the "Humming Chorus" from Madame Butterfly. 

I am absolutely convinced that this is the inspiration for "Bring Him Home."  Not just because of how similar they sound (listen particularly at the 40-second mark), or the Madame Butterfly connection, but how the last notes as it builds to a high crescendo finish spot-on the same.
24 Comments
Mary DeRogatis
12/8/2015 04:26:58 pm

I was listening to Madame Butterfly today (12/8/15) and just had to investigate if others thought Bring Him Home sounded similar. Your analysis is very informative. Thank you.

Reply
Hazel
1/18/2020 05:28:25 pm

That is exactly why I'm here too (19/01/20). We have done Bring Him Home in my choir group and then listening to Madame Butterfly Humming Chorus, the similarity was unmistakable. I had to see if there was a connection since it seemed far too similar to be a coincidence.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
1/18/2020 07:34:23 pm

Hazel, thanks for your note and good ear. Hopefully you'll stick around the place...

Robert Elisberg
12/8/2015 06:12:55 pm

Mary, thanks for your note. Being informative is our goal -- though we don't always succeed...

Reply
Ilona link
1/10/2016 09:12:02 am

Some years ago I sat at home on a quiet evening listening to Madame Butterfly and suddenly it went BLING and I thought: Good gods, I never realized that. That's like Bring him Home!

Like you I immediately thought Miss Saigon who is the work of the same artists as Les Miserables. Thanks for mentioning the second one, the Gavotte. Didn't know that.

Just now I heard the Humming Chorus again and thought... well, I have to google it, if it's confirmed :D

Reply
Robert Elisberg
1/10/2016 09:25:48 am

Ilona, thanks much for your note and overlapping experience.

Reply
Kim k.
4/2/2016 10:32:08 pm

Just got back from the Met's Live in HD production of Butterfly and also thought I'd heard the similarity. Thanks for the confirmation. Good to know I'm not losing it!

Reply
Robert Elisberg
4/3/2016 11:04:47 am

Kim K, well, that was certainly good timing. Yes, Sane R U.

Reply
S Myers
4/6/2016 07:57:25 pm

Just got home from seeing Madame Butterfly in the Met in HD. My husband picked the similarity right away. Puccini really gets around: Andrew Lloyd Weber took the whole theme for Music of the Night from Girl of the Golden West!

Reply
Robert Elisberg
4/6/2016 09:52:14 pm

S, thanks for the note. That Met HD broadcast clearly has them dancing in the aisles. And your husband obviously has good ears, and I'm assuming a nice smile.

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Peter link
9/16/2017 10:12:56 pm

Yes, this one I have no doubt about. Another pretty blatant Puccini quote (by a different musical composer) is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFs2a9c-hCo

Reply
Robert Elisberg
9/16/2017 11:08:26 pm

Peter, thanks for the note. Listening to your link, I assume you're suggesting "Music of the Night." I agree that there does seem to be a quote there. It doesn't seem as extensive as the use of the Humming Chorus, though the passage is identifiable.

Reply
Steve Hand
3/3/2018 12:53:19 pm

Just listening to "Madame Butterfly" on Live from the Met.
Completely agree on the obvious similarity between "Humming Chorus" and "Bring Him Home" from "Les Miserables".

Reply
Robert Elisberg
3/3/2018 08:01:31 pm

Steve, thanks. Another vote in the "Win" column... I trust you sang along. Or at least hummed.

Reply
Frank Castro
6/8/2018 01:01:08 pm

Well this morning I was casually listening to KUSC 91.5 FM (the last classical station in Los Angeles) and expected the announcer to say they just played music from "Les Mes" but of course it was Puccini's "Humming Chorus" and yes the melody is the same for both. It's interesting this classical station continues to play the "classic" but has been including and more "non-classical" music such as movie scores, show tunes and music from software games. I, for one, enjoy it all. And yes there are quite of few "pop melodies" that have come from "Classics".

Reply
Robert Elisberg
6/9/2018 08:07:41 am

Frank, thanks for your note -- and confirmation! Victoire.

I've written about KUSC in the past. I think they do a respectable job, and much appreciate that they're still broadcasting classical music. But honestly, I dislike the movie score -- and gnash about their latest change, adding some video game music. In fact, before this latest, I wrote about this all here.

http://www.elisbergindustries.com/blog/taking-the-class-out-of-classical

I have a friend who announces for them, Rich Capparela, and as whimsy would have it, I wrote him about the video game music yesterday. To be I think there's a way to handle -- I grew up on WFMT in Chicago, and listen to them online. And as focused on classical music as they are, they occasionally will work oddities in, sometimes Broadway, folks songs and even comedy, but what they do is have a "theme," and tie a few things together, and so there's a structure and meaning to it all. KUSC just tosses these things in as if they're classical music. And they're not. It's not that I don't like listening to them as music -- I do -- just not on a classical music station. I love Broadway, but I wouldn't want to thrown in on a country music station. I explain it all better in the article...

Reply
Steve Percy
3/27/2019 09:24:18 am

I just listened to a version of the Madamme Butterfly Act II Chorus this morning on iTunes and noticed the similarity as well. It took me a minute to remember Bring Him Home so I searched the music from the play without finding any reference to Puccini. When I combined the search I found your 2014 page and was relieved to see I wasn't the only one who noticed. It was nice to see the history of comments on this page and in truth it reminded me that Les Miserables was one of the greatest plays I attended with my wife Karen back in the 1990's in Toronto. Jackman did a great job on the movie but Colm Wilkinson is incomparable.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
3/29/2019 11:00:09 am

Steve, thanks for your note -- and that's a funny story about how you found these pages. (Hopefully there's another here to keep you around from time to time...) But yes, you're not alone.

While I'm not a massive fan of the show, I do enjoy it. And perhaps my favorite thing about the movie adaptation is that they had the very thoughtful and decent presence of mind to get Colm Wilkinson into the movie -- and not just in a brief cameo, but a substantive role.

Reply
Beth
11/29/2020 07:53:54 am

Here towards the end of 2020, this page is still the top result for curious people hearing a similarity! I was just trying to sing along the words for 'Bring him home' to the 'Humming Chorus' on Classic FM and was sure it couldn't be coincidence.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
11/30/2020 09:03:15 am

Beth, thanks for your note. Very surprising, but nice to know. Glad it's here for you to sing along with...

Reply
Helen Whatnell
4/3/2021 12:25:15 pm

And here we are in April 2021 and sitting listening to the Classic FM top favorites and hearing ‘The Humming Chorus’ and saying isn’t that from Les Miserables!!! You still come top of the search for ‘Madame Butterfly and Les Miserables?’!!!

Reply
Robert Elisberg
4/5/2021 07:01:12 am

Helen, thanks for the note. Ha! "Isn't that from Les Miserables?" Yes, the producers are preparing to sue the pants off Puccini...

But seven years after writing this and still, "You're the top"?! It's like living in a Cole Porter song.

Reply
Gaye Lowans link
6/22/2021 05:52:22 am

Hey thanks for that. I have pondered for years at the similarity of’Bring me home’ to The Humming Song. Glad to know I am not cracking up.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
6/22/2021 07:46:20 am

Gaye, thanks for your note. Glad to know that your pondering days about this are over...

Reply



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    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



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