Teaching Materials
Using An American Tragedy to Teach Music
Motivations
Clyde Griffiths’s Relationships
Specific Arias
Clyde Griffiths’s Relationships:
Clyde Griffiths is the main protagonist of Tobias Picker’s opera, An American Tragedy. His relationships with his mother Elvira, his Uncle Samuel and his two objects of affection, Roberta Alden and Sondra Finchley, play pivotal roles in the opera and shape the trajectory of his life.
Clyde as a Young Boy with his mother Elvira:
The opening scene of the opera takes place when Clyde is a young boy. His father is deceased and his family is poor. Poorly clothed, he stands out on a street corner with his mother Elvira and his siblings, proselytizing Salvation Army style to a group of passersby. Clyde takes the lead in the hymn, singing a cappella. This is one of the only purely diatonic (staying in one key without any note alterations) melodies in the entire opera. First Clyde sings the main hymn melody (Ex. #1a). Soon his mother joins in, in counterpoint (Ex. 1b). His five sisters then join in block-chordal, traditional hymn style.
Clyde and Hortense:
The scene shifts forward many years. Clyde is grown up and works as a bell hop in a Chicago hotel. He flirts with Hortense, a chambermaid. In the first of a number of ostinato (repetitive rhythm) passages to be heard throughout the opera, Clyde tries to dance with Hortense. His vocal line, as do most of the vocal melodies in the opera, reflects the rhythmic pattern of speech, while the orchestra supports him with an ostinato bass figure and a chromatic melody above (Ex. #2). The resultant sound gives off a jazzy flavor, a typical sound from Chicago in the second decade of the 20th century. Hortense rebuffs Clyde’s advances at first, because he is poor.
Clyde and Uncle Samuel:
Samuel Griffiths, Clyde’s rich uncle, is staying at the same hotel. Clyde’s father (Samuel’s brother Asa) is deceased, and Samuel has become a successful businessman, employing over 300 workers in a shirt factory in Lycurgus, a small town in New York. He offers Clyde a job. Samuel’s music throughout the scene has a flowing, lilting rhythm, bespeaking the confidence of a successful man (Ex. #3a).
Note the dotted rhythm on the first two beats, followed by a catchy 16th note syncopated feel on the third beat. The second measure has a similar feel—dotted rhythm and three syncopated 16th note figures. All the while a stately stepwise descent in the bass line gives a solid support and foundation to the rhythmic figure above. In similar style—dotted rhythms interspersed with short 16th note phrases, Uncle Sam (as he is called) makes his offer to Clyde (Ex. 3b).
Hortense, the chambermaid, having overheard the job offer to Clyde, is now ready to date him, but Clyde is no longer interested. The style of music mentioned above in example #2 (ostinato rhythmic bass with chromatic melody) returns as Hortense is rebuffed by Clyde.
Clyde and Roberta:
Roberta is one of the workers at the shirt factory in Lycurgus. Clyde, the new worker, has caught her eye. One evening Roberta goes out with a friend to the local music hall. Clyde just happens to come by the music hall that evening and has an innocent chat with Roberta. (He has previously been warned by one of Uncle Sam’s son’s not to fraternize with the workers from the shirt factory, especially the female ones.) As Clyde describes to Roberta what his youth was like, singing hymns on the street with his family, we hear a reprise of the tune heard earlier in example #1, with young Clyde singing in unison with him, while his mother Elvira chides him, “Know that the devil tempts and pursues” (Ex. #4).
After the show at the music hall, Roberta meets Clyde again, this time by design, as he has waited for her. The orchestra strikes up another ostinato rhythmic figure as they exchange flattering remarks to each other (Ex. #5).
When Clyde refers to his uncle and his new job, example #3a returns, as a kind of identification Uncle Sam motif. A stretto-like imitation figure (repeating the same figure a couple of beats later in a kind of echo effect) concludes their duet (Ex. #6) as they plan to meet again the next night.
They kiss to the rhythmic figure heard earlier as example #5, with a sweet melodic line accompanying their embrace. The scene then changes to the rich Griffith home to the Uncle Sam motif (Ex. #3a).
In the next scene, a low repeated ostinato bass accompanies Clyde’s request to enter Roberta’s apartment saying that they have been going out for “six long weeks.” But Roberta is a proper girl and she refuses, saying, “It wouldn’t be right, someone might see.” Their opposing wishes are harmonized to the same melody and rhythm (Ex. #7).
But soon Roberta relents and they go inside. Meanwhile on the other side of the stage, Gilbert Griffeth (Clyde’s cousin) dances with Sondra Finchley, a beautiful and rich society girl who earlier had met Clyde for the first time at the Griffith estate. They dance to a hypnotic ostinato beat with a sensuous triplet melody in the orchestra (Ex. #8). Soon the timpani take up the insistent beat.
The lights then go back up on Clyde and Roberta. The scene becomes a trio as Sondra sings to Clyde on one side of the stage, preparing to invite him to a party, while Roberta reveals her true feelings to him as Clyde repeats to her that it has been “six weeks” (Ex. #9).
Clyde and Sondra:
The scene then changes to a supper club where Clyde is now seen dancing with Sondra. The love-triangle is taking shape, with Clyde in the middle and Roberta and Sondra both vying for Clyde’s affections. Clyde is clearly smitten with Sondra, which an ostinato bass and a seductive triplet rhythm over it reinforce.
Clyde and Roberta:
An agitated interlude leads to the final scene of Act I. Clyde returns to Roberta later that night, having kept her waiting hours for him. He makes excuses for being late until he senses that something is wrong. Roberta tells him that she is pregnant and wants to marry him. Clyde balks. He feels that he has not saved enough money yet. We know that is just an excuse as his affections have turned from Roberta to Sondra. Clyde’s duet with Roberta is at cross purposes with each other (Ex. #11).
In a poignant melody she pleads with him to marry her (Ex. #12). Clyde asks for more time so he can earn some more money first. He promises to come for her soon.
Clyde and Sondra:
After Roberta reads Clyde a letter begging him to come for her (see in next section, “Arias”), the scene changes to Clyde and Sondra. They declare their love for each other as their feet dangle in a lake. Clyde, impatiently begs Sondra to run away with him, but Sondra puts him off, saying they have all the time in the world. Their duet is once again at cross purposes—textually, melodically and rhythmically (Ex. #13).
Clyde and Roberta:
In the opera’s climactic and most pivotal scene, Clyde and Roberta go boating on a lake. Clyde promises Roberta that they will be married in the morning. The lake is calm and peaceful. No one else is around. A deep ostinato repetitive figure sets an ominous tone. The boat stops in the middle of the lake. Clyde is distressed, with inner conflict and turmoil. Sondra has supplanted Roberta for his affections and he doesn’t know how to deal with Roberta. Roberta notices that he looks so strange, so troubled (Ex. #14a).
She stands up in the boat to approach him. There are harsh, dissonant chords. Clyde tries to keep Roberta from touching him, swinging his arms wildly. Clutching his camera in his hand, he inadvertently hits her with it. She loses her balance and falls overboard. She calls for help (Ex. #14b).
Though able to save her, Clyde watches her drown. The scene changes to the Griffith’s vacation home as the familiar “Uncle Sam” motif (Ex. #3) is heard once again.
Clyde and Orville Mason:
Clyde is arrested and brought to trial by the prosecuting attorney Orville Mason. He introduces Roberta’s love letters as evidence. They have even been published in the local newspaper. He reads from some of them in court. As he begins to read, the melody and accompaniment is the same as when Roberta read them—see next section on “Arias” (Ex. # 21a) Orville slowly builds his case, averring that Clyde was no longer enamored with Roberta, but with another woman (whom we know is Sondra). Clyde admits that “she was so beautiful, much more than Roberta.” He rhapsodizes over her (Ex. #15a).
Orville claims that he lied to both women and is lying now about what really happened. He builds a circumstantial, but convincing case. Clyde claims that he searched in vain for Roberta after she fell into the lake (Ex. #15b).
Orville then produces a letter that Roberta wrote to her mother. It was found on Roberta’s dead body. The orchestral accompaniment becomes agitated. The very boat in question is brought into court as evidence. At the climax of his cross examination, Orville gets into that boat, picks up an oar and smashes it with great force (Ex. #15c).
This is sung virtually a cappella, with just a low drone bass for support, punctuated by a dissonant chord in the orchestra as he smashes the oar on the seat of the boat. It is a chilling climax to the prosecution’s case. The chorus in the jury room antiphonally echoes his words, “He hit her! He hit her!” and “He killed his unborn child!” Finally the jury shouts, “Guilty as charged!” (Ex. #15d).
Clyde and Elvira and Young Clyde:
The opera has come to its inevitable denouement. Clyde has been convicted of murder and is on death row awaiting his execution. He hears Sondra’s voice reading him a letter which he has heard many times before. In this letter she expresses her profound sorrow and that she has suffered too, but that she will never see him again. He destroys the letter. His mother Elvira tries to comfort him just before his death. Clyde persists to the end that it was an accident, but that he did not save her—he could have saved her, but he let Roberta drown. Elvira responds, “Then in your heart is was murder.” She beseeches him to pray to the Lord in his final moments. He does (Ex. #16).
He confesses that he plotted evil. As Clyde is led to the death chamber, still praying, the young Clyde appears once more. His opening hymn (Ex. #1) returns in counterpoint to Clyde’s final prayer (Ex. #17). Three final soft taps on the timpani bring the opera to a close.
Specific Arias:
Tobias Picker, composer of An American Tragedy, has delineated seven specific arias in the index of his score to the opera. He has given them specific names.
Car Aria:
Clyde starts work in his uncle’s shirt factory in Lycurgus, a small town in New York State. He has caught the eye of Roberta, one of the workers. At the close of the work day, Roberta makes plans to meet a friend at the local music hall, making sure that Clyde overhears her. Clyde had earlier been told by Gilbert Griffiths, his cousin, how to do his work and advised not to fraternize with the ladies. In what is called the “Car Aria” Clyde reflects on his past disappointments and his hopes for the future. The aria starts with the rhythmic “honking” of an interval of a minor 3rd (Ex. #18a).
The orchestral accompaniment has open 5ths on the beat and dissonant 7th chords off the beat, giving a driving pulse to the harmonic support. Note the continued “honking” intervals on the last beat. Clyde concludes his aria as he describes the car of his dreams (Ex. #18b).
New York Aria:
The scene is the Griffiths’ lavish home. Clyde’s uncle and aunt, Samuel and Elizabeth Griffiths, have a daughter Bella who has brought home a new friend Sondra from New York City. When the family leaves the room, Sondra describes to Bella how New York has changed her. Sondra starts her aria with an upward leap of a 7th, “New York has changed me” (Ex. #19a).
There is another similar melodic leap on “New York reaches out like the Brooklyn Bridge (Ex. #19b).
“You should see Fifth Avenue” has yet another (Ex. #19c).
She concludes her aria by repeating the opening line, this time with the awkward intervallic leap of a minor 9th (Ex. #19d).
Diving Aria:
Sondra has danced with Clyde and the two of them have exuded an attractive chemistry between them. She describes her family’s summer cottage by the lake to him. Certain key phrases in her free-flowing melody take on a melismatic (many notes to one syllable) property. Note the melismas in the following key words: “The breeze off the water” (Ex. #20a); “This is the place where I feel truly free” (Ex. #20b); “Balanced on the edge of the (diving) board,” featuring additional wide leaps in the melodic line (Ex. #20c); “Clyde, can you catch me” (Ex. #20d).
Letter Aria:
The beginning of Act II starts with Roberta’s “Letter Aria” in which she reads various letters she has written to Clyde, begging him to come home. The aria is in symmetrical phrases, two phrases ascending (Ex. #21a), followed by two phrases descending (21b).
The melody is diatonic with a simple stepwise melody with follows the rhythm of the words. The accompaniment has a relaxed triplet feel. The content of the letter is very simple and straightforward. She clearly misses Clyde. Near the end of the aria the melody becomes more agitated with wider leaps and chromatic notes added as Roberta emotionally says, “My Clyde, I cannot wait forever…you must come for me. Take me away” (Ex. #21c).
After a brief change of scene showing Clyde and Sondra declaring their love for each other, the “Letter Aria” continues in the same vein. In a clever juxtaposition of identical emotions, Roberta and Sondra continue the aria in unison on separate sides of the stage (Ex. 21d).
Their voices then echo each other in identical melodies and rhythms on octave apart (Ex. 21e).
Clearly Clyde has a dilemma and an impossible choice to make. Roberta continues her letter alone, more angrily, with an angular, wide-leaping melody and punctuated by dissonant chords as she gives Clyde an ultimatum, “…unless I hear from you…by Friday noon, I shall come to Lycurgus” (Ex. #21f). A pounding ostinato bass underscores the power and pain of Roberta’s predicament.
Soliloquy:
In an aria called “Soliloquy” Clyde ponders his state of mind, considering the impossible situation he is in. He has gotten Roberta pregnant. He has promised to marry her. He can put off her pleas for marriage only so long. And he is clearly in love with Sondra. He hatches a scheme to murder Roberta (Ex. #22). His melodic phrases are disjointed, almost hallucinatory, as if in a dream.
Elvira’s Aria:
Clyde is arrested and tried for murder. Roberta’s letters have been found, published in the newspapers, and sung aloud by the chorus. It is damning evidence of his close relationship with Roberta. The jury convicts Clyde and he is sentenced to die in the electric chair. Elvira visits her son in his jail cell. Clyde insists that he did nothing wrong, that it was not murder, but an accident. In a poignant aria, Elvira begs him to tell the jury that he has returned to Christ (Ex. #23).
In a more than two octave leap upward to a high C, she cries out, “Oh God.” Even Clyde’s mother, whose entire life has been wrapped up in the church, is unable to save her son from “An American Tragedy.”
Clyde Griffiths’s Relationships
Specific Arias
Clyde Griffiths’s Relationships:
Clyde Griffiths is the main protagonist of Tobias Picker’s opera, An American Tragedy. His relationships with his mother Elvira, his Uncle Samuel and his two objects of affection, Roberta Alden and Sondra Finchley, play pivotal roles in the opera and shape the trajectory of his life.
Clyde as a Young Boy with his mother Elvira:
The opening scene of the opera takes place when Clyde is a young boy. His father is deceased and his family is poor. Poorly clothed, he stands out on a street corner with his mother Elvira and his siblings, proselytizing Salvation Army style to a group of passersby. Clyde takes the lead in the hymn, singing a cappella. This is one of the only purely diatonic (staying in one key without any note alterations) melodies in the entire opera. First Clyde sings the main hymn melody (Ex. #1a). Soon his mother joins in, in counterpoint (Ex. 1b). His five sisters then join in block-chordal, traditional hymn style.
Clyde and Hortense:
The scene shifts forward many years. Clyde is grown up and works as a bell hop in a Chicago hotel. He flirts with Hortense, a chambermaid. In the first of a number of ostinato (repetitive rhythm) passages to be heard throughout the opera, Clyde tries to dance with Hortense. His vocal line, as do most of the vocal melodies in the opera, reflects the rhythmic pattern of speech, while the orchestra supports him with an ostinato bass figure and a chromatic melody above (Ex. #2). The resultant sound gives off a jazzy flavor, a typical sound from Chicago in the second decade of the 20th century. Hortense rebuffs Clyde’s advances at first, because he is poor.
Clyde and Uncle Samuel:
Samuel Griffiths, Clyde’s rich uncle, is staying at the same hotel. Clyde’s father (Samuel’s brother Asa) is deceased, and Samuel has become a successful businessman, employing over 300 workers in a shirt factory in Lycurgus, a small town in New York. He offers Clyde a job. Samuel’s music throughout the scene has a flowing, lilting rhythm, bespeaking the confidence of a successful man (Ex. #3a).
Note the dotted rhythm on the first two beats, followed by a catchy 16th note syncopated feel on the third beat. The second measure has a similar feel—dotted rhythm and three syncopated 16th note figures. All the while a stately stepwise descent in the bass line gives a solid support and foundation to the rhythmic figure above. In similar style—dotted rhythms interspersed with short 16th note phrases, Uncle Sam (as he is called) makes his offer to Clyde (Ex. 3b).
Hortense, the chambermaid, having overheard the job offer to Clyde, is now ready to date him, but Clyde is no longer interested. The style of music mentioned above in example #2 (ostinato rhythmic bass with chromatic melody) returns as Hortense is rebuffed by Clyde.
Clyde and Roberta:
Roberta is one of the workers at the shirt factory in Lycurgus. Clyde, the new worker, has caught her eye. One evening Roberta goes out with a friend to the local music hall. Clyde just happens to come by the music hall that evening and has an innocent chat with Roberta. (He has previously been warned by one of Uncle Sam’s son’s not to fraternize with the workers from the shirt factory, especially the female ones.) As Clyde describes to Roberta what his youth was like, singing hymns on the street with his family, we hear a reprise of the tune heard earlier in example #1, with young Clyde singing in unison with him, while his mother Elvira chides him, “Know that the devil tempts and pursues” (Ex. #4).
After the show at the music hall, Roberta meets Clyde again, this time by design, as he has waited for her. The orchestra strikes up another ostinato rhythmic figure as they exchange flattering remarks to each other (Ex. #5).
When Clyde refers to his uncle and his new job, example #3a returns, as a kind of identification Uncle Sam motif. A stretto-like imitation figure (repeating the same figure a couple of beats later in a kind of echo effect) concludes their duet (Ex. #6) as they plan to meet again the next night.
They kiss to the rhythmic figure heard earlier as example #5, with a sweet melodic line accompanying their embrace. The scene then changes to the rich Griffith home to the Uncle Sam motif (Ex. #3a).
In the next scene, a low repeated ostinato bass accompanies Clyde’s request to enter Roberta’s apartment saying that they have been going out for “six long weeks.” But Roberta is a proper girl and she refuses, saying, “It wouldn’t be right, someone might see.” Their opposing wishes are harmonized to the same melody and rhythm (Ex. #7).
But soon Roberta relents and they go inside. Meanwhile on the other side of the stage, Gilbert Griffeth (Clyde’s cousin) dances with Sondra Finchley, a beautiful and rich society girl who earlier had met Clyde for the first time at the Griffith estate. They dance to a hypnotic ostinato beat with a sensuous triplet melody in the orchestra (Ex. #8). Soon the timpani take up the insistent beat.
The lights then go back up on Clyde and Roberta. The scene becomes a trio as Sondra sings to Clyde on one side of the stage, preparing to invite him to a party, while Roberta reveals her true feelings to him as Clyde repeats to her that it has been “six weeks” (Ex. #9).
Clyde and Sondra:
The scene then changes to a supper club where Clyde is now seen dancing with Sondra. The love-triangle is taking shape, with Clyde in the middle and Roberta and Sondra both vying for Clyde’s affections. Clyde is clearly smitten with Sondra, which an ostinato bass and a seductive triplet rhythm over it reinforce.
Clyde and Roberta:
An agitated interlude leads to the final scene of Act I. Clyde returns to Roberta later that night, having kept her waiting hours for him. He makes excuses for being late until he senses that something is wrong. Roberta tells him that she is pregnant and wants to marry him. Clyde balks. He feels that he has not saved enough money yet. We know that is just an excuse as his affections have turned from Roberta to Sondra. Clyde’s duet with Roberta is at cross purposes with each other (Ex. #11).
In a poignant melody she pleads with him to marry her (Ex. #12). Clyde asks for more time so he can earn some more money first. He promises to come for her soon.
Clyde and Sondra:
After Roberta reads Clyde a letter begging him to come for her (see in next section, “Arias”), the scene changes to Clyde and Sondra. They declare their love for each other as their feet dangle in a lake. Clyde, impatiently begs Sondra to run away with him, but Sondra puts him off, saying they have all the time in the world. Their duet is once again at cross purposes—textually, melodically and rhythmically (Ex. #13).
Clyde and Roberta:
In the opera’s climactic and most pivotal scene, Clyde and Roberta go boating on a lake. Clyde promises Roberta that they will be married in the morning. The lake is calm and peaceful. No one else is around. A deep ostinato repetitive figure sets an ominous tone. The boat stops in the middle of the lake. Clyde is distressed, with inner conflict and turmoil. Sondra has supplanted Roberta for his affections and he doesn’t know how to deal with Roberta. Roberta notices that he looks so strange, so troubled (Ex. #14a).
She stands up in the boat to approach him. There are harsh, dissonant chords. Clyde tries to keep Roberta from touching him, swinging his arms wildly. Clutching his camera in his hand, he inadvertently hits her with it. She loses her balance and falls overboard. She calls for help (Ex. #14b).
Though able to save her, Clyde watches her drown. The scene changes to the Griffith’s vacation home as the familiar “Uncle Sam” motif (Ex. #3) is heard once again.
Clyde and Orville Mason:
Clyde is arrested and brought to trial by the prosecuting attorney Orville Mason. He introduces Roberta’s love letters as evidence. They have even been published in the local newspaper. He reads from some of them in court. As he begins to read, the melody and accompaniment is the same as when Roberta read them—see next section on “Arias” (Ex. # 21a) Orville slowly builds his case, averring that Clyde was no longer enamored with Roberta, but with another woman (whom we know is Sondra). Clyde admits that “she was so beautiful, much more than Roberta.” He rhapsodizes over her (Ex. #15a).
Orville claims that he lied to both women and is lying now about what really happened. He builds a circumstantial, but convincing case. Clyde claims that he searched in vain for Roberta after she fell into the lake (Ex. #15b).
Orville then produces a letter that Roberta wrote to her mother. It was found on Roberta’s dead body. The orchestral accompaniment becomes agitated. The very boat in question is brought into court as evidence. At the climax of his cross examination, Orville gets into that boat, picks up an oar and smashes it with great force (Ex. #15c).
This is sung virtually a cappella, with just a low drone bass for support, punctuated by a dissonant chord in the orchestra as he smashes the oar on the seat of the boat. It is a chilling climax to the prosecution’s case. The chorus in the jury room antiphonally echoes his words, “He hit her! He hit her!” and “He killed his unborn child!” Finally the jury shouts, “Guilty as charged!” (Ex. #15d).
Clyde and Elvira and Young Clyde:
The opera has come to its inevitable denouement. Clyde has been convicted of murder and is on death row awaiting his execution. He hears Sondra’s voice reading him a letter which he has heard many times before. In this letter she expresses her profound sorrow and that she has suffered too, but that she will never see him again. He destroys the letter. His mother Elvira tries to comfort him just before his death. Clyde persists to the end that it was an accident, but that he did not save her—he could have saved her, but he let Roberta drown. Elvira responds, “Then in your heart is was murder.” She beseeches him to pray to the Lord in his final moments. He does (Ex. #16).
He confesses that he plotted evil. As Clyde is led to the death chamber, still praying, the young Clyde appears once more. His opening hymn (Ex. #1) returns in counterpoint to Clyde’s final prayer (Ex. #17). Three final soft taps on the timpani bring the opera to a close.
Specific Arias:
Tobias Picker, composer of An American Tragedy, has delineated seven specific arias in the index of his score to the opera. He has given them specific names.
Car Aria:
Clyde starts work in his uncle’s shirt factory in Lycurgus, a small town in New York State. He has caught the eye of Roberta, one of the workers. At the close of the work day, Roberta makes plans to meet a friend at the local music hall, making sure that Clyde overhears her. Clyde had earlier been told by Gilbert Griffiths, his cousin, how to do his work and advised not to fraternize with the ladies. In what is called the “Car Aria” Clyde reflects on his past disappointments and his hopes for the future. The aria starts with the rhythmic “honking” of an interval of a minor 3rd (Ex. #18a).
The orchestral accompaniment has open 5ths on the beat and dissonant 7th chords off the beat, giving a driving pulse to the harmonic support. Note the continued “honking” intervals on the last beat. Clyde concludes his aria as he describes the car of his dreams (Ex. #18b).
New York Aria:
The scene is the Griffiths’ lavish home. Clyde’s uncle and aunt, Samuel and Elizabeth Griffiths, have a daughter Bella who has brought home a new friend Sondra from New York City. When the family leaves the room, Sondra describes to Bella how New York has changed her. Sondra starts her aria with an upward leap of a 7th, “New York has changed me” (Ex. #19a).
There is another similar melodic leap on “New York reaches out like the Brooklyn Bridge (Ex. #19b).
“You should see Fifth Avenue” has yet another (Ex. #19c).
She concludes her aria by repeating the opening line, this time with the awkward intervallic leap of a minor 9th (Ex. #19d).
Diving Aria:
Sondra has danced with Clyde and the two of them have exuded an attractive chemistry between them. She describes her family’s summer cottage by the lake to him. Certain key phrases in her free-flowing melody take on a melismatic (many notes to one syllable) property. Note the melismas in the following key words: “The breeze off the water” (Ex. #20a); “This is the place where I feel truly free” (Ex. #20b); “Balanced on the edge of the (diving) board,” featuring additional wide leaps in the melodic line (Ex. #20c); “Clyde, can you catch me” (Ex. #20d).
Letter Aria:
The beginning of Act II starts with Roberta’s “Letter Aria” in which she reads various letters she has written to Clyde, begging him to come home. The aria is in symmetrical phrases, two phrases ascending (Ex. #21a), followed by two phrases descending (21b).
The melody is diatonic with a simple stepwise melody with follows the rhythm of the words. The accompaniment has a relaxed triplet feel. The content of the letter is very simple and straightforward. She clearly misses Clyde. Near the end of the aria the melody becomes more agitated with wider leaps and chromatic notes added as Roberta emotionally says, “My Clyde, I cannot wait forever…you must come for me. Take me away” (Ex. #21c).
After a brief change of scene showing Clyde and Sondra declaring their love for each other, the “Letter Aria” continues in the same vein. In a clever juxtaposition of identical emotions, Roberta and Sondra continue the aria in unison on separate sides of the stage (Ex. 21d).
Their voices then echo each other in identical melodies and rhythms on octave apart (Ex. 21e).
Clearly Clyde has a dilemma and an impossible choice to make. Roberta continues her letter alone, more angrily, with an angular, wide-leaping melody and punctuated by dissonant chords as she gives Clyde an ultimatum, “…unless I hear from you…by Friday noon, I shall come to Lycurgus” (Ex. #21f). A pounding ostinato bass underscores the power and pain of Roberta’s predicament.
Soliloquy:
In an aria called “Soliloquy” Clyde ponders his state of mind, considering the impossible situation he is in. He has gotten Roberta pregnant. He has promised to marry her. He can put off her pleas for marriage only so long. And he is clearly in love with Sondra. He hatches a scheme to murder Roberta (Ex. #22). His melodic phrases are disjointed, almost hallucinatory, as if in a dream.
Elvira’s Aria:
Clyde is arrested and tried for murder. Roberta’s letters have been found, published in the newspapers, and sung aloud by the chorus. It is damning evidence of his close relationship with Roberta. The jury convicts Clyde and he is sentenced to die in the electric chair. Elvira visits her son in his jail cell. Clyde insists that he did nothing wrong, that it was not murder, but an accident. In a poignant aria, Elvira begs him to tell the jury that he has returned to Christ (Ex. #23).
In a more than two octave leap upward to a high C, she cries out, “Oh God.” Even Clyde’s mother, whose entire life has been wrapped up in the church, is unable to save her son from “An American Tragedy.”
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