numbers (a little night music) - stephen sondheim lyrics
[stephen sondheim, explaining
how the number would be performed]
she looks up
something odd is happening on the stage
and then she goes back to playing
and she starts to sing
thirteen, fourty*four, twenty*seven
twenty, thirty*four, seventy*five
grandmother says numbers are matters of moment
to people whose moments don’t matter enough
grandmother says numbers are food for the foolish
who take all the minutiae of life on a cuff
grandmother says lots of inscrutable stuff…
thirteen, fourty*four, twenty*seven
fourty, twenty*three, seventy…
the stage becomes darker
she gets up from the piano
i do believe i can smell the jasmine, oh!
and next comes the frog she listens
there should be a * ah! she hears it
now the stars…
and sure enough, the stars twinkle
and from behind her come what we call our liebeslieders people, the vocal quintet
she sings the numbers and on each number
a person appears from behind the trees on the stage
and you gradually realize that each number
is the age of one of the characters on the stage
she sings the numbers
the quartet or quintet sings the the word “numbers”
and the people on the stage
as they are introduced in trios
sing the word “time”
twenty
fourty*four
eighteen
numbers
time
fourty
thirty*four
twenty*seven
what are they?
time
they all start asking questions
which have no answers
but just the individual characters
what shall i wear?
what about the mail?
where is my parasol?
how did i fail?
time
fourty*eight
time
twenty*three
why were you there?
did you see me weep?
who shall i sleep with?
how shall i sleep?
time
thirtheen
time
seventy*five
now they are all starting to dance
questions
time
numbers
time
lessons, appointments
h*llos and farewells
photographs, calendars
nights in hotels
twenty
twenty*four
numbers
questions
time
card games
coffee cups
thirty*thousand
what are they?
time
more questions
all the questions are tumbling over each other
time
[he hums the melody]
time
and it starts to swirl around the stage
they gradually leave one by one
and end up with all of their numbers
and the last comment that fredrika makes
is that all numbers add up to one
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