Lisa

Bassett
Dr. Helvering
Musicianship I

April 26, 2012

Crazier Than You

Crazier Than You is a duet from the musical, The Addams Family. The

Addams Family premiered in April of 2010. The music and lyrics for the musical
were written by Andrew Lippa. Lippa has also written the music to A Little Princess,
The Man In the Ceiling, and john & jen. He also wrote the three additional songs
added to Youre a Good Man Charlie Brown for its revival. Lippa won a Tony award
for My New Philosophy from Youre a Good Man Charlie Brown, along with
Gilman/Gonzalez-Falla Theatre Foundation Award, ASCAPs Richard Rogers/New
Horizons Award, The Drama Desk, and The Outer Critics Circle. The singers were
Krystal Rodriguez (playing Wednesday Addams), and Wesley Taylor (playing Lucas
Beineke), both actors are best known for premiering these roles in The Addams
Family.

The song's form is ABAB C A BB. The A section is written in D major

every time it appears. B and B are written in Bb major, B is written in C major, and
B is written in B Major. However, the most interesting section of this piece occurs
during the bridge. The bridge of the piece is used to connect back to the original
material, and in this case the original key of D major. What is really intriguing about
this section is that instead of using traditional chords, it uses motivic modulation in

thirds. It starts with a V7/IV Chord in D Major, to a F/C, to an Eb7, then a D7, then
resolving back to the original key of the piece D.

The way the form of this piece works is that the A sections are less stable in

the key, starting off right off the bat, on a secondary dominant (V7/IV) and never
actually hitting the tonic chord. This works because of the way the song starts.
Wednesday and Lucas, in the show, had just been fighting and had sort of broken up,
and while Lucas had returned to talk to her, they were still on the outs and sort of
fighting. The A sections are the spots where they are each taking a solo moment to
explain their emotions and let out their feelings. Wednesday says:

Once I was hopeful, thought we were one. / Life, less than perfect finly begun. /

But, now I wonder are we undone? / I wanna treasure you in death as well as

life/ I wanna cut you with my love and with my knife. / But can I live as your

tormentor and your wife? (Lippa, The Addams Family: The Musical).

This explains the instability with the key, because Wednesday is letting out all of her
insecurities with the relationship. Then it moves into the B section, which I will talk
about later, and then returns to the A section for Lucass turn to talk about his
problems with the relationship:

Im not impulsive/ Im not deranged/ But in the moment I feel Im changed/

I want to climb Mount Everest go to Mozambique. / I want to be impulsive,

want to be unique/ Can you believe I mean it when you hear me shriek

(Lippa, The Addams Family: The Musical)

As Lucas finally admits that while he has never categorized himself as any of those
things. He is so in love with her that he is suddenly finding himself willing to try

anything for her. This is reflected by the fact that this is the last time the A section
appears in its entirety in the piece. This makes it all the more of a contrasting when
you get to the B section.

The B section appears 4 times, and is the refrain of the piece. This section

follows more of a typical chordal analysis. This normalcy actually makes sense
because it is the two of them coming to terms that they both are crazy in love with
one another. The words sound like they are still fighting, they are in fact both
admitting that they are insane, at first individually after they sing their respective A
section, after the C, or bridge, the two of them sing it together, and come together,
with their craziness.

The bridge with its interesting chord progression is really when they display

their craziness, which explains the interesting motivic repetition in thirds. They
are literally facing death, by blindfolding Wednesday and having her shoot an apple
with her crossbow off of Lucass head. This insane gesture is reflected in the music,
and can audibly be heard when listening to the soundtrack. Also, the orchestration
on the recording becomes more stark and staccato than the rest of the piece. The
song takes a rise in melodic tension, by raising up the starting not of the motive,
each time the motive of the C section repeats. As the bridge ends it elides in to the
second half of the A section.

Every cadence in this song is a half cadence, and many of them are elided.

The only exception to this is the very last cadence, which ends on the tonic chord.
This lack of full cadence, before the end, keeps the fast tempo of the song going. It
builds up the tension rising until the very end of the piece, where they both agree

that their parents were the cause of their problem, and that they are really more
alike then they thought. At this point both of them have agreed that they are both
crazy and in love with each others craziness, and that they are happy being
together. This having been resolved between them, allows the full cadence to feel so
right at the end, because they are done fighting and back to just being together.

The reason I selected this song is, it is from one of my favorite shows. I fell in

love with The Addams Family the day I saw it on Broadway. This song in particular
is one of my favorites from the show. The things I like about this song is not only
that Wednesday shot a crossbow on stage and punctured an apple on top of Lucass
head while blindfolded. (Even though it was really awesome). I found the song
musically pleasing, although I had not thought a whole lot about why it interested
me. Having analyzed it, I think part of the reason I enjoy this song so much, is that it
has just a wide range of strange or interesting chord progressions and ideas. I think
that the very root of having crazy chord choices, and interesting motivic movements,
is what I enjoy about the piece. The singers really take the music on the recording
and make it come to life in a spunky, vibrant way that makes the song all that much
more exciting and rich. This analysis has truly deepened my appreciation for the
song, and for the way all the elements come together as one cohesive interesting
crazy work of art.

Bibliography

The Addams Family. Internet roadway Database. (2010); 1. Internet Movie

Database. Web. 26 Apr 2012. <http://ibdb.com/

production.php?id=484632>

Lippa, Andrew. The Addams Family: The Musical. New York, New York: Hal

Lippa, Andrew. Bio. Andrew Lippa. N.p., 2012. 2012. Web. 26 Apr 2012.

Rodriguez, Krystal and Lucas Beineke. Crazier Than You. By Andrew Lippa.

Leonard Corporation, 2010. Print.

<http://andrewlippa.com/bio/>

The Addams Family: The Musical. DECCA BROADWAY. 2010. CD.