Miss Saigon’s “Last Night of the World”

“The Last Night of the World” from Miss Saigon

This song is an important piece of the production because it is sung by both main characters and it is their last night together, unknowingly, as husband and wife. The song begins by introducing the melody played on an electric piano with rhythmic motive as it repeats the pattern, consisting of scale like patterns for instance C,D,E..E,D,C [playing 2 notes on the first beat and holding the 3rd note for three beats which also varies]if started in the key of C, throughout the entire song. Four patterns of eighth notes and there is syncopation because the accents aren’t always on the first note of the beat.  An additional instrument, a mallet instrument possibly a marimba, enters the song after six seconds and adds the second layer with non-imitative polyphony that includes additional notes at the end of each measure. In the third layer, the first voice to enter is the male (Chris) at ten seconds after the structure of the melody has been established. Chris sings at a medium pitch until it increases with the second repetition of the last phrase of his stanza. The female voice then enters at a similar pitch and mimics the same increase at the same time of the repetition (the 2nd “I will hold you”). They enter into a call and response until the chorus in which they sing together, separately, and then together again. About a minute into the song, a string ensemble adds a fourth layer, although it is faint, it appears to be legato in which the tones are held for four beats. Throughout the call and response prior to the chorus, both singers hold and emphasize the notes of each ending rhyme such as real, feel, fast, last, etc. Chris always sings the stanza before the chorus and his voice becomes more powerful and the dynamics change as his voice gets louder and there are vocal vibrations on the end rhymes of all right and night. The first stanza of the chorus has a consonance rhyme with the first word (minus the determiner a) song and the last word of the stanza on. Within the stanza are two words repeated at the end of two lines: sound. The second and final stanza of the chorus has more of an internal rhyme of tight (an end word) with night (which falls midway through the last line: To hold you tight/and dance/like it’s the last night of the world. The next part of the song shortens the amount of times Chris and Kim alternate (2 sets for Chris and 1 set for Kim) as opposed to the first part before the chorus in which they went back and forth for a grand total of five times. The second chorus set has an introduction line that was lacking from the first, this is sung loudly and passionately emphasizing the fact that they both have hope that they will be together again. The saxophone makes an earlier entrance on the official first line of the chorus and plays throughout its entirety adding a fifth layer to the piece. The song returns to its final section of call and response which has decreased once again to one set of back and forth from the lovers allowing the listener to realize that the end is near (double meaning of the end of the song as well as the end of the relationship). This leads into the final chorus in which everything is sung together as the dynamics increase, the notes are bolder, and held longer by the singers. They hold onto the final line of the song as the full orchestra chimes in with increasing intensity and climbing pitch of a full horn section into a grand finale including drum roll.

What does it all mean?

The sweet consonance of the song emphasizes the emotions from the two main characters; an undying love for one another in the face of horrific times. This slow paced song indicates the seriousness of the time and the importance of finding love in the fog of war. The repetitious pattern of the melody enforces the repetition of the lyrics resulting in the reinforcement of change in society as well as the evolving love of the main characters. The call and response is vital to understanding the mutual love of the characters because the individual stanzas allow the listener to hear both sides as opposed to if it was all sung together it might appear forced. This song builds the idea that Chris is equally in love with Kim, although later has remarried and disregarded his foreign vows. In order to be effected by the end result, these beginning love ballads in the show are important because the audience feels connected to the relationship. Chris’s boisetreous intro’s to the chorus are extremely important because the change in his vocal dynamics adds a realism to his love for Kim that otherwise through plot would be belittled. The grand finale performed by the full orchestra demonstrates the end of a war and the demise of anything born during it, whether it be love, children, hate, or enemies; for a moment in time nothing else existed, but the end of this ongoing battle.