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‘My Favourite Things’ 

 Arranged by Stephen Hough

‘My FavouriteThings.’ Everyone knows this well known tune from Richard Rogers’ andOscar Hammerstein's ‘The Sound of Music,’ but how has Stephen Hough has takenthis greatly loved score and turned it into a virtuosic piano solo?

‘My Favourite Things’ was originally written in 1959 by Richard Rogers and lyrics by OscarHammerstein II for their famous musical ‘The Sound of Music.’ Since then, listenershave heard this piece time again on stage, in the hit film starring Julie Andrews andhas been sung by parents to children at their bed sides and now Stephen Houghhas created a new solo piano transcription. Hough is an award winning pianist,composer, writer, poet and even artist. He was born on the Wirral on 22ndNovember 1961 and since has played all over the world in many prestigious venues

such as Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium, Chicago's Symphony Hall, London'sRoyal Festival Hall and he had acted as a concert pianist with many orchestrasincluding the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Hough plays pianoand composes in a wide range of styles from Baroque to modern, taking influencefrom composers particularly from the late nineteenth century to the mid twentieth. Inthis study of ‘My favourite things’, we will look at how Hough has used differentstyles and techniques to interpret the family classic, ‘My favourite things.’ 

Firstly he has combined all of the elements from the original 24 piece pit orchestra andcondensed it into one piano part. This means playing the vocal line (melody) as well

as the accompaniment. One could say that this is comparable to the piano/vocalscore however this is not the case. Hough has added extra harmonic and rhythmicinterest throughout his arrangement while keeping the original artistic integrityintended by Richard Rogers.

Hough has taken Richard Rogers’ fairly diatonic score and added dissonant and additionalexpressive harmonies-

1

Original piano/vocal score-

1 Richard Rogers, Oscar Hammerstein, ‘The Sound of Music’ Vocal score 1959, Williamson MusicInc.

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2

Equivalent four bars, Stephen Hough-

 As you can see from the two examples above, Rogers uses the diatonic chord of E minor(in the key of G major) throughout this passage, however Hough adds extraharmonic interest in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th bars. He adds D sharps, D naturals and Csharps. This differs from the original score as he has added a chromatic falling linein the ‘accompaniment’ part (E, D sharp,D natural and C sharp.) As this is at thestart of the arrangement, this chromaticism adds a sense of anticipation to thepiece, quite like an overture to a musical.

Hough is well known for using chromatic and other interesting harmony in his work such aswhole tone scales and a large use of augmented fourths and minor intervals. Hewas inspired by Leoš Janáček (1854  – 12 August 1928) a contemporary Czech

composer and musical theorist-3„ He explains, but three composers in particular inspire him. "I hear their music and I want

to write. One is Leoš  Janáč ek —he may be the most important. There is somethingabout him that is so blazingly creative‟  

Leoš Janáček also used notable harmonies such as a large use of fourths and minorninths. In the following quote, we can see how Hough has taken influence fromJanáček.-

4„ More generally, the dissonance threshold is increased substantially in the late works :key

signatures are abandoned, and bi-triadic sonotorities, that is, chords built fromfourths and minor ninths. In short, “ extended tonality ” 

 

becomes the prevailingharmonic language.‟  

More simply put, Janáček uses a range on ‘non tonal’ and dissonant chords throughouthis work. We can see Janáček’s influence throughout ‘My favourite things.’  Anexample is in bar 5, where hough uses an augmented fourth to create a moreuncertain feel in the music. In Rogers equivalent bar, this chord is merely chord V. Another example is in bar 56, where hough writes an augmented 4th. This is a ‘nonharmonic’ interval and is not usually associated with pleasant harmony. It isinteresting that Hough decided to use augmented fourths throughout hisarrangement as the piece is pleasantries about ones favourite things. This wouldnot usually be associated with augmented fourths.

Hough uses highly embellished and virtuosic writing. He often changes from flowing tripletrhythms do duplets and he frequently uses high arpeggios to enhance his writing.For example-

2 Rogers and Hammerstein transcriptions for piano solo, Stephen Hough, Josef WeinbergerLimited.3

 Stuart Isacoff, The Wall street journal, April 7 20144 Jonathan D. Kramer and Larry Sitsky, Music of the Twentieth century Avant-garde: A Biocriticalsourcebook. Greenwood Press, 5th September 2000. 

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7 

 As this is the first thing that the listeners hear, the main theme is very clearly set out andthe listeners can ‘home in’ on it. This then allows Hough to go off and develop thismotif in different ways. This theme is repeated throughout and is alwayshomophonic. The rest of the piece is completely contrapuntal with contrastingrhythms.

The form of the piece a a whole is unclear. It appears to be a version of binary form -(AABAABAA) with a ten bar intro and eight bar coda, however, every time that A

and B appear, they have different variations. Lets take A for example. Bars ten to26 is the first time that we hear A(1). This version has a falling chromatic lineunderneath the tune in the left hand. The second time that we hear A (A2) we seestill have the falling chromatic line however this time it is in octaves filled out withchords, the chromatic note being the root chord. The rhythmic emphasis has alsoshifted to alternating beats of the bar. Firstly beats 1 and 3 then beat 2. In otherversions of A, there are triplet and duple rhythms underneath the tune, and addedgrace notes. Notably, the tune of A always remains the same and is faithful toRoger ’s original score.

The final coda is also notable. Hough employs the thee from A, however it fades awayover a diminuendo to a final E minor chord. In Houghs original recording, he alsoused rallentando in the final bars. This is very interesting for the listener as it tethersoff onto the distance. The coda has been describes as- ‘

8The coda's magicallydisappearing textures‟  By James Leonard (Musicologist) 

Within the score we also see slight hints of bi-tonality. This is another modernist stylisticfeature. For example-

9 

7 Rogers and Hammerstein transcriptions for piano solo, Stephen Hough, Josef WeinbergerLimited.8

 allmusic.com Sunday 30th November, 20:41. Review by James Leonard.9 Rogers and Hammerstein transcriptions for piano solo, Stephen Hough, Josef WeinbergerLimited.

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The top line (played in the left hand) appears to have inflections of B and A major, over anE major chord. This gives a clearly distinctive dissonant sound. The tune of A alsoappears, outlining the key of E major. This passage is the only time that both A andB motifs overlap. Igor Stravinsky a modern composer from the 20th centuryemployed a large use of bi-tonality in his work. Notably the opening of the thirdmovement of ‘Symphony of Psalms.’ This could have easily influenced Hough, ashe took influence from the ‘modern’ early 20th century composers such as Leoš Janáček and other composers live Stravinsky from the same time period.

It is hard to define a clear ‘style’ of the overall piece. The original ‘Sound of music score’ was clearly a musical theatre work and ‘My favourite things’ is just a song takenfrom the work. Although Stephen Hough has changed and altered aspects of thepiece, it still has musical theatre influences, retaining the tune from Rogers andHammerstein II’s original score. We also see modernist influence in Hough’s writingfrom composers such as Janáček and Stravinsky. More specifically in the harmonicwriting. We can even see influence from the romantic era, with influence fromcomposers such as Rachmaninov in the decorative and elaborate piano writing.

In conclusion, Stephen hough has created a new take on this classic piece, with elementsof romantic, modern and musical theatre styles. Hough has successfully created apiano transcription of ‘My favourite things’

 taking influence from a range of

composers dating back to the mid nineteenth up until the mid twentieth century. Hehas used a variety of harmonic, structural and rhythmic and compositional devicesthat can be seen through all of these styles that he has taken influence from.

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Bibliography

1- Richard Rogers, Oscar Hammerstein, ‘The Sound of Music’ Vocal score 1959,Williamson Music Inc.

2- Rogers and Hammerstein transcriptions for piano solo, Stephen Hough, Josef

Weinberger Limited.

3- Stuart Isacoff, The Wall street journal, April 7 2014, New York

4- Jonathan D. Kramer and Larry Sitsky, Music of the Twentieth century Avant-garde: ABiocritical sourcebook. Greenwood Press, 5th September 2000.

5- stephenhough.com (Official)

6- allmusic.com Sunday 30th November, 20:41. Review by James Leonard.

7-www.josef-weinberger.com/musicals.htm

8- www.rnh.com (Rogers and Hammerstein’s official website)

9- The sound of their music, the story of Rogers and Hammerstein, Frederick W Nolan, Applause Books; Revised edition, September 1, 2002

10- Stravinsky: A Creative Spring: Russia and France, 1882-1934, Stephen Walsh, Knopf,October 26, 1999