“In My Own Little Corner”

The song I chose to sing or the midterm performance was “In My Own Little Corner.” It is a

piece from the musical Cinderella. f The music was written by Richard Rodgers and the lyrics by Oscar

Hammerstein. It was based off the fairytale Cendrillon, ou la Petite Pantoufle de Vair by Charles Perrault.

Otherwise known as Cinderella, the fairytale is a story about a young girl who is forced into

servitude by a wicked stepmother and brutal stepsisters following the death of her father. The story takes

place around a prince who holds a ball in search for a princess. Cinderella, the slave girl, sneaks away to

the ball with help of a fairy godmother and woos the prince without revealing her identity. As she runs

home, she leaves a glass slipper behind. The prince goes on to search for the girl who fits the slipper until

Cinderella is finally found.

The piece “In My Own Little Corner” is sung by Cinderella as she daydreams about the prince

and going to the ball. The lyrics express her role in her home and merge into the fantasies that run through

her head. The song expresses the longing for escape and freedom that she feels but can only experience in

thought while at home in her “own little corner.”

The musical shape follows the lyrics. It starts out very mild and slow with timid lyrics but molds

quickly into a more upbeat and dream-like feel. It continues that way until the last part of the song where

the lyrics and music get increasingly intense and climactic until it settles abruptly back into the slow,

steady pace that was introduced at the start of the song.

The range is a D above middle C to a C# above middle C. The tessitura remains primarily within

E to A above middle C.