Appendix 1 - Comparison of instruments in both pieces

Instrumentation Red – woodwind Blue – brass Yellow – percussion Green - strings
Some Enchanted Evening	The Fragrant Death
Piccolo
Flute	Dizi
Oboe	Houguan
English horn
Clarinet
Bassoon
Horns
Trumpet
Trombone
Tuba
Percussion	Yangqin
Harp	Pipa
Violin	Gaohu
Viola	Erhu
Cello	yehu
Double bass

In conclusion, after examining the both pieces through the musical elements, substantial links can be ascertained through the notion of personal expression of the artist as well as phrase lengths that help to bring out the meaning of the text and shape the broader structure.  American Broadway and Cantonese opera may seem completely dissimilar by all means, but definitely share hidden qualities despite different cultural backgrounds and development.

Last but not least, the melodic contour of both pieces is very similar as well. Both songs display a mixture of arcs, undulations and simple ascending and descending patterns. In “Some Enchanted Evening”, the undulations generally start from a higher pitch first note followed by a lower pitch second note for the choruses and vice versa for the verses. The last phrase of the piece has a climactic point which concludes the piece dramatically. In “The Fragrant Death”, the contour is all undulations, the opening of phrases always begin with a pitch lower than the second note. Since this piece can be described as somewhat amorphous in terms of phrasal structure, the undulation patterns take a larger variety of lengths.

Table #2: Melody Contour of both pieces in sections

Melody Contour
Some Enchanted Evening ( 4 sections)	The Fragrant Death ( 3 sections)
Section 1 (chorus 1): bars 1 -16	Section 1 (bars 1-13)
Section 2 (verse 1) : bars 17-22	Section 2 (bars 13-31)
Section 3 (chorus 2): bars 23 -38	Section 3 (bars 32-44)
Second last phrase (bars 39-40) Last phrase (bars 41-45) Section 4 (coda): bars 39-45	n/a

The contours of both pieces display numerous undulations. In “Some Enchanted Evening”, the contour undulates in similar fashion in both the first and third sections (choruses of the piece) whereas the second and fourth sections (verses) share a descending pattern; the last phrase is in an ascending pattern because a climax is included here. In “The Fragrant Death”, the contours are generally undulations as well. All the phrases have an undulation contour but the first and last sections consist of an undulation that ascends. The second section resembles the second section of “Some Enchanted Evening” because of the overall descent but “The Fragrant Death” has an undulating contour and “Some Enchanted Evening” demonstrates a plain descending contour instead. By identifying these contours, another strong link is discovered because the overall patterns of both pieces are very similar, since both first sections starts with a first note that is lower pitch than the second note and coincidently the same descending order in the second section.

Another strong link between the 2 pieces is the phrase lengths in the first half of both pieces. “Some Enchanted Evening” is a very short show tune with only 45 bars in total. Some versions may have the first 16 bars repeated but with different lyrics. The general structure can be broken down into 4 sections. Bars 1-16 is the chorus, it is the main melody of the show tune in which Emile to express his love for Nellie, then it is followed by 6 bars of a transitional verse with both Nellie ad Emile singing. Bars 23 – 38 is the repetition of chorus with an ascending finish. Bars 39 -45 is the coda is the piece, sang by both Emile and Nellie, concluding the piece. The melody is similar to the transitional verse. Moving on the phrase lengths of the show tune, they are grouped into 3 types 0f short (S), medium (M) and long (L). It has a pattern of SSSSMLSL from the chorus and verse (bars 1-22). Similarly, “The Fragrant Death” shares the same pattern for bars 4 -14 of the piece. The lack of regular phrases here makes it difficult to summarize but the 3 sections emerge, which is typical of Cantonese Opera songs. Bars 1-13 as the first section, bars 13-31 as the second section and bars 32-44 as the last section, it is color-coded in the following table – green as the first section, purple as the second section and brown as the third section. The male and female vocal parts alternate very often. The whole piece consists of 44 bars.

The following table helps to distinguish the patterns from the irregular structure of “The Fragrant Death”.

Table #1: Vocal parts of “The Fragrant Death”

Bars	Male	Female	Unison
Introduction (1-3)
4-11		✔
11-14	✔
14-17		✔
17-20	✔
20-27		✔
28-31	✔
32-34		✔
34-36	✔
37		✔
38	✔
39		✔
40	✔
40-41		✔
41	✔
41-42			✔✔
42	✔
43		✔
43-44			✔✔

The phrase lengths in the second and third sections (after bar 14) of “The Fragrant Death” decrease significantly, compared to the first section, due to the alternating male and female parts. It is also possibly equates to the importance of the lyrics, as it is a tragic ending. The short phrase lengths heighten the tension of the piece and contribute towards the climatic conclusion. Both of these sections are vocal parts with a melody instead of a monotone dialogue-based part of the song. The short phrase lengths normally consist of 4 to 8 beats. The medium phrase lengths consist of 9 to 12 beats and the long phrase lengths consist of 13 to 17 beats. Therefore, this is another strong musical link between the 2 pieces.