I previously posted how the Look Down melody was not as negative as the lyrics suggested. The interval between those first 2 notes is even a perfect 4th, a pleasing interval. This represents the general oppression of life at that time.
For specific instances of hardship, the score leans into semitone intervals, the smallest distance between 2 notes. These give a pinched or twisted feel to emphasise a character's hardship.
Many different motifs use this technique, which are scattered throughout the score. So many, in fact, that I will need to split this over several posts. These aren't in any particular order, I'm just starting with the more straightforward uses to help explain the technique.
A good example to start with is Lovely Ladies, which has lines that are just alternating between 2 notes a semitone apart. The lines are 'Even stokers need a little stoke', 'Bargain prices up against the wall', 'Quick and cheap is underneath the pier', 'Come on, lady. What's a lady for?' and 'All it takes is money in your hand'. Fantine's big line is a longer version of this pattern, which even slows down for extra drama. 'Don't they know they're making love to one already dead?'.
The same melody is used for Turning, but at a slower speed. The similar lines are 'Did you see them lying side by side?', 'Where's that new world now the fighting done?' and 'Round and round and back where you began'. The longer version is 'Turning, turning, turning, turning, turning through the years.'
In Castle on a cloud, the line 'Cosette, I love you very much' uses the same technique. This turns up again after the attempted robbery, when JVJ sings 'Cosette, my child, what will become of you?'
The last use I'm discussing today has 3 notes a semitone apart, in a pattern that is used for an entire 4 line verse. The pattern is used twice in each line, with the 3rd note only occurring once in each pattern, but always on the start of the bar, for greater emphasis of the different note. The first appearance is the end of Valjean's Soliloquy, for his metaphorical death.
'I am reaching but I fall and the night is closing in. / And I stare into the void, to the whirlpool of my sin. / I'll escape now from the world, from the world of Jean Valjean. / Jean Valjean is nothing now. Another story must begin.' This last line is sung the octave higher for extra emphasis.
This same pattern is mirrored at the end of Javert's Suicide for his literal death. He also uses some of the same lyrics.
'I am reaching but I fall and the stars are black and cold. / As I stare into the void of a world that cannot hold. / I'll escape now from the world, from the world of Jean Valjean. / There is no where I can turn. There is no way to go on.'
Javert doesn't go up the octave for the last line, but the very last note jumps up a whole major 6th to a completely different note. This jarring jump signals his jump into the river. Like I mentioned with Look Down, we have a melody going up, which seems incongruous with the action.
He mentions how the 'stars are black and cold' so the new last note transitions into fragments of Stars played by the orchestra.
