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=== Musical treatment === The role of Nellie Forbush was the first time with Hammerstein that Rodgers made the leading female role a [[belt (music)|belter]], rather than a [[lyric soprano]] like Laurey in ''Oklahoma!'' and Julie in ''Carousel''.{{#tag:ref|The female lead in ''Allegro'', Jenny, is principally a dancing role; the performer playing her does not sing by herself.|group= n}} According to Mordden, "Nellie was something new in R&H, carrying a goodly share of the score on a 'Broadway' voice".<ref>Mordden 1992, p. 108</ref> Nellie does not sing together with Emile, because Rodgers promised Martin that she would not have to compete vocally with Pinza,{{#tag:ref|They do sing together at the start of the final scene of Act I, but their characters are supposed to have been drinking.|group= n}} but the composer sought to unite them in the underlying music. A [[tetrachord]], heard before we see either lead, is played during the instrumental introduction to "Dites-Moi", the show's first song. Considered as pitch classes, that is, as pitches without characterization by octave or register, the motif is C-B-A-G. It will be heard repeatedly in Nellie's music, or in the music (such as "Twin Soliloquies") that she shares with Emile, and even in the bridge of "Some Enchanted Evening". Lovensheimer argues that this symbolizes what Nellie is trying to say with her Act II line "We're the same sort of people fundamentally – you and me".<ref>Lovensheimer, pp. 124–132</ref> Originally, "Twin Soliloquies" came to an end shortly after the vocal part finishes. Logan found this unsatisfying and worked with Trude Rittmann to find a better ending to the song. This piece of music, dubbed "Unspoken Thoughts", continues the music as Nellie and Emile sip brandy together, and is called by Lovensheimer "the one truly operatic moment of the score".<ref>Lovensheimer, pp. 129–130</ref> "This Nearly Was Mine" is a big bass solo for Emile in waltz time, deemed by Rodgers biographer William G. Hyland as "one of his finest efforts".<ref name ="WGH183">Hyland, p. 183</ref> Only five notes are used in the first four bars, a phrase which is then repeated with a slight variation in the following four bars. The song ends an octave higher than where it began, making it perfect for Pinza's voice.<ref name = "WGH183" /> Two songs, "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" and "Honey Bun" are intended to imitate American popular songs of the 1940s. In the former, the triple recitation of the song title at intervals suggests a [[big band]] arrangement of the wartime era, while in the bridge, the final eight bars (repeating the lyrics from the bridge's first eight bars) gives a suggestion of [[swing music|swing]]. The sections beginning "If the man don't understand you" and "If you laugh at different comics" have a [[blues]] style. Lovensheimer deems the song "Nellie's spontaneous and improvisatory expression of her feelings through the vocabulary of popular song".<ref>Lovensheimer, pp. 133–135</ref> Mordden suggests that "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" with its "take no prisoners bounce", might well be the center of the score, with the typical American girl defending her love by spouting clichés, many of which, such as "corny as Kansas in August" Hammerstein made up, and "sure enough, over the years they have become clichés".<ref>Mordden 1992, p. 121</ref>
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