Editing Send In the Clowns (section)

== Styles ==
"Send in the Clowns" is performed in two completely different styles: dramatic and lyric. The dramatic style is the theatrical performance by Desirée, and this style emphasizes Desirée's feelings of anger and regret, and the dramatic style acts as a cohesive part of the play. The lyric style is the concert performance, and this style emphasizes the sweetness of the melody and the poetry of the lyrics. Most performances are in concert, so they emphasize the beauty of the melody and lyrics.

Sondheim teaches both dramatic and lyric performers several important elements for an accurate rendition:<ref name=Guildhall_II>{{Cite AV media |title=Stephen Sondheim Teaches at Guildhall School of Music, Part 2 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-VXXZLh2a0  |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/8-VXXZLh2a0| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|medium=Video Class |publisher=[[Guildhall School of Music]] |location=Guildhall School of Music, London |date=2006 |access-date=8 July 2008}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|The dramatic performer must take on the character of Desirée: a woman who finally realizes that she has misspent her youth on the shallow life. She is both angry and sad, and both must be seen in the performance. Two important examples are the contrast between the lines, "Quick, send in the clowns" and "Well, maybe next year." Sondheim teaches that the former should be steeped in self-loathing, while the latter should emphasize regret.<ref name=Guildhall_II /> Thus, the former is clipped, with a break between "quick" and "send," while the latter "well" is held pensively.<ref name=Guildhall_II />}}

Sondheim apologizes for flaws in his composition. For example, in the line, "Well, maybe next year," the melodic emphasis is on the word ''year'' but the dramatic emphasis must be on the word ''next'':

{{Blockquote|The word "next" is important: "Maybe ''next'' year" as opposed to "''this'' year". [Desirée means,] "All right, I've screwed it up this year. Maybe next year I'll do something right in my life." So [it's] "well, maybe ''next'' year" even though it isn't accented in the music. This is a place where the lyric and the music aren't as apposite as they might be, because the important word is "next", and yet the accented word is "year". That's my fault, but [something the performer must] overcome.<ref name=Guildhall_I>{{Cite AV media |title=Stephen Sondheim Teaches at Guildhall School of Music, Part 1 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT7GC9oJ9xY  |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/PT7GC9oJ9xY| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|medium=Video Class |publisher=Guildhall School of Music |location=Guildhall School of Music, London |date=2006 |access-date=2008-07-08}}{{cbignore}}</ref>}}

Another example arises from Sondheim's roots as a speaker of American rather than British English: The line "Don't you love farce?" features two juxtaposed [[Fricative consonant#Central non-sibilant fricatives|labiodental fricative]] sounds (the former [''v''] voiced, the latter [''f''] devoiced). American concert and stage performers will often fail to "breathe" and/or "voice" between the two fricatives, leading audiences familiar with British slang to hear "Don't you love [[Buttocks|arse]]?", misinterpreting the lyric or at the least perceiving an unintended [[double entendre]]. Sondheim agrees that "[i]t's an awkward moment in the lyric, but that ''v'' and that ''f'' should be separated."<ref name=Guildhall_I />

In the line of the fourth verse, "I thought that you'd want what I want. Sorry, my dear," the performer must communicate the connection between the "want" and the "sorry".<ref name=Guildhall_II /> Similarly, Sondheim insists that performers separately enunciate the adjacent ''t'''s in the line, "There ought to be clowns."<ref name=Guildhall_II />