Texture: The Confrontation - Les Miserables

The confrontation is one of my favorite pieces of music to listen to in terms of texture. The incredible use of voice in this piece makes it both haunting and intense.

For this analysis, I used the 10th Anniversary edition, with Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean and Philip Quast as Inspector Javert for the Les Misérables 10th Anniversary Concert at London's Royal Albert Hall, 8th October 1995.

This piece was actually incredibly fun to break down:
0:00 - 0:54 - Two singers, playing Javert and Valjean, begin singing. They are both singing different melodies, but with effectively no overlap, making this part of the song homophonic, once you take the accompaniment into account.
0:54 - 1:38 - Javert and Valjean begin to each sing their own melodies at the same time and at the same volume. As the verses progress, they switch back and forth between who is singing louder, putting slightly more focus on one character or the other, but the difference in their dynamic level is never enough to drown one of them out. Character development happens in this part of the song. At 1:28, there is a very brief moment of homophony when both characters should "Javert!" at the same time, accenting both singers.
1:38 - 1:50 - Musical interlude. No voices during this time, and only one instrument, making the texture monophonic.
1:50 - 2:07 - Javert "talks" to Valjean while Valjean "talks" to both Javert and Fantine. Both of them speak one at a time, bringing the texture back to homophony. During this part of the song, a lot of plot happens, so it has to be clear to the listener.
2:07 - 2:18 - Both singers sing the same words at the same time ("I swear to you, I will be there,") putting huge emphasis on them. This is the basis for the rest of the play. It is during this song that Valjean promises Fantine that he will be there for Cosette, and Javert swears that he will be "there," hunting Valjean to bring him to justice.

Throughout the song, there is minimal accompaniment and the focus is put on the characters and the singing voices.