History AwesomeMusic / Hamilton

* "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)" starts as a frenzied determination to bring the war to a climax, in an almost Music/LinkinPark-style RapRock song complete with violins imitating distorted power chords, and a reprise of "My Shot"! Then after a ''bitchin''' turntable solo, it transitions to a somber ending, to jubilant victory, with plenty of pauses for character moments from Laurens, Lafayette, Mulligan, and George Washington. It also incorporates "The World Turned Upside Down," a pre-existing song sung by the British upon their surrender, a song about British people rebelling against their government's decisions. The fact government forces are the ones singing it creates some dramatic irony and shows off history. Lin-Manuel Miranda didn't actually use the original tune for "The World Turned Upside Down" because, as he said in the Hamildoc on PBS, the original was a happy bouncy little drinking song, which didn't fit the dramatic feel of "Yorktown."

* The April Hamildrop brings us [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2ys-AimNbE First Burn]], an early draft of "Burn" re-recorded by the Elizas of the five then-current productions[[note]]Ariana Asfar (Chicago), Julia Harriman (First US Tour), Lexi Lawson (Broadway), Rachelle Ann Go (West End) and Shoba Narayan (Second US Tour)[[/note]]. Eliza's pain and humiliation over Alexander's affair is palpable as she confronts him about his choice to reveal it to the public ("Your enemy whispers, ''so you have to scream''"), reveals she knows about his lingering affection for Angelica and puts his obsession with a legacy into perspective.

* "The Schuyler Sisters". On top of being a great introduction for the titular girls, it also shows a great early taste of their singing and rapping skills and also does a great job of making you wonder how exciting it really must have been to be alive in that place and time...
** The song has been used to promote Hamilton on other programs, like the Grammys. During the 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a performance of the song was pre-taped outside of the Richard Rogers Theater, due to pandemic protocols. This wound up making the song more fitting, as the song implies that the sisters are actually walking in outdoor Manhattan.

* "The World Was Wide Enough" perfectly encompasses the tension that has been building throughout the show in anticipation for the fate duel between Hamilton and Burr. The song begins with what is essentially a reprise to "The 10 Duel Commandments", emphasizing Burr's anger and paranoia that Hamilton intends to kill him, which leads to his heartbreaking line, "This man will not make an [[AdultFear orphan of my daughter]]". Then there's Hamilton's monologue in the middle. Time stops after Burr fires his gun, and there is no music as Hamilton speaks, only the sounds of an ominous wind blowing in the background. He flashes back to arriving to America, the war, and as he reaches the end, he sees Laurens, Philip, his mother and Washington waiting for him. As realization of his imminent death continues to sink in, his last thoughts are of Eliza as he turns back to Burr and raises his gun. What makes Hamilton's monologue especially cool is how it brings the concept of the show's rap-based score full-circle by performing his last words as a ''slam poem'', the genre's original form. What follows is Burr's verse, a quiet, heartbreaking piece absolutely drenched in regret and realization, drawing on [[ArcWords earlier songs]], building to the TitleDrop, delivered in a soft, miserable voice, the overwhelming and layered grief of the song almost a tangible thing.

* "We Know" is a short, humorous song in which Jefferson, Burr and Madison confront Hamilton about apparent embezzlement of government funds. The whole song is built around an ominous piano line as the three men try to weaponise this information to chase Hamilton out of the country. Of particular note is the section beginning "An imm-i-grant em-bezz-l-ing our gov-ern-ment funds!" This section shifts into a reggae-influenced beat and uses a toasting cadence, to reflect the three men's xenophobic attitude to Hamilton's Caribbean place of birth ("Ya best g'wan, run back where ya come from!"). There's also Hamilton's impressive rebuttal, which features a very complex rhyme scheme (''courted / escorted / corner / extorted / sordid / quarterly / mortally / orderly''). The lyrical mastery is impressive enough that Jefferson can only reply "My God..." but Creator/DaveedDiggs sometimes played this as if Jefferson is saying "TooMuchInformation, Hamilton."

* "We Know" is a short, humorous song in which Jefferson, Burr and Madison confront Hamilton about apparent embezzlement of government funds. The whole song is built around an ominous piano line as the three men try to weaponise this information to chase Hamilton out of the country. Of particular note is the section beginning "An imm-i-grant em-bezz-l-ing our gov-ern-ment funds!" This section shifts into a reggae-influenced beat and uses a toasting cadence, to reflect the three men's xenophobic attitude to Hamilton's Caribbean place of birth ("Ya best g'wan, run back where ya come from!"). There's also Hamilton's impressive rebuttal, which features a very complex rhyme scheme (''courted/escorted/corner/extorted/sordid/quarterly/mortally/orderly''). The lyrical mastery is impressive enough that Jefferson can only reply "My God..." but Creator/DaveedDiggs sometimes played this as if Jefferson is saying "TooMuchInformation, Hamilton."

* "Aaron Burr, Sir" and "My Shot" are both amazing songs that transition into one another seamlessly. The two songs have great {{Establishing Character Moment}}s for Hamilton, Burr, Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan where each expresses their philosophy and reasons for joining the revolution. It's also impressive to see how Hamilton's influence turns Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan's raps from sounding like simple freestyles to rhythmically intricate rhyme schemes. When ''Hamilton'' was just a mixtape, Creator/StephenSondheim expressed concern to Miranda that rapping an entire two-act musical might get monotonous. "My Shot" shows that Miranda's solution was to vary the complexity and tempo of the rhymes, and give each character their own distinct rapping style (eloquent for Hamilton, bombastic for Washington, flamboyant for Jefferson, etc).

A CrazyEnoughToWork musical like ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' doesn't become a hit for nothing; the songs Creator/LinManuelMiranda wrote for these historical figures [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic may very well go down in history alongside them.]]

A CrazyEnoughToWork musical like ''Hamilton'' doesn't become a hit for nothing; the songs Creator/LinManuelMiranda wrote for these historical figures [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic may very well go down in history alongside them.]]

* "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)" starts as a frenzied determination to bring the war to a climax, in an almost Music/LinkinPark-style RapRock song complete with violins imitating distorted power chords. Then after a ''bitchin''' turntable solo, it transitions to a somber ending, to jubilant victory, with plenty of pauses for character moments from Laurens, Lafayette, Mulligan, and George Washington. It also incorporates "The World Turned Upside Down," a pre-existing song sung by the British upon their surrender, a song about British people rebelling against their government's decisions. The fact government forces are the ones singing it creates some dramatic irony and shows off history. Lin-Manuel Miranda didn't actually use the original tune for "The World Turned Upside Down" because, as he said in the Hamildoc on PBS, the original was a happy bouncy little drinking song, which didn't fit the dramatic feel of "Yorktown."

* The April Hamildrop brings us [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2ys-AimNbE First Burn]], an early draft of "Burn" re-recorded by the Elizas of the five current productions[[note]]Ariana Asfar (Chiacgo), Julia Harriman (First US Tour), Lexi Lawson (Broadway), Rachelle Ann Go (West End) and Shoba Narayan (Second US Tour)[[/note]]. Eliza's pain and humiliation over Alexander's affair is palpable as she confronts him about his choice to reveal it to the public ("Your enemy whispers, ''so you have to scream''"), reveals she knows about his lingering affection for Angelica and puts his obsession with a legacy into perspective.

A CrazyEnoughToWork musical like ''Hamilton'' doesn't become a hit for nothing; The songs [[Creator/LinManuelMiranda Lin-Manuel Miranda]] wrote for these historical figures [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic may very well go down in history alongside them.]]

* "Aaron Burr, Sir" and "My Shot" are both amazing songs that transition into one another seamlessly. The two songs have great {{Establishing Character Moment}}s for Hamilton, Burr, Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan where each expresses their philosophy and reasons for joining the revolution. It's also impressive to see how Hamilton's influence turn Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan's raps from sounding like simple freestyles to rhythmically intricate rhyme schemes. When ''Hamilton'' was just a mixtape, Creator/StephenSondheim expressed concern to Miranda that rapping an entire two-act musical might get monotonous. "My Shot" shows that Miranda's solution was to vary the complexity and tempo of the rhymes, and give each character their own distinct rapping style (eloquent for Hamilton, bombastic for Washington, flamboyant for Jefferson, etc).

A CrazyEnoughToWork musical like ''Hamilton'' doesn't become a hit for nothing; The songs [[Creator/LinManuelMiranda Lin-Manuel Miranda]] wrote for these historical figures [[AwesomeMusic/SugarWiki may very well go down in history alongside them.]]

A CrazyEnoughToWork musical like ''Hamilton'' doesn't become a hit for nothing; The songs [[Creator/Lin-ManuelMiranda Lin-Manuel Miranda]] wrote for these historical figures [[Main/AwesomeMusic may very well go down in history alongside them.]]