Before the era of the "serious" musical, before West Side Story and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, there was Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, which had its premier on April 19, 1945. Set in the grim confines of a New England mill town, the show features violent crime, spousal abuse, and the suicide of its romantic male lead halfway through. Carousel was based on a 1909 play called Liliom by the Hungarian writer Ferenc Molnár; both Gershwin and Puccini had earlier turned down opportunities to participate in the creation of a musical version. The thematic ambitions of the show are matched by its complex structure and musical language. It opens with a ballet-pantomime introducing Billy and Julie, the two romantic leads; in general, a full-scale production puts heavy technical demands on its dancers. Rodgers experiments with dissonance that goes beyond anything heard in a musical before. In the words of historian Gerald Bordman, "For many ... Carousel ... was the season's triumph. For others, it was the beginning of an era of pretentious solemnity in the American Musical Theatre, an era that attempted to replace the marquee with a steeple." Notwithstanding all this, much of the show's enduring appeal lies in its eminently infectious tunes, including "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and the inspirational tearjerker "You'll Never Walk Alone."

© All Music Guide, Rovi

Prologue: The Carousel Waltz

This prologue to the Richard Rodgers musical about an unsavory carnival barker and his homespun girlfriend initially lays out a dissonant woodwind theme over dour string chords, at once evoking a carnival calliope and suggesting the more sinister elements of the plot to come. Soon, however, the music begins to build into a traditional waltz. The main melody is quick and extroverted, but continually dips into minor-mode realms. An extended second main section employs more conventional waltz material that would have suited a 1950s commercial for major kitchen appliances. The primary theme eventually returns, now with its disquieting harmonic elements smoothed out, and gives way in the final bars to the happy second tune. Thus, over the course of a very few minutes, Rodgers has moved easily from disturbing music suitable for the classical concert hall to Broadway optimism, setting up the uneasy duality of the show that follows.

© James Reel, All Music Guide

If I Loved You

Premiered in 1945, Carousel was the second musical by the celebrated team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Oklahoma!, their first, caused a sensation, but Carousel also achieved great success, owing mainly to several of its popular songs, including this gem, "If I Loved You," perhaps the most memorable number. A duet divided into two parts (the Introduction and the Reprise), it is sung by the two principal characters in the story, Julie Jordan, a mill worker in a New England town, and Billy Bigelow, the barker at an amusement park.

The Introduction is the longest section, but it is the Reprise that contains the music most often sung in recordings and most familiar to listeners. The big love theme in the number is introduced by Julie and sung to the title words, "If I loved you." The melody soars upward on the last two words, then dips downward with a typically lovely Rodgers twist, the whole coming across with a sense of magical romance and a touch of fairy tale naïveté. Rodgers' music and Hammerstein's lyrics unite imaginatively here to convey the burgeoning love between Billy and Julie. The best music in this duet is sung by Julie, and it is thus not surprising that many recordings feature a soprano singing her part from the Reprise as a solo number ("If I loved you, time and again I would try to say...."). This is an absolutely lovely song, either in duet or solo rendition.

© All Music Guide

You'll Never Walk Alone

Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and Oscar Hammerstein's second musical together was Carousel from 1945. After the enormous success of Oklahoma in 1944, it seemed inconceivable that the pair could do any better but in Carousel, they did. The dark but ultimately heartwarming musical boasted a tremendously moving story and an even more moving score. Although many have justly gone on to glory as independent songs, perhaps the most moving is "You'll Never Walk Alone," the penultimate song in the show. Sung by a dead father who has returned to life for one day to the daughter he never knew, "You'll Never Walk Alone" is a testimony to the power of love to transform and redeem.

© James Leonard, Rovi