Analyzing "Moments In The Woods" (from Into The Woods) 

Such an enjoyable video. Love having music deconstructed. The Baker's wife and Cinderella are my favorite characters. I wish anyone else died but her. She deserved more. All women do. They are not meant to just be some man's wife. At least she had a "prince" of a man in her husband and a Prince with the title. That is more than most of us will get in our lifetime. Some don't get an "and" and don't get an "or", and life passes them by, left alone and poor, and their life is "the woods", right down to their core, and they spend their nights on the forest floor... And they never know why... They meet no giants in the sky.... And their life is so small... With no prince and no ball... And they meet their maker... Having never had "a baker"... R. I. P. Baker's Wife

THE SYNCOPATION THING IS GENIUS HOLY SHIT

My mind was blown once i realized the woods literally represented the "woulds." Fuckin' genius!

Just saw the DC run of this play and I was turning over this song in my head bc I thought I missed the lessson but it’s really all there! Sondheim is brilliant and you did a great job breaking it down 🙏🏾 the baker’s wife realized the same thing Cinderella did without making the same mistake! The prince is just a fantasy, they both had their moments with him but Cinderella stayed in the fantasy and hated it. She just wanted something in between, which is EXACTLY what the bakers wife had. It means so much more now bc she knows that she’s got a fantasy to remember and something real to go back to.

So many great moments in "Moments in the Woods". The genius of "if life were made of moments..." and then the "and/or" resolution always hits me Brilliant analysis of a truly brilliant song.

Can't wait for your performance and costume when you play Yenta from Fiddler! 😉❤

When I first saw the thumbnail, I was a bit hesitant to click. But I’m so glad I did. I never noticed the learning motif before (and I first watched the pbs video in June and have been watching, listening, and learning everything I can about this musical because it quickly became my favorite musical) but what I did notice about the back and forth of the Baker’s Wife’s song was how it also reflects back on 2 songs from the first act she sings - Maybe They’re Magic and It Takes Two. The staccato motif can be a reference to Maybe They’re Magic because she is extremely assertive about her wants and desires in that song in the same way that she is for parts of Moments. I also see the dreamlike parts as calling back to It Takes Two because she uses a similar quality when talking about her husband and what she admires about him while also acknowledging that they are both different people. She also uses a similar thing of switching back and forth in her range between It Takes Two and Moments which I could listen to all day because I love both songs so much. Musically, my favorite thing about the Baker’s Wife is the fact that she is the only character in the show to lose her own motif (to the prince’s) but also the only one strong enough to switch back to her previously established motifs (from the twos songs I’ve been mentioning) in the span of one song.

Make this a series. I wanna know everything from ITW

Oh.. my.. god..! Thank you thank you thank you!.. I saw Into the Woods on Broadway in the late ‘80’s. This all explains, and illuminates, what I experienced.. I have so much more I could express.. Sondheim was a freaking genius! Thanks Mateo.. new subscriber forever and always!🤗❤️🥰

Ravel’s valses nobles et sentimentales is certainly heard here and elsewhere. Love it and love your show! Thank you for doing it.

We love a Sondheim breakdown, simple ideas using the same motifs in different keys, but so clever! Great video!

This is my fav video fo yours and not only because into the woods is my fav musical EVER; you have amazing explanations and things to add to this masterpiece of a song. Have you ever considered doing an analysis of On the Steps of the Palace? Or a whole Into the woods series? IT REALLY DESERVES IT

MCL - YOU are brilliant! So appreciate the incisive breakdown. I can’t imagine anyone doing it better. Rock on!

Thanks, great video and analysis! You have the best take on the death of Bakers's Wife I've ever heard. As you said, it makes perfect sense, but I have never thought of it that way.

Great video =D Also: "just remembering you've had an And when you're back to OR make the OR mean more than it did before" is what I consider the most brilliant lyrics in anything ever and the main reason I consider Sondheim my biggest idol and who I most want to write like. It's so specific and clever and true all at the same time and just deeply fascinates me and you explain the magic of this song so well so thank you :)

Following Gail Leonard-Wright and David Benkof recommendations on today’s Broadway Maven zoom class discussing wordplay and Freudian aspects in Into the woods,, I checked out several of your RU-vid videos and found them most enjoyable and informative. Thanks for your moments during on-line chat. I have “subscribed” to your channel and look forward to many more “moments” viewing and listening to you. Kudos. Michael Lehrman, Brooklyn NY (By the way, during discussion today of motives and motifs, and “time” signatures, one of my own comments reaffirmed the old phrase “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” - and I thought of repetition in musical and thematic motif, though usually intentional on part of lyricist and composer, it sometimes can just be serendipity or happenstance. For instance, in the comments today we had 4 “ML’s” - Melanie Lee, myself Michael Lehrman. Maxine Litwak and yourself Mateo Lewis -- coincidence, not fate or deliberately planned.)

Brilliant analysis of one of my all-time favorite musicals. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Matteo, for your insights, kindness and love for musical theatre!

This was so mindblowing!! Thank you, it was such a pleasure listening to you!

I loved this explanation so much. There are parts I also heard by listening to the Cast recordings, but to get such a profound and easy to follow analysis is an absolute gift. Thank you so much. Alone the costuming wasn‘t really helping, but that is just my opinion. I‘m absolutely looking forward to what I can learn and better understand next!!!!

thank you for this video!! I'm playing BW in the fall and I've been scouring the internet for different analyses of Moments :)

Brilliantly beautiful analysis! It was thrilling to hear your appreciation of the and/or rhymes-they’re some of my favorite both for meaning and rhyming. New subscriber. 🥰

This is brilliant! Loved your performance haha

Since being cast as bakers wife in my school musical I’ve been doing as much research as possible and this was probably one of the most useful videos yet!! Sometimes all people see is the fact that she cheated on her husband and not the fact that she came out of it better (plus she was literally in the wrong story so I don’t know if she could have stopped it even if she tried) and it’s not that cheating is not wrong, but it’s not the point of this story, it’s a narrative to make her character stronger and to realize that she’s grateful for what she worked long and hard to achieve.

this is so so cool and exactly the type of content i love and want to know more about :D

I just discovered your channel and you are absolutely brilliant! I'm a big Sondheim fan and I just love your analysis. Have you done any more Sondheim songs? Keep up the great work!!!

Jesus man you are so talented, awesome analysis and keep up the good work

I loved Joanna Gleason as the Baker’s Wife. I am aware that she won the Tony.

This thumbnail though :)

Into the Woods is my favorite Sondheim show and this sort of analysis just makes me love it even more :)

Oh my. Hello!!! Subbed!!!! Going to scrounge for any hidden gem song analyzes you have on your channel now

so good! Sondheim is smiling :)

WHOA SO COOL I love you (I'm biased tho)

Superb analysis....the one thing you might have said is that Sondheim was inspired here from Ravel......he certainly did in A Little Night Music but here too....do you agree?

Ok. I'm back. Looks like you have some good songs analyzed. But I'd love to hear a few... If remotely possible?? Carrie: -I remember how those boys could dance - and eve was weak Hunchback of Notre Dame - made of stone Anything from starkids Twisted, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, or Black Friday