The Little Mermaid

The film’s first sound comes not from under the sea but from sailors singing above it. A single song guides the journey down from the human world to the mermaid kingdom.

• It takes the form of a sea shanty (a song sailors sang as they worked), delivered by a male chorus singing as one. These rough human voices give the first glimpse of the world Ariel will come to long for.
• The sailors sing of the legend of the merking beneath the waves. The mystery of the sea is presented first from the human side, laying down the story’s frame: two worlds that know nothing of each other and can only imagine.
• In the film it was cut very short. In the 2008 Broadway stage version, the lyricist Glenn Slater added new lyrics, and it was reborn as a far longer opening number.
• When the song ends, the orchestral title music takes over and the picture sinks beneath the water. This seam, from voices to instruments, sounds like the moment of passing through the surface.

Alone in her treasure grotto, Ariel sings as she dreams of the human world. It is the song that reveals what the heroine wants, and the music of the whole film spreads outward from this melody.

• In Broadway musicals, the song in which the protagonist confesses a longing early on is called the “I want” song (the song of desire). This number is often cited as the clearest example of that form in Disney animation.
• The opening is closer to talking to oneself than to song. It begins almost as speech while she examines her treasures one by one, and then, as her longing swells, the melody soars upward.
• Ashman made a demo (a sketch recording) singing the song himself, and during the sessions, Benson recalled, he stood beside her and shaped it with her line by line.
• It was nearly cut because young viewers grew restless. When it was screened again with the scene further along in coloring, the response was good, and it survived.
• In the underscore this melody serves like a leitmotif (a short recurring melody that stands for a character) for Ariel, returning throughout the film.

On the beach after the storm, gazing down at the unconscious Eric, Ariel sings again. The same melody turns from a vague dream into a resolve aimed at one person.

• A reprise (singing again a song heard earlier) sets the same melody in a different situation to show how much a character has changed. In the grotto she sang of a world; here she sings of one person.
• Eric remembers not her face but only the sound of this song. It is the moment when song goes beyond mere expression of feeling to become a clue that drives the story.
• In the latter part the orchestra swells mightily, overlapping with waves breaking against the rocks. The arc of a quiet soliloquy growing into a declaration of resolve is captured whole in the music.

Sebastian gathers the sea creatures and sings to Ariel, urging her to stay in the sea. It is the most dazzling scene in the film, yet the one person who should be listening is gone when the song ends.

• The rhythms of Caribbean calypso (a buoyant song style born in Trinidad) blend with the steel drum, played by striking steel oil barrels, and the marimba, a keyboard instrument with wooden bars. Ashman’s decision to make Sebastian a Jamaican bore fruit here.
• The number is built so that the band keeps growing as sea creatures join in one by one, each taking up an instrument. As the sounds pile up, they show the ear just how abundant the undersea world is.
• Samuel E. Wright’s sly delivery and sense of rhythm define the song’s character. It sounds less like singing than like persuasive talk set to a tune.
• This song won Menken and Ashman the Academy Award for Best Original Song. That same year, Menken also won the award for Best Original Score.

The song in which the sea witch Ursula tempts Ariel with human legs in exchange for her voice. A bargain that costs a song is sealed with a song.

• A number that blends a slow, swaying rhythm with the exaggerated gestures of a showgirl's stage. Its manner of speech — coaxing sweetly, then suddenly baring its contempt — paints Ursula exactly as she is.
• Ursula presents herself as a patron of the unfortunate, showing off the victims of her past bargains as if they were trophies. It is the only passage in the film where song serves not sincerity but deception.
• Ashman acted out the song himself as a demonstration, and Pat Carroll built the role on it. Carroll's performance, shifting between a low speaking voice and a high singing one, is counted among the great ones.
• In the closing bars the song turns into an incantation, and orchestra and chorus whirl into a maelstrom. It coincides with the moment the bargain is struck and Ariel's voice is drawn out of her.

The song in which Sebastian, standing in for the voiceless Ariel, joins the animals of the lagoon to egg the hesitant Eric on. The songs of those around her fill the heroine's silence.

• Caribbean in flavor like “Under the Sea,” but far slower and softer. The same character's music turns, scene by scene, from a carnival into a whisper.
• Sounds imitating frogs, birds, and insects mingle with the accompaniment, and the whole lagoon becomes a single band. The place — a shore at night — is painted in sound.
• Just as the song ripens, a disturbance from below breaks off the scene. The music halting just short of its climax lays bare the tension of the story.
• It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Alongside “Under the Sea,” that year's winner, two songs from the same film were in the running.

The underscore for the final showdown, which begins on the wedding ship and spreads into the open sea. Without a single song, the orchestra carries the story to its end.

• The longest piece of underscore on the soundtrack. A film built on songs, at its decisive moment, stops singing and hands the scene to the orchestra.
• The dark figures that shadowed Ursula and her minions and the lashing strings of the storm scene come rushing back. Material heard earlier collides all at once in the final passage.
• The low, crushing weight of the brass pits itself against rapid figures in the strings, sounding like a battle between a colossal force and small figures.
• Recall that Menken was first engaged only for the songs and came to score the whole film on the strength of his underscore sketches, and this piece shows that the decision was right. For this film he won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Original Score.