In The Heights

As we begin to close out this year—and decade—the barrage of polarized political news finds either a reprieve or a conduit, depending on how one may approach it, with In the Heights.

Set in the eponymous Washington Heights, a neighbourhood in northern Manhattan, New York, the musical is set to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s words and melodies, while Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) takes the director’s helm.

With a title card touting such at 0:14, the trailer wastes no time reminding you that Miranda created the smash Broadway hit Hamilton (2015); the thrust of this cinematic story seems to hit on very similar themes, albeit in a more explicitly contemporary setting.

From the beginning up until about 0:23 we hear a spare but sweeping four-chord vamp focused on single, ringing piano chords and strings hanging from a thread in the upper register. Things begin to get more interesting musically with the director’s title card as we hear a clave rhythm laid on top—maybe obvious with the predominantly Latin American representation on screen, but appropriate, and in terms of the musical arrangement, serving as an energetic contrast to the strings.

Notice the obvious synch point between the clave rhythm and the shutting of the gate at 0:28, made more explicit with the extra percussive accents placed there—only to occur again with the swinging of keys at 0:31.

At 0:32 the music abruptly cuts to the well-trodden trope of the single, reverb-drenched piano note, in this case not clearly within the key of the song—it takes us out of the action, as much as we are taken out of the narrative and back to our narrator telling the story; it serves to reel us back up a level in the diegesis, accompanied by percussive hits.

In addition to this, it also serves to allow the introduction of rap (as in Hamilton before it) and singing vocals to the musical arrangement—and the establishment of the film as a musical—to hit with deeper impact at 0:35. Bodega owner Usanvi (Anthony Ramos) sets up his shop, with every flick of a switch, press of a button, or pouring of a sugar packet infectiously settled into the groove of the track. Details large and small such as this—almost too numerous to recount in entirety—follow.

Notably, however, at 1:44 the music is reduced down again to the piano and strings we were introduced to, and on screen a girl says “shh—just listen”—almost surely not coincidentally considering the movement in the soundtrack.

Not for long, however, as the music is turned up again (with the assistance of the helpful title card stating “turn up,” of course), and we’re shown even more fantastical set pieces as the music reaches new, well, heights. A counter melody and full choir and orchestra complement the main singer’s exaltations, while the appearance near the end of the arrangement of some epic percussion rounds it off to a rousing, colourful finish.

As a musical, the trailer for In the Heights is obviously going to place music in the foreground even more than most trailers. Where it succeeds is in not giving away too much of that music, instead primarily focusing on variations of a key hook for, most likely, the key track.

— Curtis Perry