NON STOP
"Non Stop" is my favorite song in the entire musical. First off the fact that Burr narrates this is genius. We've been watching Burr compare himself to Hamilton the entire musical so far, which is what makes this song perfect. We see Burr who has been waiting for it this entire time, right next to Hamilton who has been doing things non stop to get his way. He climbs the ladder of success so quickly and it frustrates Burr, at the same impressing him.
I also loves this song because we get to see Hamilton after the war finally. Before this it was Hamilton building up to the war and then fighting in it, and it was a nice change in pace to see him out side of the war mindset, the tempo of the song also changes to go along with this change... and it is a PERFECT song. I love the way they orchestrate the song to quickly show Alexander's success.
Non stop is slightly ambiguous in the way that it is used as well. It stands for the way he is non stop in his writing. He keeps writing and writing and writing and writing and never stops. He writes to the point where it gets obsessive. The other meaning is a foreshadow to the second act of the play. He is a non stop force of nature, just like a hurricane(haha get it), that doesn't stop for anything in his way.
The last reason I like this song is the way that they bring in many songs from the first act into the final part of the song. It basically sums up the first act of the play. All the voices come together and make a beautiful collage of sounds. It even ends on the line "I'm not throwing away my shot" to show that Hamilton will never stop for anything until he gets what he wants. He will not throw away his shot to make a name for himself and leave his legacy.
I really liked your commentary on seeing Hamilton outside of a wartime setting. This song serves perfectly as the finale for Act I, setting the stage for the politics-driven second act. I think it also has the best written raps, rhythmically and lyrically, for the character of Hamilton up to this point, and that reflects the story, showing how much he can accomplish when he isn't focused on the stresses of war.
ReplyDeleteI thought it also served as a great insight into how Hamilton sees himself against Burr. He has a moment of vulnerability when he asks Burr to help him with the Federalist papers that is rare to see of Hamilton.
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