The podcast Song Exploder recently devoted an episode to “What’s This?” by Danny Elfman. The song, from the 1993 classic film The Nightmare Before Christmas, expresses the excitement of the protagonist, Jack, as he experiences something he never had before, namely Christmas. We will be looking at this song mainly through the lyrics and how they work along with the rhythm to help build the energy of the song.
In terms of form “What’s This?” is fairly straight forward. It features only verses and middle eights. The two work together seamlessly to portray the character and his reaction to a new, exciting experience, yet structurally the two are very complementary. Stylistically speaking “What’s This?” is a patter song where Jack quickly lists the sensory information he is experiencing. Patter songs are a standard of musical theater that feature complicated lyrics delivered at a rapid pace almost like a manic tongue twister.
The central feature of the verse is the exclamation “What’s this?” suitably expressing the protagonist’s amazement. This title line functions somewhat as a refrain for the verse. That being said, its delivery is somewhat unpredictable. The first verse features this lyric five times, with the first four and the final two words of the verse being repetitions of the phrase. In the second verse “what’s this?” is featured six times, including the first four and final four words of the verse.
After the first appearance of the middle eight, the third verse only features “what’s this?” only appears twice. Rather, those words are replaced by other questions and exclamations, such as “oh look,” “they kiss?” and “inspired!” Verse four continues this trend with only two appearances of the lyrics, as the first and last lyric of the verse. Instead, it includes more questions and exclamations, including “in here,” “how queer,” “and why?” In the fifth verse “what’s this?” only appears once at the end of the verse. Again, we have more questions and exclamations: “oh my,” “what now?” “but look,” and “no ghouls.”
The final verse of the song appears right after the second middle eight. This verse only features the title lyric once, at its conclusion. Instead the exclamations “the sights,” “the sounds,” “around,” and “before” are used.
As a patter song, the verse of “What’s This?” has a very modular feel to it. Each verse has a slightly different rhyme scheme, and even often has a different number of lines to it. Musical phrases in the verses are often extended or shortened by two beats giving the verse a somewhat frantic rhythmic profile.
Contrastingly, the song’s two middle eights of the song are very rhythmically predictable. As the term middle eight suggests, each is eight lines long, with the second and fourth line rhyming, as well as the sixth and eighth lines. In both cases, each slows down dramatically at the end of the section, providing a brief rest before jumping back into the frantic pace of the verses.
Ultimately, “What’s This?” not only of a patter song, but a song that establishes the narrative , as well as establishing character. The frantic nature of the verses not only establish Jack’s excitement, but the rhythmic unpredictability of the song suggests Jack’s non-conformist nature.