Editing Over the Rainbow (section)

==Background==
Composer Harold Arlen and lyricist Yip Harburg often worked in tandem, Harburg generally suggesting an idea or title for Arlen to set to music, before Harburg contributed the lyrics.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Shapiro |first1=Gary |title='Over the Rainbow': The Story Behind the Song of the Century |url=https://news.columbia.edu/news/over-rainbow-story-behind-song-century |website=Columbia News |access-date=October 30, 2019}}</ref> For their work together on ''[[The Wizard of Oz]]'', Harburg claimed his inspiration was "a ballad for a little girl who... was in trouble and... wanted to get away from... Kansas. A dry, arid, colorless place. She had never seen anything colorful in her life except the rainbow". Arlen decided the idea needed "a melody with a long broad line".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frisch |first1=Walter |title=Arlen and Harburg's Over the Rainbow |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=20}}</ref>

By the time all the other songs for the film had been written, Arlen was feeling the pressure of not having the song for the Kansas scene. He often carried blank pieces of music manuscript in his pockets to jot down short melodic ideas. Arlen described how the inspiration for the melody to "Over the Rainbow" came to him suddenly while his wife Anya drove:

"I said to Mrs. Arlen... 'let's go to [[Grauman's Chinese Theatre|Grauman's Chinese]] ... You drive the car, I don't feel too well right now.' I wasn't thinking of work. I wasn't consciously thinking of work, I just wanted to relax. And as we drove by [[Schwab's Pharmacy|Schwab's Drug Store]] on [[Sunset Boulevard|Sunset]] I said, 'Pull over, please.' ... And we stopped and I really don't know why—bless the muses—and I took out my little bit of manuscript and put down what you know now as 'Over the Rainbow.'"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alonso |first1=Harriet Hyman |title=Yip Harburg: Legendary Lyricist and Human Rights Activist |date=2012 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |page=106}}</ref>

The song was originally sung in [[A-flat major]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Garland |first1=Judy |title=Over the Rainbow |url=https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0076720 |website=MusicNotes |date=August 31, 2009 |access-date=March 9, 2020}}</ref> Arlen later wrote the contrasting bridge section based on the idea of "a child's piano exercise".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frisch |first1=Walter |title=Arlen and Harburg's Over the Rainbow |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=22}}</ref> In the movie, a renowned [[Stradivarius]] violin was used in the accompaniment.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 3, 2022 |title=Violin used for Wizard of Oz's Over the Rainbow expected to reach $20m at auction |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jun/03/violin-used-to-play-over-the-rainbow-in-wizard-of-oz-expected-to-sell-for-more-than-20m |access-date=June 12, 2022 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

Italian newspaper ''[[Il Messaggero]]'' has noted a resemblance, both harmonic and melodic, between ''Over the Rainbow'' and the theme of the intermezzo (known as Ratcliff's Dream) of [[Pietro Mascagni]]'s 1895 opera ''[[Guglielmo Ratcliff]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ilmessaggero.it/spettacoli/musica/mascagni_strada_oz-3271836.html|title = C'era Mascagni sulla strada di Oz|date = September 30, 2017}}</ref>