Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: show-tunes
Song Meaning of “Goodbye For Now (Arr. Julian Kelly)” by Stephen Sondheim
Goodbye For Now is a lamenting song, set in a minor key, about the difficulty of saying goodbye to someone you care deeply about. It speaks of the complex emotions and ambivalence of letting go. It expresses the heaviness of heartbreak in saying goodbye, knowing that you have to carry on without the one you love by your side. Sondheim’s lyrics speak of having to part with the one you love, and how it feels like a permanent loss: “This farewell’s not for ever, but it’s goodbye, goodbye for now” and “The path moves on and I must, though I’d rather stay”.
This arrangement, by Julian Kelly, features intimate and sorrowful instrumentation to perfectly convey the song’s theme of enduring sadness. Soft strings create a sorrowful tone, one that moves gradually to emphasize the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness in parting with our beloved ones. With each goodbye that is said, there is a reverberating sense of emptiness and pain in the music. The ending is especially poignant and heartbreaking: the tension mounts before it resolves itself, symbolizing the struggle of letting go.
Goodbye For Now speaks to our shared experience of loss, and speaks to the strength and courage we have to find within ourselves to let go and move forward in life.