Turning Lyrics - Les Miserables

Song Overview

Song Credits

• Featured: Eight-woman ensemble from the Les Misérables: International Cast (notably Debbie Byrne, Anne Wood, Gay Soper, and Jacqui Scott)
• Producer: David Caddick
• Composer: Claude-Michel Schönberg
• Lyricists: Alain Boublil, Herbert Kretzmer, Jean-Marc Natel
• Orchestrator: John Cameron – lush strings & low reeds double their earlier “Lovely Ladies” scoring
• Release Date: December 2, 1988 (on Les Misérables: The Complete Symphonic Recording)
• Genre: Symphonic musical-theatre lament
• Length: 2 min 7 s (CD timing)
• Label: Exallshow Ltd / Relativity Records
• Key / Meter: E-minor, lilting 3/4
• Mood: Bereaved, circular, fatalistic
• Instruments: Violins divisi, violas, cellos, harp arpeggios, cor anglais, bassoon, soft timpani rolls
• Language: English (French counterpart “Tourne, tourne” in the 1991 Paris revival)
• Music style / poetic meter: Trochaic couplets set against waltz-time ostinato
• Copyright ©: 1980 & 1985 Alain Boublil Music Ltd / Schönberg Music Ltd

Song Meaning and Annotations

“Turning” is the graveyard echo of Act I’s bawdy “Lovely Ladies.” Schönberg reprises that earlier melody but slows the tempo, flattens the harmony, and lets the women’s voices overlap like tolling bells—proof that the spinning wheel of poverty in Les Misérables never stops, it just turns. The Les Misérables: International Cast rendering pushes the strings into a muted tremolo, while a lone cor anglais bleeds in and out, mimicking the morning fog that drifts across the barricade’s ruins.

Lyrically, the Turning lyrics read almost like a Greek chorus. The women catalogue unanswered prayers, empty cradles, and the cruel math of “minutes into hours / and the hours into years.” Kretzmer’s English text stays brutally matter-of-fact—no grand metaphors, only kitchen-table statistics of grief. This everyday diction is what makes the scene sting; these are the mothers, sisters, and widows whom epic tales usually skip.

On stage the number serves a dual purpose: it bridges the carnage of the barricade with Marius’s survivor’s guilt in “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables,” and it yanks the audience out of revolutionary fervor into civilian aftermath. Directors often stage it as a slow-motion street cleaning—baskets, brooms, and candle stubs arrayed around bodies that only the audience can still see. In the 2012 film, Tom Hooper keeps the motif but truncates the text to half its length, inter-cutting reaction shots of Parisians stepping gingerly over fresh blood.

Section Analysis

Opening Call-and-Response

Did you see them going off to fight? / Children of the barricade who didn't last the night

The melody dips a minor third, as if every question sags under its own weight.

Middle Lament

They were schoolboys, never held a gun / Fighting for a new world that would rise up like the sun

Schönberg briefly modulates to the relative major—one bar of sunrise before clouds slam back in.

Roundabout Refrain

Turning, turning, turning through the years…

This canon spins in three staggered parts, imitating a broken carousel—hope drained of momentum.

Similar Songs

1. “Momma Look Sharp” – 1776 (1969)
   Sherman Edwards’s Civil-War lament also filters battlefield death through civilian eyes. Both pieces favour plaintive strings and airy tenor lines to highlight wasted youth, though “Turning” compresses its grief into two minutes of waltz-time inevitability.
2. “Sunday” – Titanic (1997 stage musical)
   Maury Yeston employs women’s ensemble voices to mourn third-class passengers; the circular harmonic motion mirrors Schönberg’s spirals, underscoring class-based tragedy.
3. “Requiem for Evita” – Evita (1976)
   Lloyd Webber’s town-square elegy likewise uses repetitive choral phrases to depict collective sorrow. Where Evita’s mourners sing adoration, the Turning women voice disillusionment—a chilling inversion.

Questions and Answers

Why does “Turning” reuse the “Lovely Ladies” melody?

Schönberg wanted a sonic echo to show how the underclass—sex-workers in Act I, street wives in Act II—remain trapped in the same socio-economic wheel.

Was the full song included in the 2012 film?

No. The film keeps only the chorus as background over silent visuals, cutting most of the verses for pacing.

How many official cast recordings feature “Turning”?

At least six: the 1985 London cast, 1987 Broadway cast, 1988 Complete Symphonic Recording, 1995 Dream Cast concert, 2010 25th Anniversary tour album, and the 2019 Staged Concert recording.

Is there a standalone single release?

No. “Turning” was never promoted as a single, but the Symphonic album reached international charts, and the track streams over a million plays on major platforms.

Which vocal parts sing “Turning” on stage?

A mix of mezzo-sopranos and altos—usually drawn from ensemble tracks who double as factory girls in Act I—plus occasional child-soprano to underscore generational loss.

Awards and Chart Positions

• Grammy Award: Les Misérables: The Complete Symphonic Recording won Best Musical Cast Show Album at the 33rd Grammys (1991)
• Official UK Albums Chart: Original London Cast album peaked at No. 72 in 1986; later re-entries followed concert broadcasts

Fan and Media Reactions

“Every time the Turning lyrics hit ‘What’s the use of praying,’ I get chills—no hero, just history.” – Playbill forum user

“Brilliant twist that the melody is the same as ‘Lovely Ladies’—tragedy wears the same dress.” – YouTube comment under Symphonic upload

“2012 film cut it, but the quick shot of laundry lines flapping is a silent nod to this number.” – Letterboxd review

“In the 10th Anniversary concert, watch Ruthie Henshall wipe tears mid-line—raw.” – Les Mis fan blog

“Roundabout motif feels like a vinyl stuck in a groove—perfect metaphor.” – Musicologist tweet