So Close (Enchanted song) form of creative work song
Composition
According to the song's official sheet music published by Walt Disney Music Publishing on Musicnotes.com, "So Close" was written in the key of E major, performed "slowly" in common time. The track lasts a duration of three minutes and forty-nine seconds. According to The Musical Theater of Stephen Schwartz: From Godspell to Wicked author Paul R. Laird, the song is performed in 4/4 time "with a prevailing triplet motion", thus the ballad is not a waltz since it is not written in 3/4 time. Filmtracks.com identified the song as a "modern ... contemporary pop" ballad. Musically, "So Close" resembles Menken's "era of Disney songwriting", with the composer himself describing the track as "a more contemporary, adult ballad" and agreeing that the song is "really in my ballad style". Troob described "So Close" as a "very straight-ahead pop ballad" reminiscent of music popular during the 1980s and 1990s. Peter Knegt of IndieWire described the ballad as "mid-1990s slow dance sounding". In addition to being a pop song, the track employs heavy pop orchestration; instruments such as bass, drums, guitar, piano and synthesizer can be heard throughout the piece. Laird described Menken's composition as "a flowing tune with a wide range that takes [McLaughlin's] tenor to a d-flat", which he performs in falsetto. Performing the track using a "melancholic voice", McLaughlin's vocal range on the song spans three octaves, from B3-Db6."So Close" is a love song. The song features lyrics that mirror the film and Giselle's relationship with Robert, beginning with "You're in my arms/And all the word is gone/The music playing on/for only two/so close together" and ending "...So close, and still/So far..." to indicate that there is still separation between the two, despite how close they've grown. This last line refers to the characters' close physical proximity to each other but different fates. According to McKinley Catherine Keener of The Odyssey Online, "So Close" briefly suggests that Enchanted may lack a conventionally happy ending, specifically the lyrics "A life goes by, romantic dreams must die." McLaughlin's raspy, sentimental vocals and melody contradict with the song's cynical lyrics. Laird observed that, in addition to conveying the song's dual message, Schwartz is less reliant on rhyming words, but nonetheless uses lyrics such as "happy end" instead of "happy ending" in order to rhyme with "pretend". The ballad's lyrics also consist of puns.
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