Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

The Schuyler Sisters

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Released
  
2015

Length
  
3:07

Composer(s)
  
Lin-Manuel Miranda

Genre
  
R&B soul show tune

Writer(s)
  
Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lyricist(s)
  
Lin-Manuel Miranda

"The Schuyler Sisters" is the fifth song from Act 1 of the musical Hamilton, based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, which premiered on Broadway in 2015. Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote both the music and lyrics to the song.

Contents

Background

Musical director Alex Lacamoire explained that the song originally had a throwback Daft Punk/Pharrell feel, but after viewing a series of Vines with the three actresses improv-ing on Destiny’s Child songs, he reworked the song to give it a Destiny's Child vibe, then let the sisters add their own harmonies to the tune; he "realized there’s nothing in the song as cool as the harmonies the girls do when they’re fucking around, so we...just let them riff".

Synopsis

The song introduces the three Schuyler sisters: Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy, and how they are excited to be in a new age, "amidst the powder keg of the early days of the revolution". The song has been described as feminist by Catholic blogger Monique Ocampo of Patheos.

Style

The New Yorker described the sisters as a "Destiny’s Child-esque R. & B. girl group." Pitchfork said the song wouldn't sound out of place in an album by Wyclef protégé City High. The Guardian said the number "combines TLC with the Andrews Sisters and a hat tip to 'Three Little Maids From School Are We'". Wiux described it as "a pre-pre-feminist power anthem".

Critical reception

The Huffington Post found that the refrain "Work, work" "gets stuck in your head after just one listen", but added that the lines about New York being the greatest city in the world were slightly pandering. Entertainment Monthly says this song marks the moment when "the album really kicks it into high gear." Jeff Lunden of Byline said that this is the song he keeps "more or less in constant rotation".

References

The Schuyler Sisters Wikipedia