Hamilton does not have an overture. There are eleven notes of orchestral introduction in Hamilton: seven rhythmic orchestral notes in the rhythmic motif of “not throwing away my shot,” then four string notes inspired by a door squeak. That’s it.
“Alexander Hamilton” is the first song, the first music, heard in the production, and thus must serve a few purposes. First, it gradually introduces the music to the listener’s ear, acclimating them to the musical space. Second, it introduces many of the characters and themes which will play a part in the show. Third, it introduces Hamilton himself, sketching out the first 16 years of our protagonist’s life in a way that illustrates what influence these events will have on those throughout the rest of the show.
Lin-Manuel Miranda was originally unsure if the concept would translate into a full Broadway show, so he imagined and wrote this song as the first on a theoretical hip hop mixtape, a concept album that he might eventually stage à la Jesus Christ Superstar. Ron Chernow, who wrote the biography on which the play is primarily based and went on to become the musical’s historical consultant, had this to say about its conception:
Two or three months after our first meeting, Lin-Manuel asked if he could come over to my house and sing something for me. He sat on my living room couch, began to snap his fingers, then sang the opening song of the show — ‘‘How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore, etc.’’ When he finished, he asked me what I thought. And I said, ‘‘I think that’s the most astonishing thing I’ve ever heard in my life.’’ He had accurately condensed the first 40 pages of my book into a four-minute song. And he had forged a unique idiom that blended formal 18th-century speech with 21st-century slang. Filtered through Lin-Manuel’s extraordinary mind, the lyrics sounded natural and spontaneous and all of a piece. Next thing I knew, he sent me an email and said to go on YouTube, that he had performed that first song at the White House and gotten a standing ovation from the Obamas. I thought to myself, ‘‘Wow, I am strapped to a real rocket with this young guy.’’
And then everyone goes, ‘Oh, my God, he’s a genius! Hamilton’s a genius!’ They conflate the two. I’m not a fucking genius. I work my ass off. Hamilton could have written what I wrote in about three weeks. That’s genius. It took me a very long time to wrestle this onto the stage, to even be able to understand the worldviews of the characters that inhabit my show, and then be able to distill that.
This opening number was also performed at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. It was seen on a live screen from Los Angeles, where the Grammy Awards were held, while it was performed in New York, at Hamilton’s native Richard Rodgers Theater. Hamilton then went on to win Best Musical Theater Album.