Songs of yearning.

What is yearning? Is yearning a "longing for", a return to what was? But surely yearning may also be a longing for what can be? So someone happy with the present circumstances does not yearn?... until or unless the circumstances change? Then again, one may yearn for something unattainable or not yet attained (and which presumably may be attained). Perhaps there are 50 shades of yearning!

I came across this yearning quote:

  
There is also a thought-provoking explanation by a present-day song-writer about why the evergreen 1939 song "(Somewhere) Over The Rainbow" is so powerfully evocative to many people:

Why did "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" get into our hearts and stay there?

http://www.upworthy.com/theres-a-reason-so-many-people-love-somewhere-over-the-rainbow-a-songwriting-expert-reveals-it?g=2&c=ufb1

In a sense, the song "manipulates" us to share in Dorothy's yearning for a wondrous place -- but one in which she knows she must ultimately leave to return to where she had begun her adventure.

Wow!

I started to think if I knew of other songs from musicals that have this "yearning" motif. Here are five that came off my sleepy head at this moment of writing:

Sunrise, Sunset (Fiddler On The Roof)
The Way We Were (The Way We Were)
Try To Remember (The Fantasticks)
I Dream A Dream (Les Miserables)

And to wrap up on a cheery note:
Tomorrow (Annie).