The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations - Hardcover

Suskin, Steven

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195309472 ISBN 13: 9780195309478

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Broadway's top orchestrators - Robert Russell Bennett, Don Walker, Philip J. Lang, Jonathan Tunick - are names well known to musical theatre fans, but few people understand precisely what the orchestrator does. The Sound of Broadway Music is the first book ever written about these unsung stars of the Broadway musical whose work is so vital to each show's success. The book examines the careers of Broadway's major orchestrators and follows the song as it travels from the composer's piano to the orchestra pit. Steven Suskin has meticulously tracked down thousands of original orchestral scores, piecing together enigmatic notes and notations with long-forgotten documents and current interviews with dozens of composers, producers, conductors and arrangers. The information is separated into three main parts: a biographical section which gives a sense of the life and world of twelve major theatre orchestrators, as well as incorporating briefer sections on another thirty arrangers and conductors; a lively discussion of the art of orchestration, written for musical theatre enthusiasts (including those who do not read music); a biographical section which gives a sense of the life and world of twelve major theatre orchestrators, as well as incorporating briefer sections on another thirty arrangers and conductors; and an impressive show-by-show listing of more than seven hundred musicals, in many cases including a song-by-song listing of precisely who orchestrated what along with relevant comments from people involved with the productions. Stocked with intriguing facts and juicy anecdotes, many of which have never before appeared in print, The Sound of Broadway Music brings fascinating and often surprising new insight into the world of musical theatre.

About this title

About the Author

Steven Suskin is the author of numerous books on the Broadway musical, including Show Tunes (OUP, fourth edition released March 2010), Second Act Trouble (Applause, 2006), and the Opening Night on Broadway series. He has written hundreds of columns and reviews for Playbill, Variety and other publications.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195309472
• ISBN 13: 9780195309478
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 672