The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical (Oxford Handbooks) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019998736X ISBN 13: 9780199987368

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2013

Synopsis

The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical offers new and cutting-edge essays on the most important and compelling issues and topics in the growing, interdisciplinary field of musical-theater and film-musical studies. Taking the form of a "keywords" book, it introduces readers to the concepts and terms that define the history of the musical as a genre and that offer ways to reflect on the specific creative choices that shape musicals and their performance on stage and screen. The handbook offers a cross-section of essays written by leading experts in the field, organized within broad conceptual groups, which together capture the breadth, direction, and tone of musicals studies today.

Each essay traces the genealogy of the term or issue it addresses, including related issues and controversies, positions and problematizes those issues within larger bodies of scholarship, and provides specific examples drawn from shows and films. Essays both re-examine traditional topics and introduce underexplored areas. Reflecting the concerns of scholars and students alike, the authors emphasize critical and accessible perspectives, and supplement theory with concrete examples that may be accessed through links to the handbook's website.

Taking into account issues of composition, performance, and reception, the book's contributors bring a wide range of practical and theoretical perspectives to bear on their considerations of one of America's most lively, enduring artistic traditions. The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical will engage all readers interested in the form, from students to scholars to fans and aficionados, as it analyses the complex relationships among the creators, performers, and audiences who sustain the genre.

About this title

About the Author

Raymond Knapp is Professor of Musicology at UCLA. His books include Symphonic Metamorphoses: Subjectivity and Alienation in Mahler's Re-Cycled Songs (2003), The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity (2005), The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity (2006), and Musicological Identities: Essays in Honor of Susan McClary (2008, co-edited with Steven Baur and Jacqueline Warwick).

Mitchell Morris is Associate Professor of Musicology at UCLA; among his research interests are Russian & Soviet Music; 20th century American music; opera; gender & sexuality; psychoanalysis; problems of musical ethics; and ecocriticism. In addition to his scholarly work, he is also a frequent collaborator with the Los Angeles Opera.

Stacy Wolf is Professor in the Program in Theater and the Director of the Princeton Atelier in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. She is the author of A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical (2002) and Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical (2011).

Review

"The second book of the three-volume set will most interest producers and directors of musicals." -- Peter Filichia, Music Theatre International

"The Oxford Handbook of the American Musical and its companion website [offer] a fresh and vital collection of 'keyword' essays that unpick and re-thread both process and product." --The Stage, listed as one of the best books of 2012

"Bibliographic references, keyed to a lengthy end-of-volume bibliography, and chapter endnotes provide good documentation...Furnish[es] a good overall background for understanding the American musical...Recommended." --Choice

"Proves that the study of musical theatre is not the eccentric hobby of a few nonconformist tenured professors but an emerging field populated by a brilliant and diverse group of scholars...Comprehensive and accessible enough to serve as a primer to introduce the uninitiated to current debates within the community and to assign to students as part of a course in the history and theory of the genre." --New Theatre Quarterly

"Makes for a fascinating read for the aficionado." --ARSC Journal

"A noteworthy contribution to the field of musical theater studies." --Journal of the Society for American Music

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 019998736X
• ISBN 13: 9780199987368
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 482
• Editor: Knapp Raymond, Morris Mitchell, Wolf Stacy