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The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey - Hardcover

 
9780195054347: The Broadway Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey
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The Broadway musical, one of America's most distinctive contributions to Western music, has been chronicled, dissected, described, and debated, but never until now has its essential element--that glorious music--been analyzed directly in any significant detail. Moving beyond the anecdotes, production histories, and generalizations about theatrical style that mark so much of the critical literature, Joseph P. Swain offers a unique survey of the most important or representative musical plays, one that shows how the great Broadway composers have used the traditional tools of composition--melody, harmony, tonal movement, rhythm, and texture--to become powerful dramatists in their own right.
Illustrated with over 150 musical excerpts--a unique feature that gives Swain's analysis unparalleled depth and precision--the book yields new insights at every turn. It shows how particular musical solutions to dramatic problems gave Showboat and Oklahoma! the power to change the course of the Broadway tradition, brought Carousel and West Side Story to worldwide recognition as masterpieces of their kind, and lent a light popular genre the formal complexity and emotional range to encompass a tremendous diversity of styles and materials, from Shakespearean drama (Kiss Me, Kate and West Side Story) to European opera (Porgy and Bess), and from age-old myth (My Fair Lady and Camelot) to still-current ethnic conflict (Fiddler on the Roof). All the great Broadway composers and musical-comedy teams are here--Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, Leonard Bernstein, Lerner and Loewe--as well as a representative sample of the classic shows, including the sadly neglected The Most Happy Fella. In addition, Swain's thoughtful evaluation of the current scene illuminates issues of dramatic approach (Godspell), plot (A Chorus Line), subject matter (Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita), and musical rhetoric (Stephen Sondheim's output, exemplified by Sweeney Todd) that may determine the future course of the musical play.
Precise in focus, uncommonly rich in detail, and accessible to fans and scholars alike, The Broadway Musical will have to be read by anyone concerned with contemporary American music and drama, and by anyone who hopes truly to know this supposedly best-known of music.

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About the Author:

About the Author:
Joseph P. Swain is Associate Professor of Music at Colgate University.
From Library Journal:
A nourishing stew spiced with the variety of "musically valuable" American musicals (e.g., Show Boat, Porgy and Bess, Kiss Me Kate, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Evita, A Chorus Line, Sweeney Todd ), this unique blend of history, criticism , and analysis is valuable for all who concern themselves with this sector of musical culture. The piano-vocal scores used as sources for musical examples will be comprehensible even to musical amateurs since the songs are often so familiar. The musical analyses use sophisticated specialized terminology; would-be composers will easily grasp it, others will learn a lot. The motivation to do so will come from Swain's fascinating arguments on how the music in these dramas carries the stories as much as the words do. A welcome addition to American music history.
- Bonnie Jo Dopp, Dist . of Columbia P.L.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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  • PublisherOxford University Press
  • Publication date1990
  • ISBN 10 0195054342
  • ISBN 13 9780195054347
  • BindingHardcover
  • Number of pages400
  • Rating

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