Jason needs to relax his brain. So, strange as it may seem, I'm making top five lists.
Top 5 Andrew Lloyd Weber Tunes:
1. Gus the Theatre Cat
2. Tell Me On a Sunday
3. Point of No Return
4. Heaven on Their Minds
5. Evita Overture
Top 5 Sondheim Tunes:
1. Finishing the Hat
2. Franklin Shepherd Inc.
3. Send in the Clowns
4. Ladies in Their Sensitivities/Quartet
5. Ladies Who Lunch
Top 5 Rodgers and Hammerstein Tunes:
1. Edelweiss
2. People Will Say We're In Love
3. This Nearly Was Mine
4. Soliloquy
5. You'll Never Walk Alone
Top 5 Adam Guettel Tunes:
1. Fable
2. How Glory Goes
3. Riddle Song
4. Come to Jesus
5. The Beauty Is
Top 5 Stephen Schwartz Tunes:
1. Beautiful City (rewrite)
2. Meadowlark
3. Savages
4. Simple Joys
5. If I Never Knew You
Top 5 Alan Menken Tunes:
1. Bells of Notre Dame
2. Somewhere That's Green
3. The Meek Shall Inherit
4. Gaston
5. Kiss the Girl
Top 5 Kander and Ebb Tunes:
1. Maybe This Time
2. Nowadays
3. Sometimes a Day Goes By
4. Colored Lights
5. Cabaret
Top 5 Jason Robert Brown Tunes:
1. I Could Be In Love With Someone Like You
2. The Old Red Hills of Home
3. The World Was Dancing
4. Someone to Fall Back On
5. If I Didn't Believe in You
Top 5 Michael John Lachiusa Tunes:
1. Tom
2. In Some Other Life
3. Queenie Was a Blonde
4. The Smallest Thing
5. How Many Women
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Inching Along
I've had some breakthroughs with software. I've been longing to be able to take these audio files with me because I do some of my best "editing" on this show when I'm bopping around the city. Thanks to a friend, I discovered Reason, where I can save all these lovely files as wavs and keep them on my psp as I alter them.
We like this much.
A song I wrote and one I co-wrote were featured in a performance in the city this past week. A first for me! This is a theatre group that I am a part of, a collaborative experience if ever there was one. The response was beautifully positive.
I also have some side projects, musically, that I'm tinkering with. But Sweet Jane is creeping along. I feel that snowball cresting the hill and I know I can be careening down it anytime now. Something is done to touch up a song every day. We like that as well. That is all from me for now.
We like this much.
A song I wrote and one I co-wrote were featured in a performance in the city this past week. A first for me! This is a theatre group that I am a part of, a collaborative experience if ever there was one. The response was beautifully positive.
I also have some side projects, musically, that I'm tinkering with. But Sweet Jane is creeping along. I feel that snowball cresting the hill and I know I can be careening down it anytime now. Something is done to touch up a song every day. We like that as well. That is all from me for now.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Dynamic
Working merch on South Pacific has given me the opportunity to listen to the show a bit here and there. I may be in the lobby but, particularly with the monitors on, that 30 piece orchestra hits and hits hard. There's something to be said for reviving a show and keeping choice elements in tact--such as the orchestrations. I will be the first to step up and endorse smaller pits, chamber pits, rock pits, whatever you want to call Next to Normal's pit, but there's just something about kicking it old school. And I'm sorry but the mega musical pits don't count as old school. Just in case you were wondering. If there's a synth in your pit, you ain't legit.
Long ago at a theatre not so far away, a composer friend of mine made an offhand comment about the lyrics of Howard Ashman elevating the work of Alan Menken. This has been a point of thought for me ever since. I'd never really looked at teams that way. The thing is, Menken has never really been as good as he was with Ashman. The blooming, radiant exception is Hunchback of Notre Dame and its subsequent European stage incarnations. But, to be fair, Ashman is known for very little beyond his work with Menken. The only piece that stands out in my mind at the moment is "Once Upon a Time in New York City" from Oliver in Company.
The pair elevated Disney and musicals at a time generally monopolized by a handful of names. Ashman went to Menken pre-Little Mermaid and said that these Disney films were a new frontier of musical theatre. Of course, when you do good by Disney, Disney puts all its eggs in your basket, as those Pixar boys have learned.
So I apply this same template to Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the man with the short end of the stick never fails to be Oscar. Am I going to criticize the lyrics of one of the defining artists in contemporary musical theatre? No, it's been done. Sondheim said it best, commenting how Hammerstein loved his bird metaphors. When Hammerstein hits hardest he knocks it out of the stratosphere, like with his final composition: Edelweiss. I'm just saying that the driving, striking force here is Rodgers. The music simply speaks for itself. It wasn't that Rodgers knew how to write a pretty tune, though he did. He knew how to surprise and layer. That "Some Enchanted Evening" sighs beneath "This Nearly Was Mine" could purely be the work of the orchestrator, but the songs had to fit somehow and at the time that simply didn't happen in musical theatre scores.
So I feel Howard Ashman carried Alan Menken and I feel that Richard Rodgers carried Oscar Hammerstein (I'm mostly out of metaphors). So I wonder, is there an even match up? A melange of lyricists worked with Jule Styne, and Styne was what Jeanine Tesori is fast becoming: a chameleon. So it's difficult for me t judge there. I don't know Bock and Harnick well enough to judge, but I do love how varied their work is. Then I look at Kander and Ebb and I have to wonder if they don't compliment each other perfectly, hand in hand always. Quintessentially American, stylistically varied, but not so much that their voices disappear, they sit smack dab in the middle of the fray. They aren't as sweeping as their contemporaries but they can be tender and viscerally serious. They aren't brassy but they aren't without their moments of "entertainment." I particularly love the fact that roots of the "jazz hands" idea of what Broadway is, very well came from a Kander and Ebb show and yet much of the "entertainment" in these shows stands more as a parody or an effigy of the light-hearted Ziegfeld or Gershwin days.
I would love Adam Guettel to find his lyrical soul mate. I think he and David Lindsay-Abaire should try each other out. And I'd love for Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner to write together forever. Comden and Green were a pretty even match, I think.
Long ago at a theatre not so far away, a composer friend of mine made an offhand comment about the lyrics of Howard Ashman elevating the work of Alan Menken. This has been a point of thought for me ever since. I'd never really looked at teams that way. The thing is, Menken has never really been as good as he was with Ashman. The blooming, radiant exception is Hunchback of Notre Dame and its subsequent European stage incarnations. But, to be fair, Ashman is known for very little beyond his work with Menken. The only piece that stands out in my mind at the moment is "Once Upon a Time in New York City" from Oliver in Company.
The pair elevated Disney and musicals at a time generally monopolized by a handful of names. Ashman went to Menken pre-Little Mermaid and said that these Disney films were a new frontier of musical theatre. Of course, when you do good by Disney, Disney puts all its eggs in your basket, as those Pixar boys have learned.
So I apply this same template to Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the man with the short end of the stick never fails to be Oscar. Am I going to criticize the lyrics of one of the defining artists in contemporary musical theatre? No, it's been done. Sondheim said it best, commenting how Hammerstein loved his bird metaphors. When Hammerstein hits hardest he knocks it out of the stratosphere, like with his final composition: Edelweiss. I'm just saying that the driving, striking force here is Rodgers. The music simply speaks for itself. It wasn't that Rodgers knew how to write a pretty tune, though he did. He knew how to surprise and layer. That "Some Enchanted Evening" sighs beneath "This Nearly Was Mine" could purely be the work of the orchestrator, but the songs had to fit somehow and at the time that simply didn't happen in musical theatre scores.
So I feel Howard Ashman carried Alan Menken and I feel that Richard Rodgers carried Oscar Hammerstein (I'm mostly out of metaphors). So I wonder, is there an even match up? A melange of lyricists worked with Jule Styne, and Styne was what Jeanine Tesori is fast becoming: a chameleon. So it's difficult for me t judge there. I don't know Bock and Harnick well enough to judge, but I do love how varied their work is. Then I look at Kander and Ebb and I have to wonder if they don't compliment each other perfectly, hand in hand always. Quintessentially American, stylistically varied, but not so much that their voices disappear, they sit smack dab in the middle of the fray. They aren't as sweeping as their contemporaries but they can be tender and viscerally serious. They aren't brassy but they aren't without their moments of "entertainment." I particularly love the fact that roots of the "jazz hands" idea of what Broadway is, very well came from a Kander and Ebb show and yet much of the "entertainment" in these shows stands more as a parody or an effigy of the light-hearted Ziegfeld or Gershwin days.
I would love Adam Guettel to find his lyrical soul mate. I think he and David Lindsay-Abaire should try each other out. And I'd love for Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner to write together forever. Comden and Green were a pretty even match, I think.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Block
The purpose of this blog is to keep my head in my show even when what is currently happening, is happening. Buckets of free time at the moment. And mostly pedestrian edits to the score coming. I have a brilliantly arranged finale for Sweet Jane. It sits comfortably in my head and doesn't seem to want to show up on the page. This is not thrilling. Then I go to tinker with the opening of the show and find that the multitude of variations I had on the Lou Reed song don't seem to want to leap forward today. It's all repetition and edits and shifts and alterations that are not unproductive, but not the bounding forward that I would prefer.
And what should I expect? I've barely been able to touch the show this week. The muscle must be warmed and flexed. Right? Perhaps I need food and drink. Perhaps. The definite plus side to this is that I the impotent frustration that I feel when I'm in this particular mood is not unlike the stagnant place in which I'm putting Jack in Sweet Jane.
I have a desk now. It is a charming little L desk from Staples. No more laptop in bed for Jay--unless I'm watching Ab Fab while falling asleep, that is. On my desk are three books. These three books are possible source material for other shows. I want to keep them close at hand.
Another positive: I feel very at home at this desk. I know I will be finishing this show while sitting at it. It's a warm and fuzzy feeling.
And what should I expect? I've barely been able to touch the show this week. The muscle must be warmed and flexed. Right? Perhaps I need food and drink. Perhaps. The definite plus side to this is that I the impotent frustration that I feel when I'm in this particular mood is not unlike the stagnant place in which I'm putting Jack in Sweet Jane.
I have a desk now. It is a charming little L desk from Staples. No more laptop in bed for Jay--unless I'm watching Ab Fab while falling asleep, that is. On my desk are three books. These three books are possible source material for other shows. I want to keep them close at hand.
Another positive: I feel very at home at this desk. I know I will be finishing this show while sitting at it. It's a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Originality and Perspective
So back in the day--"the day" in question being 1900-1960ish--vocal stylists would perform the works of Berlin and Gershwin and Rodgers and Hart and countless other composers. This was the standard--slight pun intended. It was part of jazz, musical theatre, and pop music.
So how did we come to scorn any singer who doesn't write their own music? An accomplished pianist can be lauded for rocking out Bach and Chopin without ever writing anything of his own. It seems that the voice is the only instrument that has quite suddenly become packaged with an obligation to create as well as articulate. It hardly seems fair.
The same people who might look down on a pop star for having a limited hand in the composition of their work is the same person who might revere Nina Simone or Ella Fitzgerald. These women aren't famous for their compositions. They are famous for their voices.
So when did singing cease to be a talent and an art? I mean, throughout the ages it's been so that anyone who wasn't tone deaf could sing. In the 20th century with an increase in mass communication, radio, television etc, personalities came forward that elevated vocal phrasing to an art form, past the operatic. It amazes me how artists can be decried for a lack of originality when the vast majority of popular music and entertainment is founded on a bed of covers, remakes, retellings and reworkings.
It just seems intentionally snobbish to disregard the work of one in favor of another so arbitrarily. I will not give specific examples as I'm sure anyone with firing synapses can make their own comparisons. I suppose I'm just continuing my ever present quest for perspective. One band is inspired by another band: awesome. Johnny Cash covers some classic songs and it's art, but someone covers a Johnny Cash song and it's blasphemy? It don't work that way.
Originality is in articulation. It's not the song, it's how Judy Garland sings it. It's reorchestration, it's reimagining. Musical Theatre is not rife with "original" work. In the Heights is an original telling of a fairly standard story. In the words of Stephen Sondheim: Anything you do, let it come from you, then it will be new.
How hard is that to accept? If it doesn't work for you, tis well. But let me tell you that while you may lament Britney Spears covering "Satisfaction" someone was saying the same thing about The Rolling Stones, back in the proverbial day.
So how did we come to scorn any singer who doesn't write their own music? An accomplished pianist can be lauded for rocking out Bach and Chopin without ever writing anything of his own. It seems that the voice is the only instrument that has quite suddenly become packaged with an obligation to create as well as articulate. It hardly seems fair.
The same people who might look down on a pop star for having a limited hand in the composition of their work is the same person who might revere Nina Simone or Ella Fitzgerald. These women aren't famous for their compositions. They are famous for their voices.
So when did singing cease to be a talent and an art? I mean, throughout the ages it's been so that anyone who wasn't tone deaf could sing. In the 20th century with an increase in mass communication, radio, television etc, personalities came forward that elevated vocal phrasing to an art form, past the operatic. It amazes me how artists can be decried for a lack of originality when the vast majority of popular music and entertainment is founded on a bed of covers, remakes, retellings and reworkings.
It just seems intentionally snobbish to disregard the work of one in favor of another so arbitrarily. I will not give specific examples as I'm sure anyone with firing synapses can make their own comparisons. I suppose I'm just continuing my ever present quest for perspective. One band is inspired by another band: awesome. Johnny Cash covers some classic songs and it's art, but someone covers a Johnny Cash song and it's blasphemy? It don't work that way.
Originality is in articulation. It's not the song, it's how Judy Garland sings it. It's reorchestration, it's reimagining. Musical Theatre is not rife with "original" work. In the Heights is an original telling of a fairly standard story. In the words of Stephen Sondheim: Anything you do, let it come from you, then it will be new.
How hard is that to accept? If it doesn't work for you, tis well. But let me tell you that while you may lament Britney Spears covering "Satisfaction" someone was saying the same thing about The Rolling Stones, back in the proverbial day.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Why am I awake?
I'm up too late and I have to work too early. I blame coffee. My addiction is not what it used to be and my body clock is nothing resembling stable so here I am. I think I'll watch another episode of Code Monkeys and attempt to fall asleep. My head is aching with this cold, making it difficult for me to spend my awake time productively. Damn winter in the fall. Damn it, I say. For real though, I have to be at work in 3 hours. Oh yeah, that's happening. I need to invest in some Tylenol PM, methinks. In other news, I get a desk on Tuesday, hopefully. Let's hear it for a concrete work space. I've been wanting one of those for quite some time now. 1st Ave bustles, even at 2:00 AM. Life, like writing a show--it seems--is not unlike assembling a jigsaw puzzle in a windstorm. That does not, however, lessen the satisfaction of finally slamming that last piece home and shaking your middle finger at said wind.
Cause the wind cares.
Must sleep...oh look, my Kelly Clarkson download finished...
Cause the wind cares.
Must sleep...oh look, my Kelly Clarkson download finished...
Thursday, October 15, 2009
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