Speaking as someone who knows little to nothing about the technicalities of music - i.e. I listen to a lot, know a fair number of composers, but God help me I don't think I could name an A over a B flat, and my knowledge of tempo is relegated to tapping my foot in time -, this is incredibly, incredibly fascinating and totally something I'm going to have to notice in the future. Although, man, just from memory I totally made an 'AH HA!' noise over the mention of 1776. Of course, my brain said. That makes so much sense.
I seriously love getting small tidbits and updates from you about your shows; I'm really, really stoked for you and hope D&J works out fabulously!
1776 is definitely one of those AHA! THERE ARE MUSICAL RULES! pieces. I mean, you don't have to be a musician to hear that all the songs are in period dance forms, or know that Dickinson's "O say, do you see what I see" is meant to parallel the national anthem--which is, as he states, a minuet, and "The Egg" is "Mr. Adams' new gavotte" that Hancock makes a joke about. The script tells you that the music is being used, and so you can listen to it and still be affected by it without taking the show to pieces.
Yes, yes, all of this. Which then makes total and utter sense why it's one of my favorites (in that I can actually, you know, grasp some vague appreciation of the content outside of the cleverness of the narrative/characters/etc., etc.). Just - God, that brilliant tonal shift at the very end kills me every time.
This post got me hot and bothered in a way I'd forgotten I could. All of the songwriters I know now have come by it organically, and while they don't pooh-pooh me exactly for wanting to be technical about things, not a single one of them gets it when I tell them that the music a great deal of the time tells you more about the action and the characters and their motivations than the words do, and if you just pay attention it's like seeing a whole vast world that most people are only ever unconsciously aware of. This makes me feel this or This makes me think of this, but WHY? It's all right there.
Lord, I have nearly the exact same beef with people about Shakespeare... but I digress.
The prosody is wordy and dense; the tonal language is edgy, a bit pop, but with classical underpinnings and over-octave jumps (no, ladypeculiar, those are NOT fucked up, they're just pretentious and so am I); the chord structure is more chromatic than one usually hears in musical theatre, a little more chromatic than Sondheim, I would say, and in a different way
( ... )
I'm, uh, glad you really like what I'm setting out here! I do hope that the resultant music is going to be awesome.
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, yes, yes yes, analyzing the music makes the experience much more fun. I can't turn off the analysis most of the time, which makes watching movies interesting and sometimes a little trying, but in musicals and opera that I'm always on the lookout for what the composer is doing adds a new dimension to the experience and I enjoy it SO MUCH.
...I just realized that I kind of sounded like a total creeper there. Not my intent, I just get excited. >.< Sorry, dude.
But YES! That exactly. ^_^
Also, I have total faith that the end product will be awesome. You clearly, clearly know your shit and have an amazing talent for it, and rm is one of the most talented people I've ever met, so... yeah. Should be great.
As I believe I commented while we were doing Inception, I don't have the music theory background or skill to pick out any of this, but I find it particularly interesting when you dissect it.
I think I tend to appreciate geekery in most of its forms. We've been to afternoon tea at a restaurant in Boston that has a Tea Sommelier, which is tea geekery at its finest and also fascinating.
After we (with the assistance of a bunch of vodka) watched the first Twilight movie, I did a bit of a meta-analysis of that: It was like a turd that had been lovingly wrapped in gold foil. Almost everything the filmmakers added was nicely done and improved the work. The problem was, at the core, it was still shit.
And it occurs to me, writing down these chords and these phrase lengths, that I am extremely lucky the duet takes place late in Act 1. If this were the first number in D&J, I'd get walkouts, because that's not something you are supposed to hear in non-classical musical theatre.
It shouldn't surprise or unsettle me--but it always does--how narrow the boundaries of genre are...
I know. :sigh: And it's pretty awful when you get told that your art music work is too tonal and your popular music is too artsy, but that's what's happening, because everything has to be marketed and Fached to all hell.
Comments 30
I seriously love getting small tidbits and updates from you about your shows; I'm really, really stoked for you and hope D&J works out fabulously!
Reply
1776 is definitely one of those AHA! THERE ARE MUSICAL RULES! pieces. I mean, you don't have to be a musician to hear that all the songs are in period dance forms, or know that Dickinson's "O say, do you see what I see" is meant to parallel the national anthem--which is, as he states, a minuet, and "The Egg" is "Mr. Adams' new gavotte" that Hancock makes a joke about. The script tells you that the music is being used, and so you can listen to it and still be affected by it without taking the show to pieces.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
I've just linked you!
Reply
Reply
Lord, I have nearly the exact same beef with people about Shakespeare... but I digress.
The prosody is wordy and dense; the tonal language is edgy, a bit pop, but with classical underpinnings and over-octave jumps (no, ladypeculiar, those are NOT fucked up, they're just pretentious and so am I); the chord structure is more chromatic than one usually hears in musical theatre, a little more chromatic than Sondheim, I would say, and in a different way ( ... )
Reply
I'm, uh, glad you really like what I'm setting out here! I do hope that the resultant music is going to be awesome.
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, yes, yes yes, analyzing the music makes the experience much more fun. I can't turn off the analysis most of the time, which makes watching movies interesting and sometimes a little trying, but in musicals and opera that I'm always on the lookout for what the composer is doing adds a new dimension to the experience and I enjoy it SO MUCH.
Reply
But YES! That exactly. ^_^
Also, I have total faith that the end product will be awesome. You clearly, clearly know your shit and have an amazing talent for it, and rm is one of the most talented people I've ever met, so... yeah. Should be great.
Reply
I spend most of my life feeling like I'm remarkably good at being a fraud. It's those advertising genes or something.
Reply
I think I tend to appreciate geekery in most of its forms. We've been to afternoon tea at a restaurant in Boston that has a Tea Sommelier, which is tea geekery at its finest and also fascinating.
Reply
Unless it's Twilight.
Reply
Reply
It shouldn't surprise or unsettle me--but it always does--how narrow the boundaries of genre are...
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment