UNIT 1
What is considered the shameful chapter of American Musical Theatre?
Minstrelsy
More complex jazz with fast piano piano instrumentals featuring complicated rhythms was called
Ragtime
What is the great debate surrounding Porgy and Bess?
Musical or opera?
Name 3 shows by Rogers and Hammerstein.
Oklahoma, Carousel, The King and I, South Pacific....
After the Civil War ended in May 1865, the _______________________________
became exceptionally popular.
Piano
Musical Theatre embodies the spirit and philosophy of the..
theater of romance
From the early 1900's-1920's, 300,000 African Americans from the South had moved North, and Harlem was one of the most popular destinations. This was called
The Great Migration
Name 4 songs by Cole Porter
Anything Goes, You're the Top, I Get A Kick Out of You, Another Openin Another Show, So in Love.....
Name three characteristics of a Golden Age musical.
Simplicity and truthfulness
Music is always character based
No artifice
Hammerstein's humanity, plain-spoken lyrics where emotion is direct.
Full orchestra. Very little drums.
No Jazz influence.
Robert Russell Bennett's orchestration is a big part of the R & H sound. It is characterized by memorable countermelodies and lush strings.
Romantic, lush and designed to go directly to the heart
Melody based. Not rhythm or harmony
You leave whistling the tunes.
Lyrics came first and melody follows.
Many instances of hymn-like tunes. (This Nearly Was Mine, Bali Hai, Climb Every Mountain, You'll Never Walk Alone, and Something Wonderful)
Almost in love song like “People Will Say We’re In Love” and “If I Loved You”
Memorable Character numbers like “I Cain’t Say No” and “A Puzzelment”
Ballet music is important.
Big choruses.
Name two operas by Gilbert and Sullivan.
Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado..
List 5 early forms of Musical Theatre
1. The Ballad Opera
2. Vaudeville
3. Minstrelsy
4. Extravaganza
5. Comic Operas
Name 5 famous contributes to the Harlem Renaissance.
Louis Armstrong, Trumpet player, singer
Duke Ellington, Composer, pianist, arranger
Bessie Smith, Singer
Fats Waller, Pianist/composer
Cab Calloway, Singer/entertainer extraordinaire
Paul Robeson, Opera Singer, you will see him in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess!
Josephine Baker, Dancer
Langston Hughes, Poet
W.E.B. DuBois
Romare Bearden, Artist
Aaron Douglas, Artist
Who said this quote: “true music must reflect the thoughts and aspirations of the people of the time. My people are Americans. My time is today.” ?
George Gershwin
Who does this describe the music of?
The music is Jazz based. His songs really establishes the sound of the “show tune.”
More rhythmic than Rodgers and Hammerstein or Lerner and Loewe
Incorporates the sound of popular music
Songs tell the stories of their characters and each of his shows has their own world with internal style like Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Almost no choral singing.
Could possibly be confused with Loesser or Bernstein.
Jule Styne
During the DC run of __________________, the cast protested the ______________________ at the National Theatre, resulting in the first ___________________________ for a performance of any show at that venue.
Porgy and Bess, segregation policy, integrated audience
Ziegfield Follies transformed Broadway with its use of
spectacle
Shuffle Along was the first musical to prominently feature ___________________ music and a chorus of professional, ________________ dancers.
syncopated, female
___________ his collaborators employed his melodies to further the
_______________________________ and develop
__________________________________ to a greater extent than in the other musicals of his day, creating the model for later musicals.
Jerome Kern, action, characterization
Name 2 shows by Charles Strouse.
Annie, Rags, Bye Bye Birdie..
First musical to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Of Thee I Sing
Name two reasons why The Black Crook was such a success.
Post war boom! More people worked and had the financial means for entertainent
Women (after running businesses and working in hospitals during the war), started to make their way out of the homes and to the theater
The Railroad brought more people to NYC from all over, increasing the audience potential and the show could run longer
“First major production in more than a decade to be ___________, _______________ and ____________________ entirely by African-Americans.
produced, written, performed
_______ beats to the bar departed from the customary
________________________ rhythms of European influence, and fitted the
new American passion for modern dances, such as the
_____________________________________________.
4, waltz, foxtrot
Who wrote "Whatever Lola Wants?"
Adler and Ross
Name this famous composer who was a great figure of Tin Pan Alley, and born in Natick, MA.
Thomas S. Allen