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Chapter 77
Tin Pan Alley and the
Broadway Musical
The Popular Song in 20th-century America
• The popular song was the type of music most often heard by the average American around 1900.
• Songs were distributed mainly among sheet music and player-piano rolls, whose sale created a thriving business.
• The art and industry of the popular song of the early 20th-century is now commonly called “Tin Pan Alley.”
The Life of George Gershwin (1898–1937)
• 1898 - born in Brooklyn, NY
• 1914 - drops out of high school to work as song writer
• 1919 - first Broadway show, La La Lucille
• 1924 - increased attention to concert compositions following Rhapsody in Blue
• 1932-36 - continued compositional studies with Joseph Schillinger
• 1937 - dies in Hollywood at age 38
George Gershwin’s Music
• One of the greatest song composers of the 1920-30’s was George Gershwin– whose songs became known in musical
comedies and early sound films.
• Gershwin generally adhered in his songs to a simple verse-and-chorus prototype (strophic form).
• To this conventional framework, he added harmonic enrichment and also elements from jazz.
Principal Compositions by George Gershwin
• Shows and opera: about 30, including– Porgy and Bess (opera)– Lady, Be Good– Strike Up the Band– Funny Face
• Orchestra: works include – Rhapsody in Blue– Piano Concerto– An American in Paris– Cuban Overture
• Piano: works include three piano Preludes, and song arrangements in the George Gershwin Song-Book
George Gershwin, “The Man I Love,” 1924
Verse-and-refrain form
The Broadway Musical
• The Broadway musical flourished in America in the early 20th century in the hands of Jerome Kern.
• It reached a classic stage in the 1940’s in works such as Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers and the librettist Oscar Hammerstein II.
• Oklahoma! consists of– spoken folk comedy – inserted songs – instrumental numbers
The Life of Richard Rodgers (1902–1979)
• 1902 - born near New York on Long Island
• 1919-21 - attends Columbia University
• 1919 - first collaboration with writer Lorenz Hart (Fly
with Me)
• 1943 - first collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II
(Oklahoma!)
• 1952 - composes incidental music to the TV documentary Victory at Sea
• 1979 - dies in New York
Principal Compositions by Richard Rodgers
• Shows: 44, including – Pal Joey – Oklahoma!– Carousel– South Pacific– The King and I– The Sound of Music– No Strings
• Incidental music: Victory at Sea (TV documentary)
Richard Rodgers, Oklahoma!, 1943, “I Cain’t Say No”
Modified verse-and-refrain form
Characteristics of Leonard Bernstein
• Leonard Bernstein’s musical West Side Story goes far beyond Rodgers in musical and diatonic complexity.
– mingles diatonic and octatonic fields of pitches.
– numbers are unified by small recurring motives.
• West Side Story is based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which is updated to a cotemporary New York setting among West Side gangs.
• The music mingles elements of jazz with Tin Pan Alley songs.
The Life of Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990)
• 1918 - born in Lawrence, MA
• 1934-39 - attends Harvard College (studies with Walter Piston among
others)
• 1940 - assists Serge Kussevitsky as conductor of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra
• 1958-69 - music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
• 1990 - dies in New York
Principal Compositions by Leonard Bernstein
• Operas, ballets, and Broadway shows: works include – Fancy Free (ballet)– Mass (theater piece)– Candide– West Side Story
• Orchestra: symphonies (3, all with voices), suites from stage works
• Chorus: pieces include Chichester Psalms
Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story, 1957, “Cool”
Multiple forms
Today’s Musicals
• Musicals since the 1960’s regularly bring in rock styles of music and playing.
• Often dispense with the spoken dialogue present in earlier shows.
• Since the 1980’s, they often use grandiose visual and scenic effects, creating a genre called the “megamusical.”