All My Life

Well, I don't know if you can call it "finished" but I quote-finished-un-quote (re-did) All My Life -- the ending of it that is. I don't know if I love it yet though...so that's why I'm not 100% sold on the idea that it's "finished." Anyhow, check it out. (#10)

The Plight of the Planet

So I decided my song for the week would be The Plight of the Planet...initially. I've been working on it and have about 5 minutes of music. But.... I realized that I didn't have a solid idea of how this scene was really going to work and I just didn't know where to really go with the music. So......

I decided to call the 5 minutes good for this week and I'll finish up one of the other songs that's mostly finished as the "finished" song for the week.

Anyhow, check out The Plight of the Planets (#44)...what I have so far at least. (Once again, oboe (and bassoon) have the melody.)

I Will Save The Day

The song for this week is I Will Save The Day (#36). And, amazingly enough, it's basically finished already. Of course half of it was already written which makes it easier.

Anyhow, check it out in the player above or at the Stealthman musical website.

Into The Night

So the song I chose to work on this week is Into The Night. It is the solo that Donald (Stealthman) sings when he is put into his room at the rest home the first night. As he gazes out the window at the night sky, in a moment of semi-lucidity, he ponders what his life is and what he's failed to be come and all he hoped to be.

It's not entirely done yet, but the basic song and basic orchestrations are in place if you want to check it out in the player above. (#23) The Bassoon has the vocal melody this time.

New song finished

I finished it. (Though I may decide to alter it later.)

The song has been renamed to "The Storm Before The Calm" instead of "Each Time The Thunder Rolls" ...though I am still using the lyric "Each time the thunder rolls..." in it.

Anyhow, the oboe (well, actually it's an English Horn...but I'm saying oboe because more people (I think) are familiar with what an Oboe sounds like...and it doesn't really matter because it won't be there in the final piece, it's just so you can hear it now) has the vocal melody part for now.

Check it out.

Reprise and/or repetition of music in Musical Theater

The other week I was talking to a friend and he was telling me about when he saw a certain very famous musical (Phantom of the Opera). The basic comment he made was, "My wife and I were watching it and we kept looking at each other as if to say, 'haven't we heard this song already?'"

I couldn't help but think that they were sort of missing the point.

Then, I was reading an argument on a forum yesterday about repetition in musical theater. The basic argument was concerning a certain composer (Webber) who some claimed reused his music too much. The other side contended that the reuse of said music was what makes a musical great.

I hold to the latter - but...in some cases agree to the former. Repetition/Reprise of music is one of the key characteristics of a musical -- and is one of the best thing about it. However, like many things in a musical, if it's done poorly, it can hurt. It has to be handled correctly.

Obviously, handling it correctly and what is and isn't a good idea in this regard is subjective. And I expect there will always be debates amongst musical theater fans concerning it.

So in consideration of my own works, I have the definate intention to utilize repetition of music and reprise. That being said, Andrew Lloyd Webber seems to write something like 10 songs for a show and then does the entire sung-through show with those 10 songs. (I'm roughly rounding. I've never actually counted.)

Once again, whether this is a good idea or not is subjective. However, I do want to contend that with certain works of his, it works out really well. With other works, not quite so well. I think this relates to the complexity of the music being used. More complicated music (meaning less 'catchy' or immediately accessible to the 'hum factor') lends itself to lots of repetition better because it takes several times hearing it to get your ears around it. Something that is simpler and easily memorable on the first hearing can still be used effectively in reprise, but if you use it too much, I think an argument can be made against it.

In Stealthman I'm kind of trying to take a best-of-both-worlds-approach to this. That is to say, I hope that some of the work is very catchy, and some of the work takes several listens. I also intend to use a LOT of reprise and repetition...but it will work differently. The primary difference is that instead of 10 songs for the show, I have more like 30. But I intend to use them every bit as much as ALW uses his 10(ish) songs. The difference being that my usage, obviously, has to be shorter. I will use 30 second snippets here and there throughout instead of repeating entire songs. Not in every case. There are times where I will repeat entire songs (with different lyrics or what have you). But the intention is to have enough music that it doesn't feel like I'm just repeating the same things over and over again, but to also repeat what I have over and over again so it becomes very familiar and has the needed sentiment and force that good repetition allows for if handled correctly.

Added to this is the idea that a lot of my stuff counterpoints against other stuff in the show and I hope to be able to use that effectively for recitative and the like.

There's a lot of subjectivity and guess work that goes into this. I can't really judge if what I'm trying will play well or not. It may be that it overwhelms the audience, it may be that it works well, it may not have any effect on the quality of the show at all, or it may do no different than ALW's stuff does and have the same people complaining about too much repetition. It's hard to judge that sort of thing.

New Song

So I was feeling a bit worried about the fact that it was 40 minutes into the show before the first real solo. So...I started a new song - that is the third piece...which is more like 15 minutes into the show. This will be a solo for Donald after his dream of getting his Stealthman comic book published is rejected. Placeholder title of the song is Each Time The Thunder Rolls. Check it out in the player above.

Musical Theater musings

I've been meaning, for a while now, to share some of my thoughts on musical theater in general. In some ways I'm a bit leery of expressing what I really think because I'm worried about giving offense. That is to say, there are certain things I really hate. But I don't particularly feel I ought to say how much I hate them in a public setting. So I have to be careful and temper my inclination to passion.

That being said, I am quite passionate about musical theater as a medium for entertainment. But it's not just any old musical theater. I'm more of the mind that musical theater, like many similar things, can be the best of the best or the worst of the worst. It really allows for either extreme.

I like to use a violin as an example. Someone playing a violin well...it's such a sweet and beautiful thing. Play the violin badly, however, and it's quite painful to the ears. The instrument allows for both.

Musical theater has grown since its golden days. There is definitely still a stigma about what it is and what it can and cannot be, but mostly these stigmas have been proven false by successful shows that are outside convention. In other words, the rock opera made it so a musical can be whatever you want it to be. You don't have to write "show tunes". You can go anywhere from opera to metal, and you can even do both in the same show.

With that kind of freedom, the art is expanded to be, musically speaking, one of the most versatile ways to write. In short, the only thing that musical has to be, is...well..."musical". That is to say, you have to use music in it. More exactly, singing. You gotta have singing or it isn't a musical. And even then, you could, theoretically write a rap musical and still quality without any singing.

So if someone doesn't like singing of any sort, I can fairly accept that that individual doesn't like musicals. Beyond that, sorry. The guy with his headphones in who's listening to his favorite whatnot that then tells me he hates musical -- nope -- not buying it. What may be true is he doesn't like any musicals he's ever heard. But in principle, if you like music, you like the idea of a musical. There's no getting around it. A musical can fit the bill of anyone's taste. It's not the same as saying one doesn't care for classical music or one doesn't like rap, or metal or what have you. A musical is no longer a style. It is so much broader than that.

That's just talking in principle, however. The reality of my taste in musical theater is that I like "musical" musicals. Sort of. I like a certain style of "musical" musicals. I'm not into cheese...er...well, actually, I have to restate. I'm not into a certain type of cheese. What I do like is, without question, considered cheesy by some folk.

That being said, in writing, I pretty much do whatever I want to when it comes to style...well, with one factor controlling (that in theory). The style chosen needs to be appropriate to the show, story, situation, etc...

I've been listening to a lot of recordings of musicals lately - a lot that I've never heard before. I would say I don't particularly care for about 80% of what I hear. I don't really think that plays to my tastes so much as to the amount of junk being produced. But it's subjective enough that I can't say that definitively.

That being said, I think the show I've learned to like the most of what I've been hearing is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. I've heard it before...when it first came out I purchased it -- and hated it. So why am I loving it now? Well, I really think it comes down to the recording. The recording I'm loving is the American Premiere with Glenn Close. After hearing it and loving it so much I went back to the original cast recording and gave it a listen, and whereas I didn't hate it like before, I could certainly see where it fell short for me. Regardless, the Glenn Close recording is wonderful and Glenn Close herself is just phenomenal. Overall I like all the characters better expect for Max who's a bit too "mugsy" henchman-ish for me. Still, great musical. Really cool.

Beyond that, it opened up my thinking a bit (as well done stuff often does) as to what I can do with my work. Meaning to say, I've learned from it. And that's always a good thing.

Time calculations and whatnot

So I haven't blogged much lately here, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been working. I have. Hard. And there is a lot of stuff being completed. That being said, there is a TON of work that goes into a project like this. I've done some basic calculating and think (if I stay steady at it) that I can finish the musical (orchestrations included) by November this year. That being said, I have to complete about 2 songs a week to do that. I set myself a goal a few weeks back to do that, but after the first week I realized it was too aggressive and stressful. So I cut the goal back to 1 song a week. That's for everything...music, lyrics, orchestrations. That being the goal, I feel quite strongly that I'll complete enough weekly work to qualify as 2 songs a week...but one song's worth will be spread out over multiple pieces, whereas I enjoy working on whims and on ideas that interest me at the moment. So I still think Nov will work as the overall goal month for finishing the musical. Of course, that does not include recording it. *sigh* So much work!

I also calculated the approx. length of the musical - based on how long I think the unfinished songs will end up being. It came in at 2 hours 58 minutes. This is acceptable to me. We'll see (in Nov) how close I actually come to that length. I decided that I need to stop worrying too much about things like length though, and just write. I can edit and cut later. And, whereas I plan on trying to produce the thing eventually, the first production (or the first few) will function as a workshop and...well...who knows.

Point of interest (perhaps): The current time length of the orchestrated music (what's finished) is 2:09:51. So I only have a third of it left to write. Keep in mind, not that many of the lyrics are written yet...so it's not really 2/3 done. But close.