The Broadway Song
A Singer's Guide
Published on 16. April 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
344 pages
978-0-19-935168-8 (ISBN)
Description
Truly powerful vocal performance in musical theater is more than just the sum of good vocal tone and correct notes. As experienced teacher, director, and performer Mark Ross Clark lays out in The Broadway Song, powerful performance communicates the central function of a song within the context of the surrounding narrative, or the "truth" of a song. Because unstaged performances of a song, such as auditions, are key to the success of all aspiring singers, Clark provides here the essential practical manual that will help performers choose the right pieces for their vocal abilities and identify the key truths of them.
Clark begins by walking readers conceptually through how a song's truth is based in contexts: what show is a song from? Which character sings it? When in the show does it occur? Answering these questions will lead readers to more convincing performances that are grounded in the text, music, character, context, and larger environment (setting, time frame, and circumstances). The Broadway Song provides a comprehensive guide to the formal characteristics of key Broadway songs on a song-by-song basis, including main voice type, secondary voice qualities (such as soprano-lyric or alto-comic), range and tessitura, as well as larger contextual materials about the source -- from the musical's background, information about the character singing, and synoptic narrative information for the song -- that provide the performer a way into the character. Clark moreover brings his wide-ranging and extensive experience as a director, performer, and teacher to bear in his performance notes on the individual pieces. Additionally, he includes excerpts from short interviews with artists that provide insight into the song from the perspective of those who first created (or re-created) it. The interviews, conducted with composers, lyricists, performers, and -- in one case -- book collaborators, are snapshots into the creative process, and act as conduits to further study of the selected songs.
Clark begins by walking readers conceptually through how a song's truth is based in contexts: what show is a song from? Which character sings it? When in the show does it occur? Answering these questions will lead readers to more convincing performances that are grounded in the text, music, character, context, and larger environment (setting, time frame, and circumstances). The Broadway Song provides a comprehensive guide to the formal characteristics of key Broadway songs on a song-by-song basis, including main voice type, secondary voice qualities (such as soprano-lyric or alto-comic), range and tessitura, as well as larger contextual materials about the source -- from the musical's background, information about the character singing, and synoptic narrative information for the song -- that provide the performer a way into the character. Clark moreover brings his wide-ranging and extensive experience as a director, performer, and teacher to bear in his performance notes on the individual pieces. Additionally, he includes excerpts from short interviews with artists that provide insight into the song from the perspective of those who first created (or re-created) it. The interviews, conducted with composers, lyricists, performers, and -- in one case -- book collaborators, are snapshots into the creative process, and act as conduits to further study of the selected songs.
Reviews / Votes
A helpful aid for the aspiring singer-actor. * From the Foreword by Kristin Chenoweth * This guide is for the active singer, the student and the library serving active music-making at amateur and professional/conservatoire levels. * Stuart Hannabuss, Reference Reviews *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
583 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-935168-8 (9780199351688)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
04/2015
Oxford University Press Inc
€206.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
E-Book
03/2015
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€19.99
Available for download
E-Book
03/2015
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€24.99
Available for download
Person
Mark Ross Clark is Director of Opera and Musical Theater at the University of Louisiana--Monroe and the artistic director of the Louisiana Lyric Opera. He has performed, taught, and directed nationally and internationally in opera, operetta, music theater, and concert, and is the author of Guide to the Aria Repertoire (Indiana University Press, 2007) and Singing, Acting, and Movement in Opera: A Guide to Singer-getics (Indiana University Press, 2009).
Content
Introduction ; SOPRANO/HIGH MEZZO ; "Falling in love with love" ; "Waitin' for my dearie" ; "If I were a bell" ; "I have to tell you" ; "Somebody, somewhere" ; "Warm all over" ; "My white knight" ; "Love, look away" ; "When did I fall in love?" ; "Ice Cream" ; "Far from the home I love" ; "What makes me love him?" ; "Another suitcase" ; "Moonfall" ; "It hurts to be strong" ; "Anytime (I am there)" ; "Some things are meant to be" ; "The light in the piazza" ; "Will you?" ; MEZZO-ALTO ; "Anything goes" ; "So far" ; "An English teacher" ; "Is it really me?" ; "Old maid" ; "Not a day goes by" ; "Aldonza" ; "Cabaret" ; "Applause" ; "Time heals everything" ; "Crossword puzzle" ; "You can always count on me" ; "Trina's song" ; "The story goes on" ; "Children of the wind" ; "Since you stayed here" ; "I'm not alone" ; "Heaven help my heart" ; "Hold on" ; "It might as well be Spring" ; "I will be loved tonight" ; "A new life" ; "Raise the roof" ; "Through the mountain" ; "A part of that" ; "Still hurting" ; "I'm not that girl" ; "Astonishing" ; "Don't ever stop saying I love you" ; "I miss the mountains" ; "Fly away" ; TENOR/HIGH BARITONE ; "Come with me" ; "Kansas City" ; "Younger than Springtime" ; "No other love" ; "What kind of fool am I" ; "I believe in you" ; "On the street where you live" ; "The only home I know" ; "Anthem" ; "Marta" ; "Your eyes" ; "This is the moment" ; "Sailing" ; "Old red hills of home" ; "Tell my father" ; "You walk with me" ; "At the fountain" ; "I miss the music" ; "All that's known" ; "Absolom" ; "Beautiful City" ; "Goodbye" ; "Santa Fe (Prologue)" ; BARITONE ; "If I loved you" ; "There but for you go I" ; "Luck be a lady" ; "If ever I would leave you" ; "Once upon a time" ; "Rain Song" ; "It only takes a moment" ; "Dulcinea" ; "Being alive" ; "I won't send roses" ; "All I care about is love" ; "I've heard it all before" ; "The pickers are coming" ; "Funny" ; "Lullaby of Broadway" ; "There's a sucker born every minute" ; "Colors of my life" ; "Don't go, Sally" ; "You should be loved" ; "Shouldn't I be less in love with you" ; "It's hard to speak my heart" ; "Love who you love" ; "I was here" ; Index