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.”