Not the Richard Rodgers thread

[Sospiri]

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[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The greatest musical theatre composer ever is Composer of the week and no thread . It's fascinating and eye opening to listen.His output was phenomenal

Someone has to start a thread. You started this one.

[LMcD]

Someone has to start a thread. You started this one.

That's got to be 'Something Good'.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Fair comment! Perhaps MacRae and Jones are thought to be too 'downmarket' for Radio 3.

I wonder if the original stage and film cast recordings are just too pricey copyright wise?.

[LMcD]

I wonder if the original stage and film cast recordings are just too pricey copyright wise?.

It so happens that the Oklahoma film soundtrack was released 70 years ago ...

[Ein Heldenleben]

It so happens that the Oklahoma film soundtrack was released 70 years ago ...

These Hollywood studios and record can keep copyrights going way longer than that. The first Mickey Mouse film Steamboat Willie has only just come out of copyright -100 years after release.

[french frank]

Good music theatre and opéras comiques (of which Carousel is one, really) are infinitely more consciously serious about life and death than the great majority of operas, that popular art form par excellence.

Logically one should then select one opera and say it is 'infinitely more consciously serious about life and death' than the great majority' of musicals, shouldn't one? From the personal point of view of one who is uninterested in musical theatre, I would value musical idiom over how effectively a particular work treats the serious issues of life and death.

[vinteuil]

From the personal point of view of one who is uninterested in musical theatre, I would value musical idiom over how effectively a particular work treats the serious issues of life and death.

.... yes : Me. Jacques often seems to privilege the drama/theatre/verbal side of things, and has objected when others say that for them it's the sounds rather than the "meaning" that matter.

I like the noise that music makes. I am usually uninterested as to whether it "means" anything...
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[LMcD]

I like the noise that music makes. I am usually uninterested as to whether it "means" anything...
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That goes for me, too. If people want to believe that the last movement of RVW's 6th Symphony is a chilling prediction of a 'nuclear winter' that's fine with me.

[french frank]

That goes for me, too. If people want to believe that the last movement of RVW's 6th Symphony is a chilling prediction of a 'nuclear winter' that's fine with me.

But you do enjoy musicals. For me (I stress) 'music' is an abstraction: it doesn't need anything else. That's not to say it isn't perfectly legitimate to add words and spectacle, and for some they will enhance the music immeasurably. I don't see pictures and would prefer not to feel emotion (nowt so queer as folk! )

[Ein Heldenleben]

.... yes : Me. Jacques often seems to privilege the drama/theatre/verbal side of things, and has objected when others say that for them it's the sounds rather than the "meaning" that matter.

I like the noise that music makes. I am usually uninterested as to whether it "means" anything...
.

Well whether music has any meaning or not Richard Rodgers’ life - with his ceaseless campaigning for social and racial justice through the unlikely medium of musical comedy - indicates he certainly believed it had. If music has no meaning what’s the point of it ?

[vinteuil]

. If music has no meaning what’s the point of it ?

... well, I don't think that life has any 'meaning' - so why should music?

It has patterns that humans find interesting - that'll do for me


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[french frank]

Well whether music has any meaning or not Richard Rodgers’ life - with his ceaseless campaigning for social and racial justice through the unlikely medium of musical comedy - indicates he certainly believed it had. If music has no meaning what’s the point of it ?

But not being interested in the music, and musicals more widely, wouldn't mean that one wasn't for social and racial justice. RR chose music as a vehicle for his campaigning, other people campaign for the same things in other ways. It's clear that some music evokes landscapes or strong emotions because that's the use the composer has chosen to put his music to. That doesn't mean all music has to be used for some such purpose, does it? Must art have a function? Ars gratia artis - or not?

[Master Jacques]

That goes for me, too. If people want to believe that the last movement of RVW's 6th Symphony is a chilling prediction of a 'nuclear winter' that's fine with me.

I agree with you (and RVW) that nuclear winter is a critical fantasy. But when there are words it makes a difference. I don't suppose anyone here would want to argue that his 1st Symphony wasn't "about" the sea (and humanity, life, death and the universe!)

[Master Jacques]

.... yes : Me. Jacques often seems to privilege the drama/theatre/verbal side of things, and has objected when others say that for them it's the sounds rather than the "meaning" that matter.

I like the noise that music makes. I am usually uninterested as to whether it "means" anything...
.

Liking the noise is fine, but opera requires you to pay attention to what (let's say) Bluebeard and Judith have to say to one another. Take my word for it, what they say is uncommonly interesting, and is served by the music. It is not some sort of optional extra. Just the same's true with the texts of Orphée aux enfers or The King and I: without knowing what's being said, the pretty tunes don't add up to a hill of beans.