Musicals: the cross-cultural perspective

Well, I was brought up in a music culture that prized ethnomusicology and electroacoustic music as roughly on the same level as classical and jazz, but was rather dismissive of narrative music, video game music and pop. A lot of what was good about the NZSM was the mix of cultural perspectives that people approached classical with, but it often felt somewhat tokenistic. I was inspired by reading Peter Brook's The Empty Space to seek out those various ethnic and indigenous approaches to rituals and storytelling (and storytelling through song). So, yeah, I'm someone that doesn't believe that the American Musical is particularly revolutionary. I mean, the French were already doing most of that by 1790, and so were the Germans and the Spaniards. Admittedly, English is really difficult to sing, so perhaps that's why it took longer! - I find the comparisons between other styles and the conventional melodrama styles are really energising. New kupu: whakatangi = musical instrument. - As an adult scholar, I'd prefer to use melodrama rather than musical to describe the kind of show that I do. The original meaning of melodrama is literally drama set to music, so that's much closer to how I feel about opera (which is the earlier term, and literally translates to 'the work' .. melodrama is from 18th century France, and opera from 17th century Italy). So, the traditional melodrama was spoken drama set to music, while opera comique was the form that included singing. Zarzuela is separate in that it included dialogue, music, and dance, which is generally seen as a post-Gretry approach in France. Whether the Latin influence is downplayed in American music... I think it really depends. Like, a lot of show music uses a basic tresillo (ie the intro to Knight on my Couch), but it's one of a range of influences. As the Ken Burns jazz doco says, those Latin influences are what gives Jazz or other styles that use vernacular music that specific lilt that is 'American' ... while in my own case it's the poly rhythms that I internalised as a kid combined with those Scottish and Irish folk melodies that are innate to me. I play guitar: obviously I'm far more educated regarding Latin music than the average classical musician. Like, most old people still call it the 'spanish guitar' ... obviously, with my Italian pedigree, I find that slightly insulting. Mozart mostly wrote conventional Italian-style operas, but I wrote about the Magic Flute as a student because it's a singspiel, which is the German form of musical comedy Bergman's film of that was my main research thing, and that's also when I watched Peter Brook's film of The Beggar's Opera. - My use of 5/4 wasn't an intentional reference to Sneaky Feelings, but it's possible that I might have heard that as a kid. The Bolling concerto opening movement that I performed in Year 11 for the chamber music competition was mostly in 10/8. The 5/8 thing is my invention, but obviously it's derived from Greek and Balkan rhythms; that's one of the things that Andy Irvine brought to Irish music. I'm guessing that Don heard those 6/4 to 4/4 passages in the same places that I did (ie Bacharach and Sondheim and all that rhythmic NY music). The duple-to-triple thing that I do in Glad They Were Playing is also an American technique. - For the kids: bear in mind that 'music theatre' and 'musical theatre' are two separate concepts, and actually one of my innovations has been bringing the former to the latter. That's what my part of These Words Are Meant For Someone is about: that's my particular singsong style, and that is essentially 'music theatre' as opposed to a show tune, though obviously I still reached for the extremes of my range. I took that avant-garde training and used it to express a bunch of emotions that typically aren't primary concerns of the avant-garde such as love and connection and all that soft, mushy stuff that my 'allies' say is what's wrong with my music (and my stories). - I'm particularly fascinated by trance rituals in some of the islands, like PNG, and obviously I've taken a shitload of drugs and done various rituals myself. Whether that improves my stuff, who knows?