Abstract
Crafting music for dramatic purposes, whether on stage or on screen, requires a highly specialized skill set. In some cases music must dominate and carry the weight of the storytelling; in others it must assume a more subservient role. Philip Glass and Carl Davis discuss their approaches to writing music to complement filmed images, while John McGlinn, Tommy Tune, and John Kander all discuss matters of re-creation and authenticity, whether it is in art of restoration or capturing a historical era’s distinctive dances and sounds.
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Notes
- 1.
Other composers who took the same “route” were Copland and Stravinsky .
- 2.
The Perfect American was composed in 2011–2012. The story imagines the last months of Walt Disney’s life as he languishes in a hospital bed. And it reviews the circumstances of his life and work, from Marceline , Missouri, to Hollywood.
- 3.
The sibling song-and-dance team Adele (1896–1981) and Fred (1899–1987) Astaire delighted Broadway audiences in the early twentieth century in landmark shows such as Lady, Be Good! (1924, with songs by George and Ira Gershwin ).
- 4.
The terms “surrealism” and “surreal” have several meanings. One involves “more real than real”; 3-D films might be called “surreal” in this sense. Another is associated with early and mid-twentieth-century artists, among them Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) and Max Ernst (1891–1976), who painted imaginary worlds often associated with dream images.
- 5.
See Lawrence Kramer , Musical Meaning (Berkley and Los Angeles : University of California Press, 2002).
- 6.
A musical comedy that emphasizes style, message, and metaphor rather than plot.
- 7.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their awards are known as “Oscars.”
- 8.
Originally titled Over and Over (1999), the show was revamped as All About Us (2006).
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Tibbetts, J.C. (2018). On Stage and Screen. In: Tibbetts, J., Saffle, M., Everett, W. (eds) Performing Music History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92471-7_10
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