Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Ziegfeld’s advertisements for his chorus girls proclaimed an inclusive call to young women from all class and racial backgrounds. His choices, however, were usually represented by a narrow, Anglo-centric (“Nordic”) identity profile. This profile stereotype was based upon the physical type of the “Gibson Girl” icon, which was character- ized by a straight nose and small upper lip area. The average height requirement was six feet so that the dance kick-line would be standardized. In an era of increased studies and experiments in eugenics, the Follies girls perpetuated the Anglo myth of the American New Woman. The visual image of identity as performed by a uniform, homogeneous line of chorus girls invokes the original definition of “stereotype” (multiple copies of an original object) while it subliminally represents ideal American beauty as an object rather than an individual. 7 Highbrow or Lowbrow Culture? The separation of entertainment into elite and popular divisions is a recent pheno- menon in American culture. Popular culture of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was an egalitarian mixture of European opera, symphonic works, parlor songs, chamber music, and folk dances, which was attended by all social classes and races (with September 2005). Ziegfeld’s favorite words, “Glorification, Femininity, and Pulchritude,” represented his nostalgia for Victorian ideals. Linda Mizejewski, Ziegfeld Girl (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999), 79. 7 See Mizejewski’s description of “desirable and undesirable bodies” for the Ziegfeld chorus line, 77ff. A glamorized, Hollywood version of life as a Ziegfeld girl is the 1941 film, Ziegfeld Girl. The chorus line hopefuls include All-American “sweethearts,” Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, and Lana Turner (Burbank: Turner Entertainment and Warner Brothers Entertainment, DVD edition, 2004). The entertainment style of mass “feminine spectacle” became a popular American export with successful European tours for American companies, followed by German and English imitators during the 1920s and 1930s. 57
separate seating arrangements). The audience of the upper class orchestra section was just as boisterous as the working class and slave participants in the balcony (later known as the “gallery gods”) in their approval and disapproval of the performers. Theater management enacted an educational campaign in the 1860s to instill the bourgeoise manners of European propriety in their audiences. This campaign included the banish- ment of cigars in the concert hall, applause only at the end of works rather than shouting during the performance, and the removal of ladies’ hats for the view of other patrons. Perhaps even more telling of nineteenth traditions was an effort to curb prostitution in the theater; women were no longer allowed without an escort. The B. F. Keith and Orpheum vaudeville circuits also sought to book more artistic (“legitimate”) acts in an overt attempt at respectability by catering to the Victorian female patrons. 8 During the 1890s, an elitist division of the arts was exacerbated by three societal trends that coalesced into the emergence of highbrow and lowbrow culture in the twen- tieth century. The first trend was the upper class’ need to assert its leadership and social power in the midst of Anglo identity displacement through the “sacralization” of culture. They began erecting monumental temples of art (museums, concert halls, archives) to protect and perpetuate the classics of western civilization. The patrons of this new reli- gion publicly left the popular entertainments to the working class immigrant, but still made surreptitious visits. The second trend was an elitist attitude that American art was inferior to European works in quality, which is still true in many cultural canons. An appreciation and knowledge of European art became a desired sign of breeding and class. 8 Alison Kibler, Rank Ladies: Gender and Cultural Hierarchy in American Vaudeville (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 5. 58
Page 1 and 2:
LEWIS, ANNE, D.M.A. An Examination
Page 3 and 4:
APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has
Page 5 and 6:
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv Page ACKNOWLED
Page 7 and 8:
for research, this paper will explo
Page 9 and 10:
MacDonald, labeled musical theatre
Page 11 and 12: The musicals that have entered the
Page 13 and 14: and individually as handwriting.”
Page 15 and 16: Methodology The base of research fo
Page 17 and 18: Feminine Character in Selected Libr
Page 19 and 20: from the 1920s, they are timeless i
Page 21 and 22: e helpful to recognize the specific
Page 23 and 24: as a Cinderella-type heiress who ma
Page 25 and 26: Vereen described the “blackface c
Page 27 and 28: Casino Theatre in Manhattan. The re
Page 29 and 30: functional sets, and an eleven-piec
Page 31 and 32: The History of the Musical, Show Bo
Page 33 and 34: amount of instrumental music, the d
Page 35 and 36: Ferber’s novel begins with the na
Page 37 and 38: Act II begins four years later as G
Page 39 and 40: CHAPTER III SOCIETAL STEREOTYPES OF
Page 41 and 42: communion.” 5 This bias continued
Page 43 and 44: children, however, did allow mother
Page 45 and 46: unhealthy, sub-human environments.
Page 47 and 48: dominated by masculine traits in ap
Page 49 and 50: magazines, including Ladies Home Jo
Page 51 and 52: Nineteenth Century Stereotypes of W
Page 53 and 54: usiness. She was responsible for th
Page 55 and 56: gender) inequality forced them inst
Page 57 and 58: The 1920s was the Jazz Age, a time
Page 59 and 60: CHAPTER IV THEATRICAL STEREOTYPES O
Page 61: peoples . . . to save us from our o
Page 65 and 66: Feminine Aesthetic in Theatre Any a
Page 67 and 68: gossip columns. 17 Exploitation on
Page 69 and 70: means to economic or career advance
Page 71 and 72: Florenz Ziegfeld, reportedly, was q
Page 73 and 74: in a subservient role as a domestic
Page 75 and 76: looked, Magnolia decided, as if the
Page 77 and 78: When he holds me close, Close as we
Page 79 and 80: In the novel, Parthy Ann is a three
Page 81 and 82: opens her handbag and takes out a p
Page 83 and 84: “hero”) and the piano player (t
Page 85 and 86: the nineteenth century’s gender r
Page 87 and 88: of that time. Performance practice
Page 89 and 90: possibilities for manipulation and
Page 91 and 92: order while the musical number repr
Page 93 and 94: “Finding in that sound all the ki
Page 95 and 96: often distorts vibrant voices, rend
Page 97 and 98: elationships with other characters
Page 99 and 100: Finally, the process includes a mus
Page 101 and 102: any other theater music heard up to
Page 103 and 104: een presented in previous chapters,
Page 105 and 106: “Though the cold and brutal fact
Page 107 and 108: [Bridge]: When he goes away dat’s
Page 109 and 110: angelically while caught in the act
Page 111 and 112: The song appears twice more as a pl
Page 113 and 114:
CHAPTER VI CURTAIN CALL The musical
Page 115 and 116:
theatre performance practice. They
Page 117 and 118:
BIBLIOGRAPHY General Sources Burkho
Page 119 and 120:
Long, Mary Anne. “‘All Our Girl
Page 121 and 122:
Kerber, Linda K., and Jane Sherron
Page 123 and 124:
Levine, Lawrence W. The Opening of
Page 125 and 126:
Song Title: Show Title: Lyricist: C
show all

Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?