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

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ennobling experience like some other music genres or art forms. Abigail Miriam Feder- Kane described mid-twentieth century scholars’ attitudes toward the value of musical theatre as “trite, conventional, predictable, silly, and escapist and therefore unworthy objects of serious analysis.” 4 Early examples of this stereotype of the musical as simple entertainment include the first “accidental” American musical extravaganza, The Black Crook (1866), the Viennese-style operettas of Victor Herbert, and the competing musical revues of Florenz Ziegfeld’s Follies and George White’s Scandals. The sounds and lifestyles of Broadway wielded a pervasive influence on American music (popular and serious) and behavioral norms from the 1890s throughout the twentieth century. 5 A backlash against this influence is found in many types of writings in the early twentieth century. Music critic Theodor Adorno described the “business” of musical theatre as a mass-produced commodity, a “part of the ‘culture industry’ which deceived the working class, replacing genuine inspiration with a standardized and stylized ‘barbarity.’” 6 Art critic Clement Greenberg referred to musical theatre as “Kitsch,” and social political analyst Dwight 4 “‘Anything You can Do, I Can Do Better’: Transgressive Gender Role Performance in Musical Theatre and Film, 1930-1950” (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1999), 1. 5 Musical revues were marketed to the upper class, as well as to the newly independent class of shop girls, as sophisticated leisure entertainment. Ziegfeld and White kept their shows a step above the burlesque with the all-American girl persona of the long-limbed chorus girl and the glamorous depictions of fashions in extravagant parades as an acceptable entertainment for ladies. Yet, they still represent the prevalent trend of objectification rather than the liberation of woman. Linda Mizejewski addressed this phenomenon thoroughly in Ziegfeld Girl: Image and Icon in Culture and Cinema (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999). 6 “Cultural Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” in Cultural Studies Reader (1995), 36, 41; quoted in Approaches to the American Musical, ed. Robert Lawson-Peebles (London: Exeter University Press, 1996), 6. 3
MacDonald, labeled musical theatre as “Masscult anti-art.” 7 In his dissertation, Donald Egan Whitaker III summarized this backlash and the reasons why musical theatre has not been given its due academic consideration. Besides its dismissal as light entertainment and spectacle, musical theatre retains the implicit baggage of comedy’s inferiority to tragedy in theatre history, its use of popular music, its ancestry of minstrel shows and vaudeville (considered “lowbrow” culture for the poorest of immigrant classes), its designation of “midculture” entertainment, and (perhaps most important) the basic lack of training in music by theatre scholars and subsequent lack of training in theatre by musicians. 8 Despite these negative images, the early history of musical theatre is a fascinating conglomeration of styles and performance devices that should receive more attention in the arena of academic research. It is not only a reflection of its society, it is a producer of cultural meaning as well. The ideals of philosophers are embodied in musical theatre. Nietzsche wrote that music can “infuse a dramatic scene with deeper significance than is possible without music,” and dramatist Bertolt Brecht spoke of the “power behind music to inform and illustrate theatrical moments and ideas.” 9 Carey Wall wrote of musical entertainments as a scrim for social truths, “allowing them to be looked at when direct vision is too glaring to be endured.” 10 7 Lawson-Peebles, 5. 8 “Subversive Aspects of American Musical Theatre” (Ph.D. diss., Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical College, 2002), chapter 1. 9 Whitaker, 8. 10 “There’s No Business Like Show Business: A Speculative Reading of the Broadway Musical” in Approaches to Musical Theatre, 25. 4
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: for research, this paper will explo
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
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CHAPTER IV THEATRICAL STEREOTYPES O
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peoples . . . to save us from our o
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separate seating arrangements). The
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Feminine Aesthetic in Theatre Any a
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gossip columns. 17 Exploitation on
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means to economic or career advance
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Florenz Ziegfeld, reportedly, was q
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in a subservient role as a domestic
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looked, Magnolia decided, as if the
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When he holds me close, Close as we
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In the novel, Parthy Ann is a three
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opens her handbag and takes out a p
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“hero”) and the piano player (t
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the nineteenth century’s gender r
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of that time. Performance practice
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possibilities for manipulation and
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order while the musical number repr
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“Finding in that sound all the ki
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often distorts vibrant voices, rend
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elationships with other characters
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Finally, the process includes a mus
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any other theater music heard up to
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een presented in previous chapters,
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“Though the cold and brutal fact
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[Bridge]: When he goes away dat’s
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angelically while caught in the act
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The song appears twice more as a pl
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CHAPTER VI CURTAIN CALL The musical
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theatre performance practice. They
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BIBLIOGRAPHY General Sources Burkho
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Long, Mary Anne. “‘All Our Girl
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Kerber, Linda K., and Jane Sherron
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Levine, Lawrence W. The Opening of
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Song Title: Show Title: Lyricist: C
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