Introduction
An
exhaustive
study
of theater music would fill volume after volume with
printed text and shelf after shelf with audio
recordings. It would span the entire
chronology of music history -- from the ancient
Greeks to the 21st-century "virtual" theater.
It would encompass every documented musical style
from Monteverdi to Miranda and Handel to
Hammerstein. It would be an overwhelming task
to attempt such a study.
With
that
in
mind, I need to set some parameters for this
presentation. I need to narrow our focus to a
smaller perspective -- one that will afford us a
glimpse of the magnitude and diversity of this
"ultimate art form" but at the same time allow us to
view it as an artistic "whole," with the various
forms and styles being contributors to the larger
medium.
The
forms
implied by the phrase "theater music" are numerous,
but for our purposes here, we will include only
those that are "staged." By that, I mean works
that are to be produced in a completely theatrical
environment, incorporating the conventions of the
theater --
• set
• costumes
• lights
• a script
• acting (using some form of
vocalization)
• movement
• etc.
This
would include
• opera
• singspiel
• operetta
• musicals
• and the variations of those.
It
does not, for our purposes here, include incidental
music for plays (or motion pictures), oratorio, or
ballet.
The
purpose
of this endeavor is basically fourfold:
1) to examine the aspects that make
theater music a valuable medium of expression;
2) to dispel a few of the common
misconceptions about the art form;
3) to explore some diversities and
artistic freedoms within the medium; and
4) to compare and contrast styles and
techniques commonly found in the various forms of
the medium.
It
is
not
my intention to make this a survey of composers and
compositions or to trace a chronology and
developmental history of the art form. I hope
it will serve as a significant introduction to the
world of theater music, for those unacquainted with
it, and give some fresh insight to those who have
already grown to love the medium as I do.
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