| Yes, Ragtime the last *classic* great American musical | |
| Last Edit: GrumpyMorningBoy 08:58 pm EDT 11/01/24 | |
| Posted by: GrumpyMorningBoy 08:45 pm EDT 11/01/24 | |
| In reply to: was Ragtime the last great american musical? - Chazwaza 06:08 pm EDT 11/01/24 | |
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| I'd be very comfortable saying that RAGTIME was the last classic great American musical. I'd place other admirable musicals -- including HAMILTON, RENT, THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, & HAIRSPRAY -- as contemporary great American musicals. Granted, THE BLACK CROOK was contemporary in its time, and we've often discussed how the Golden Age and Tin Pan Alley composers directly fed their stage hits into the Hit Parade of the 1940's & 50's... ... but a term like classic captures the components of classical music that informs the sound of RAGTIME. I'm very comfortable pointing to the ways that Gershwin, Loewe, Rodgers, Loesser, and even Berlin were very overtly drawing from the Classical and Romantic eras of classical music. (yes, even if Puccini himself is quoted in RENT) Now, RAGTIME certainly does fiddle around with such things, especially with so many pastiche songs built into the score, like "Gettin' Ready Rag," "Crime of the Century" "Henry Ford" and "Sarah Brown Eyes." My favorite moment of the whole score is within the nods to Aaron Copland in "A Shtetl Iz Amerike." (If anyone's unfamiliar, listen to Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" and the 7th movement of "Appalachian Mountain Spring.") But taken as a cohesive piece, especially within songs like "What Kind of Woman," "Your Daddy's Son," and the entire second half of Act 2, this score is classic. Should we not say that A LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA similarly qualifies? Especially with songs like "Octet" and "Ayutami"? It's nearly impossible to imagine Guettel's composition here were it not for Stravinsky, but the melody and chord progressions of "Say It Somehow" were are nowhere to be heard within the first half of the 20th century -- it is a pop song with 'classical' orchestrations' -- and the same can be said for FLOYD COLLINS, too. That's modern folk / bluegrass / pop with a contemporary classical influence. The other 'early Audra' champions -- Ricky Ian Gordon, Michael John LaCuiusa -- are best seen as contemporary classical, as well. So yeah. I'll say that RAGTIME is indeed the last classic great American musical. I'd love for someone to try to write another. - GMB |
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