Bob Kingston (2010) Peter Grimes - Act 3 (Mr Swallow...who holds himself apart..Interlude VI) . Avaliable at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P46aKimw2s curlyfryz3181607 (2008). In Short. Avaliable at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYcbG5vvOJg
Decca Records Classical (2014). Vera Lynn (There'll Be Bluebirds Over )The White Cliffs of Dover .Avaliable at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovfQjR3iU-A essgee007 (2010) Drink Drink Drink (The Drinking Song). Avaliable at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI3Bcgh4Jko Faculty of Washington (2014). The history of the moving picture. Avaliable at: http://faculty.washington.edu/baldasty/JAN13.htm IMDB (2016). The Jazz Singer (1927) .Avaliable at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018037/ Moma (2004). Walt Disney - Steamboat Willie. Avaliable at: http://www.moma.org/collection/works/89284 New World Encyclopedia (2015). Operetta. Avaliable at: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Operetta Oliver, P (1960). BLUES FELL THIS MORNING: Meaning to the Blues. London:Cassell & Company Ltd.
Sadie, S (1980) History of Opera. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited. Teach-me-piano. (2009) Jazz Piano. Available at: http://www.teach-me-piano.com/jazz-piano.html
The Chaplin Films (2014). Charlie Chaplin - The Birth of the Tramp Celebration (Trailer). Avaliable at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djUOMxJ1rEM
Walt Disney Animation Studios (2009). Walt Disney Animation Studios' Steamboat Willie. Avaliable at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4 warhalsoup100 (2011). Al Bowlly Ray Noble - Love is the Sweetest Thing 1932. Avaliable at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUXv0ezazXg
I think something that worked really well and came across to an audience was our connection with each other. Onstage our chemistry was good which had a positive affect onto the audience as it enabled them to relax and enjoy the performer. I think this connecting with the audience was definitely a personal strength as even though I was playing piano I still managed to look up by picking moments in the song where I can do this. I think another strength for the group was that the delivery of the comedy. I know this was successful from the reaction from the audience which shows me that the humor was clearly portrayed as we received the desired effect of laughter.
I think maybe to improve next time the first thing we could've done differently is instead of choosing two similar songs choosing contrasting ones, so choosing a slow ballad next to our comedic Musical Theatre piece just to give it a little more variety. I think something else that could have been improved was that it should've been better rehearsed as it wasn't as polished as it should've been which can make the pieces seem unprofessional to a paying audience. For example if it'd had been polished the harmonies would've been tighter and our voices completely blended. I also think in Well did you Evah, had we had tie, we could have added a few more harmonies. The main improvement though for me personally was to make the piano part more advanced. I think a lot of the time the pieces sounded empty due to us just relying on vocals and pianos which can sometimes be a bit disengaging which is why I should've added melodic patterns to fill it out a bit more so it had a fuller and more interesting layered texture.
To fit our brief of creating a comedic Musical Theatre number based on a couple coming to win their fortune and the girl winning the jackpot and dumping him, we decided it would be best to put the track into Protools so we could add other instruments so that it wouldn't sound as empty and would be more showy. First I just recorded in block chords to a clicker so that I would have a bass to work around with and add other parts too. Once this was done I recorded in the left hand walking bass part, reflecting the comping style of Jazz during this era. I then added the right hand, playing a Charleston rhythm to contrast with the bass part at to make it sound as part of the 1920's and 1930's rather then the 50's doo-wop feel it had previously reflected. I then recorded the piano roll before the tap break and this is where I hit an issue. In response to the dancers requests, I'd made the metronome quicker meaning it was hard to play in the dance break. I then struggled as because a common feature of jazz songs in this style were stops and breaks of the music, and when trying to put these in it was hard to time. Therefore because I was hitting so many obstacles and wouldn't have time to finish the track I just decided that I would play the piano live and just try to fill it out with melodic patterns in the right and left hand, that changed throughout just to keep the texture interesting and engaging to reflect the scenario. The major chords also worked well in doing this, reflecting a happy and comedic atmosphere. Despite not being able to finish a track for us to use I have benefited from learning how to work things on Protools ready for next time I need to us it to create a track or record something in.
Well did you Evah is the second song that we have chosen to do for our arrangement. Similarly to our other song it is a comedic based Musical theatre number but to make our arrangement we have used two different versions of the song to create our own piece, including the original from the Musical High Society. Meg has arranged the lyrics so that it is a mixture but also so that it fits and sounds right for two women singing it in comparison to the original which is a guy and a girl, and then the other version which is two guys. The adapted lyrics are humorous and will engage an audience. I have taken the sheet music for the piano from the original Musical but due to a lower skill level than the piece requires I have adapted the chords to create a characterful accompaniment piece also based on my research of playing in this style and genre. For our next rehearsal I need to decide how to fill out the piano part so that it doesn't sound empty with us having piano as the only instrument in this song. Amy and Meg both need to learn their words as it is quite a mouthful and to aid this in rehearsal we used the technique of repeating the song and them not looking at their words to see how much they could remember. This was also useful because it got them used to covering up when they went wrong a forgot the words which will be helpful for if things go wrong in the actual show.
I decided for my solo songs although I wanted to try and challenge myself and sing something new, I still wanted to pick something that I would be comfortable singing. For my theme I decided to pick war songs as not only do I have a passion for them and always loved them, but it is a genre I've never even tried before and thus allowing me to become a more versatile performer.
(Decca Records Classical 2014)
(warholsoup100 2011)
During the war Music and Dancing was often used as an escape and distraction from the death and destruction going on in the world around them. The first song I've chosen to do is Vera Lynn's There'll Be Bluebirds over. It is important for me to connect with this song a work on forming the connection so that I can portray the emotion and feeling behind the song and not just through my voice but my face also. It is a challenge because of the vibrato and style but is made it easier because of the area it sits in my voice. The other song 'Love is the sweetest Thing' is aimed for an audience to enjoy, and bring about optimism in that sense rather than doing an emotional ballad. Instead this number is more upbeat and jazzier than before so which provides a contrast to my other song so that although they are linked by the theme of war songs, they are open.
For my essay question I'm going to be looking into and researching the techniques and common features of jazz piano playing. This will help with my two group pieces for the 1920s and 1930s show because this is the style that I will be required to play the piano for these pieces. The first being an original composition called 'When I' and the second being our arrangement of 'Well did you Evah' from the musical High Society.
Some common features of jazz piano are:
Swing of jazz in right hand
Bass left hand pattern
Angular melodies with sevenths
(Teach-Me-Piano 2009)
Using this knowledge of different features of jazz piano in the era I can use these too adapt one of our group pieces that I composed, to make it sound more like jazz rather than straight up Musical Theatre. Jazz was influence from Blues and that's why I've based my left hand pattern on the walking bass and made the right hand more chordal based to reflect the piece. When playing it into Protools I'll add another right hand thematically melody for the piano so that it makes the piano part more interesting and keeps it engaging and fresh, especially during the tap break although keeping this simple enough to not confuse the dancers.
For this rehearsal we needed to teach Meg the new song so we used the rehearsal technique of breaking it down into sections to teacher her a bit at the time. I sung my ba dada's for her to sing over and experiment with. Once she found a harmony, I decided that I would slur mine to make it sound more jazzy whilst she still does hers staccato. This takes away the 50's feel and makes it sound interesting especially when the harmony comes in after being in unison. For the chorus we added her in a higher harmony, as this sits well within her voice, which crosses over my harmony at some points but this sounds strong and together due to practicing this a lot by look at each other to create a good blend with the tight harmonies. To add comedic affect, when Amy is singing the 'I lied' in the chorus Meg repeats this which also helps the story to be clearly communicated and for what Amy's character is saying to be re enforced. For the bridge I decided to give this to Meg for her to sing as it fitted her vocal style, allowing her to use the voice technique of belting whilst we go back to the chorus creating an interesting texture. Then we went on to deciding the ending of the song which we chose there to be an acapella chorus because this would sound nice with the tight harmonies. Then a run down the piano because this was a common feature of jazz whilst also sounding dramatic to fit with the Musical Theatre genre. The final acapella 'goodbye' not only fitted the Musical Theatre genre as Meg went up in pitch at the end to give a showy affect, but also fitted with the humorous story line. This was a successful rehearsal because a lot was achieved to make up for lack of previous rehearsal tie. To improve upon this song we just need to rehearse it so it is clean and tight.
To begin this rehearsal I played the song to Amy and Hayley to get their opinion on it to see if they wanted to take it forward. They agreed that we needed to adapt lyrics and shape it a bit more but that it was a good start and that we finally had something to work with. The first thing we did was adapt and write the lyrics so that they were appropriate to the scene we were given and so that they were more Musical Theatre.
'When I look at you, All the things I could do, If I didn't have you, Now that we are through When I,when I, when I first saw you. When I, when I, when I said I loved you. I lied, I lied, I lied I don't love you. Don't cry, don't cry, I didn't want to hurt you. Is this happening to us, Can't believe our luck, Now we've won the jackpot, Sorry what?' INSTRUMENTAL Now walk away, there is nothing to say, Money's stolen her heart today. No walk away, there is nothing to say, Money's stolen her heart today. When I,when I, when I first saw you. When I, when I, when I said I loved you. I lied, I lied, I lied I don't love you. Don't cry, don't cry, I didn't want to hurt you.' Coming up with the lyrics also allowed us to be able to form a clear structure of intro, verse,chorus, verse than an instrumental to provide a section for the dancers to do a tap dance and then lead on to the bridge and another chorus. This is a structure that fits the genre and also enables the dancers to have a clear structure to follow when choreographing and we have recorded a version of just the piano so that the dancers are able to start choreographing and practicing whilst we get a better recorded version for them with the lyrics when Meg gets back. It was important we kept rehearsing it by repeating it to make sure we knew it inside out so that when Meg came back we would be able to fit her in without it taking up too much time.
Due to us not getting far in rehearsals and having to keep changing our idea I thought I'd use initiative and have a rehearsal by myself to try and come up with a skeleton of a piece for us to work with and improve upon. I was unable to rehearse with the others due to illness and knew it'd be easier to come up with the bare bones by myself. I decided it'd be easier to go down the Charleston route due to the brief given as this would be easier to make comical and Musical Theatre style. I based the chord sequence on major chords to also give it the comical, cheesy, bright effect we were looking for to convey the story and then played the following the rhythm pattern of common Charleston songs, adapting it slightly to make it original. With this basic chord sequence and rhythm I began to come up with some basic lyrics and the melody that these would be sung to, keeping it quite simple so that we could either just keep it the same and focus on layering it with harmonies or changing the melody to make it more interesting and engaging. Or finding a balance between the two. This has been a really effective rehearsal because it now gives us something to work with where as before we didn't really have anything and kept fluttering between ideas. This has allowed us to have a basic idea to then expand upon. At the moment I am aware it has aspects of a 50's Doo-wop style so I'm hoping to look into jazz piano playing of the 20's and 30's so that I can hopefully add a left hand piano part that will make it sound more of this era.
The original song that we were writing we decided that we didn't want to do anymore due to us feeling it wasn't appropriate to the brief enough and we didn't know what else to add or how to adapt it so it was fitting to the brief. Due to us struggling to compose our own song we decided to do a cover and change the song to 'In Short' from Edges which goes with our genre of Musical Theatre.
(curlyfryz3181607 2008)
Meg adapted the lyrics so that they were more appropriate to our scenario and to the time period. For example referencing a 'motor car' as this was very new and an exciting prospect for the 20's and 30's and were very expensive so fits with her winning a lot of cash. The adapted lyrics also make it very comical and the rhythm already gives a Charleston theme which relates it also to the 20's and 30's time period. However to make it more of suitable for the time period we would have to adapt the chords adding in sevenths which would mean the melody would have to be adapted and changed. So we felt it'd be easiest to just change the song. 'My love affair with you
It`s over, it`s through
We loved and then you lost
For you it came at quite a cost
We`ve both had the chance to grow
I`ve collected my cash
And just before I go
There`s just one thing I want you to know
`Yeah so I won a lot of cash,
What? Don't come out in a rash!
I Made a gamble I won,
So I said we're done,
guess that you're broke so will you pawn your gold?
don't know what I'd do if the roles were reversed,
You believe in luck right? Cos your luck has been cursed,
Who knew, that one gal could be this rich,
I'm pretty sure that God must be favouring this bitch!
So back off...
Because the money's fucking mine
Maybe it`s wrong to wish death on
Someone you had so much love for
But since I'd rather not share
It makes me want to kill you more
I'd rather bury you alive
Or Drown you in a pond
I hope you didn't catch on
I did something wrong
Took all of the money, just call me James Bond!
A car I think that is what I'll buy first,
A Tiffany ring and a Cartier purse,
Or! Maybe I'll get a pony!
Won't lose any sleep although you call me a phony.
(Spoken) share the cash?
(Sung) I'd rather fucking die 😊
Okay, so maybe I`m getting ahead,
Maybe I`m taking this way too far,
Maybe I'm going a little crazy at the thought of buying a motor car,
Cause obviously this whole rich life is new,
And I'm dreaming about all the things I could do...
Maybe we could give it one more try`
Aw man it Sucks I'm too selfish and i'd rather die!
Die, die, I would rather die...
Die, die I would rather you die
Tiffany's!
Die, die, die, die, die, die, die
Cartier!
Die, die, die, die, die, die, die
Vroom vroom!
Die, die, die, die, die, die, die
I'll Get new teeth and new hair,
Joan Crawford beware
I'll pass time in Fiji with no single care
Aufweidersein, Aurevoir, Goodbye!
In short, I'm leaving you goodbyeeeee!
DIE!'
The song we decided to change to was 'I've Got Rhythm' by George Gershwin and yet again we would adapt the lyrics to be suitable for the scenario and time period. This worked better than the other one as the song itself was already a jazz song from the 1930's, alongside the rhythm being ideal for the dancers to work with. To make sure it is our own arrangement we are going to record each of the instruments in separately to create our own backing track which we then will sing along too. However we then decided against this song because
When film first began in the 1890's (Faculty Washington 2014), it was not a popular medium and didn't being to be so until the 20's and 30's. And during this period there were more films a year then there are now which could possibly be because they had no TV so going to watch a film was their equivalent. Early films were in black and white due to the technology not being advanced enough for color, this was to come in 1967. (BBC 2016) They were also silent due to sound and film together not being available and although sometimes live musicians played, this was not very practical. Therefore to communicate the story the actors used big gestures and were often very slapstick
Charlie Chaplin was famous for his silent comedy as he created a character called 'The Tramp' who wore a mustache and bowler hat, and he played off this character for many of his silent films. Then in 1919 he founded a company so that he could be in complete control and even when sound films began to advance, he refused to move to sound films. Although many of his films have been recreated with sound over the top. Below we can see he used exaggerated body language and facial expressions so that the audience can understand the plot and to add comedic value to the film.
(TheChaplinFilms 2014)
When films started coming out that weren't silent they were known as talkies. These disturbed a lot of people as they found it weird that people were talking out of a screen but they grew to be more popular as people got used to it. However there were only moments of sound due to the amplification and synchronization of sound still being difficult and expensive to produce.The first official talkie was The Jazz Singer released in 1927 (IMDB 2016) and it only had small sections of dialogue and still relied on everything that silent films did to portray the story but it was an advancement in what had been seen before so people received it very well as something new and exciting.
Seeing the success that The Jazz Singer received Walt Disney decided to create the first synchronized soundtrack cartoon was Steamboat Willie in 1928 (Moma 2004). It explored the use of dietetic sound which is where the sound source is visible and then non dietetic sound which means that the sound source is not visible on screen nor as it been implied to be in on the action. For example narrator's commentary, mood music or sound affects for dramatic effect. This capture people's attention because although there was no dialogue the use of the catchy whistle followed by humor sounds of noises from the boat and elsewhere made it very comedic and engaging for an audience.
Sadie (1980, p.6) would explain the Opera as 'perhaps the most elaborate of art forms' because it explores so many different elements to create a 'complete art work'. Opera's are of the classical genre and grew in popularity in the 1920's and 1930's and were often in theatrical settings. The Opera had high society connotations due to the audience the Opera would receive due to it being fairly expensive. It had themes similar to that found in Shakespeare's plays and to match this it had exaggerated characters and was very over dramatic in terms of plot,singing and acting. There are two different types of song in an Opera. The first being an recitative which is just part of telling the story and then an Aria which is there to make an important point and mark a moment but doesn't really move the plot forward. If you look at the song below, you can hear how much of a recitative mimics the speech through the rhythms used but just more melodic. It is especially clear in this song 'Mr Swallow' from the opera Peter Grimes as they talk over each other and also use the technique 'tilting the voice' to give a sob quality to the song.
(Bob Kingston 2010)
Operetta's were also very popular in the 1920's and 1930's and were said to be the birth of Musical Theatre. It was a lighter version of genre not only in terms of the music but also in terms of subject matter. It was more humanistic and natural and explored everyday. Due to these being popular after the first World War they were often about hope,romance,nostalgia and adventure to help them dream about a better place. This took them from a sorrowful place after lots of death and destruction and allowed them an escape from this.Operetta's often were a fusion of lots of different styles. Below you can see a song from the popular musical The Student Prince and here it communicates how Operetta's were more comedic and about everyday situations, issues or things.
Sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between Operetta's and Opera's because they are often very similar. 'Most operettas can be described as light operas with acting, whereas most musicals are closer to being plays with singing.' (New World Encylopedia 2015) and this is the difference between Operetta's and Musicals.
To create the piano intro I played different chords, changing the chord if we felt it wasn't jazzy enough until we found a chord sequence we were both happy with but yet that still sounded sultry and was appropriate to the genre. Whilst playing these chords with my left hand, I then began to play a few notes with my right hand, changing notes each time until I came up with a piano solo that fitted the theme but wasn't too difficult for me to play. Improvisation was a key feature of jazz and therefore why I found it a good way too compose my piano part. We then used it to create the singing part by me just playing and then us trying to improvise melodies and lyrics over the top for the introduction.
For the piano part in the verse I decided to add a right hand part playing a constant B flat and D, quite high up the piano to contrast with the lower, bass chordal pattern I'd been following so far. This gave the piece more of a jazzy feel whilst also changing it up to keep the piece engaging and interesting. The verse for the singing focused on telling the story so far and explaining what she really wants and that is not love, especially with him. She's focus on money and fortune and through use of exaggerated lyrics and heightened emotion this aims to add comedic affect which will keep the audience engaged.
For the chorus we kept the chord sequence the same as previous so that this still reflected the genre. I decided that the piano part would only be minimal as too much would take away from the singing, which I can always do in other parts of the song like the instrumental. The focus of the chorus has to be the singing of the lyrics which is therefore why I just need to be accompaniment. It was important the chorus relates to a contemporary audience and adds elements of comedy so to do this we thought the best way would be through pickup lines. I think although this worked on the comedic and Musical Theatre side of things, we felt this took away a little from the 20's and 30's style that is essential to what we're meant to be creating.
