| re: "Bye Bye Birdie" overture | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 06:22 pm EDT 06/26/19 | |
| In reply to: re: "Bye Bye Birdie" overture - lanky 01:10 pm EDT 06/26/19 | |
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| But overtures aren't inherently meant ONLY to exist if the audience sits quietly through them listening. It's not only a chance for the audience and theater to settle down fully and *start* focusing on the world of the show, getting the outside world they just walked in from and their many other thoughts banished for a bit.. but ALSO, very usefully, it plants the seed in the brain and ear of what tunes will be coming later. This makes most scores immediately more "memorable" and "hummable" because when the audiences hears the actual song for the first time, in many cases, it is not the first time they've heard it. So it's not only satisfying in a different way they didn't know it would be (vs if it were entirely knew and their ear is wrapping itself around it for the first time while also needing to experience it and have it work in the moment and listen to/process the lyrics) but it's delivering on a little promise from earlier. I am not saying all shows should have overtures or that the ones that don't are missing something ... I like hearing music for the very first time as much as after getting a taste of it first. But I think the way musicals work with most audiences, I do think many shows without an overtures are at something of a disadvantage. Who knows. I love a great overtures. And I also love a grabbing opening number (which Sondheim relies much more on, and brilliantly, than overtures which he only ever used in Forum and Merrily of the shows he wrote music to, if I'm not mistaken... but Forum and Merrily have two of the greatest and most exciting and satisfying overtures I've ever heard. The other scores that have opening music all seem to be prologues more than overtures - ACW, ALNM, Follies). |
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