| re: Jay Records "Complete" Recordings | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 10:09 pm EDT 06/14/20 | |
| In reply to: Jay Records "Complete" Recordings - theatrelover1980 08:05 pm EDT 06/14/20 | |
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| The two JAY recordings I know that say they're complete but aren't really quite truly complete are The King and I and My Fair Lady. The King and I recording is missing nos. 3, 4, 7 and 23 from the published vocal score. Nos. 3 and 7 are the little bits where the orchestra plays as actors mime speaking in Siamese, and the orchestra represents their speech. This would probably sound odd on a recording (and it would make no sense without the dialogue around it), and major productions nowadays seem to have decided (and I think they're right) that this will no longer work for audiences, but still if a recording is going to say it's musically complete, these things should be there. 4 is the exit music for the first scene where Anna and Louis whistle “I Whistle a Happy Time” as they leave the boat. It’s basically a repeat of stuff that’s already been heard but still if a recording is going to say it’s musically complete, it should be. Perhaps most important, if still relatively minor, is that no. 21 is where no. 23 should be, and no. 23 is not there at all. It’s only 13 bars but it’s kind of neat. When I’ve brought up these things, John Yap has said that they recorded everything that they were sent. I don’t know if that's correct, I wasn’t there, but I know these are missing. The My Fair Lady is missing the extensive exit music. Again, when I’ve brought this up with John Yap, he has insisted that they recorded what they received, and if it’s not on the recording, they didn’t receive it. The Cabaret doesn’t claim to be complete. It’s missing the underscoring at the end of act one. Perhaps it’s missing some other stuff, too. I’ve never checked. I have some other problems with some of the recordings, much as I value many of them. I mean problems apart from performances, which inevitably vary a lot. Performances are sometimes very sloppy around the edges, which I suppose is inevitable given tight budgets and limited rehearsal time. One thing that that I wish were different is when the underscoring for dialogue is missing the dialogue. I’ve been told that it would have cost them more to record more dialogue in terms of the rights. I don’t know how true that is or if that was the reason why dialogue was often not recorded with the underscoring. Ideally, it would be nice to have such underscoring with the dialogue in the main body of the recording, and then to have extra tracks of it without the dialogue. Often the tracking is a bit odd and insufficient. This is something I can fix for myself nowadays if I want to after I’ve ripped the recording, but it’s a bit of a pain to do that (I’ve never actually bothered with any of the JAY recordings). Back in the days when we listened only to the physical CDs, it would be annoying that certain things were not on separate tracks that really should have been. And little things here and there. Again, now I can make this work after ripping it, but back when the On the Town was issued, it seemed very unhelpful to put “Gabey’s Coming” as a bonus track at the end of the second CD rather than at the end of the first. If you wanted to listen to it in context, you’d have to switch CDs and then switch back. |
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