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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 04:32 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - PlayWiz 03:44 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| The rumor about Loesser has been around for a long time. I don't think I've ever heard anyone really prove it, or not. To me, the harmonic language in the song does feel more like Loesser than it does the rest of the Music Man score, but that's still not proof. It could also be that Loesser contributed to the song but didn't write the whole thing. Meanwhile, Shirley Jones could certainly have sung the song as presented in the Broadway score. It should also be noted, btw, that the high note that the end (an Ab) is actually marked optional in the score, though I think most of us would be very thrown not to hear it. :-) |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 05:36 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - Chromolume 04:32 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| I think Dominic McHugh squashes this through his painstaking reconstruction of the evolution of THE MUSIC MAN’s drafts. “My White Knight” first appears (with its basic melody) in a draft from likely April-May* 1956 in a duet version (Harold enters after one refrain, singing “The Sadder But Wiser Girl” in counterpoint). In the next versions, from June 1956 to the completed script of April 5, it’s clear Willson tried developing it into an extended soliloquy for Marian. The duet notion was discarded, this was Marian’s moment to shine. McHugh provides drafts (including a typed sheet of early lyrics with red ink annotations and melodic sketches of the early duet versions and later drafts). It seems Willson started with a ballad, expanded that to include a near-operatic section, and ultimately, in tryouts, cut it down to just the ballad. Willson relates this himself in BUT HE DOESN’T KNOW THE TERRITORY: how the number had to be “simplified,” and he cut two pages, but Barbara Cook had captured the audience from the start, so the loss of what he called “his favorite song” didn’t matter. It was what was best for the show. Part of that discarded section was reused in “Being in Love.” The song is Willson’s, unless Frank Loesser was hovering over him, dictating those changes in pencil and red ink, and typing different drafts of lyrics. Laura |
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| re: My White Knight/Being In Love | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 07:20 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 07:20 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My White Knight/Being In Love - showtunetrivia 05:36 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| I think part of the confusion may also be that the show's music was published in tandem with Loesser's own "Frank Music Corp." That counterpoint duet with "Sadder But Wiser Girl" was also recorded on a studio album of the score. |
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