“I was born into a generation that still took light music seriously…the artists who performed them, the librettists who wrote them and the impresarios who presented them, their music was the basis of their success. Their famous and easily remembered melodies can still be heard…but it was the completeness of their scores that their real strength lay: opening choruses, finales, trios, quartettes and concerted numbers – all musicianly, all well balanced and all beautifully constructed.”
– Noel Coward, 1974
Indeed, once upon a time, a successful score might include a chest of musical treasures ranging from humorous patters to epic love ballads to rousing chanties to expository hymns. Contrast this cornucopia of songs with a jukebox musical score. The songs are all great, but does a chain of “Top 40” hits make interesting listening? Can I challenge us to look at the variety of compositional styles employed in classic scores as a model for our “pops” sets? In other words, a smart question to ask oneself in the midst of selecting music might be, “Is every song in this set an opening number? or a love ballad?” If you study Berlin, Rodgers, and Porter’s scores from opening number to finale ultimo, you might find some delightfully new options for your singers. Using classic scores as a model, we have he opportunity to give to our audiences a listening experience that has ebb and flow that can perhaps even give the illusion of storytelling. Don’t just settle for what your audiences already know. Let’s take light music seriously.
(Make plans now to attend your 2016 ACDA Divisional Conference!)
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