Book (musical)

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A book is the construction of the plot of a musical , which often has different authors than the sung text.

definition

When responsibility for the textual basis of musicals is usually between book ( book ) and song lyrics ( lyrics distinction). Usually both come from different authors.

A book in this sense is the drama , that is, a theatrical text made up of dialogues that should have an inner connection and development.

While the writing of the book requires dramaturgical skills (for exciting and varied person constellations and plot constructions), the rhyming lyrics require above all the talent for apt, witty formulation and for the atmospherically dense reproduction of moods.

history

This division of labor was not new in the 20th century. It comes from the commercial French theater of the 19th century (see e.g. Eugène Scribe ).

There was not necessarily a common thread in the older revues , such as the Ziegfeld Follies , as jokes or sketches could loosely connect the musical numbers. A similarly loose series of different "numbers" were US vaudeville and burlesque , which were regarded as amusements for the lower social classes. With the genres Musical Comedy and Musical Play , a reform of the "upscale" Broadway theater entertainment began around 1930 .

In the early days of the book musical , the book was available from the start, but the song numbers were supplemented, replaced and greatly changed during rehearsals. The secondary use of the songs independently of the play was of considerable importance (cf. Tin Pan Alley ). The text author was therefore more involved in the rehearsals than the book author who provided a template. While the writing of the book requires dramaturgical skills (for exciting and varied person constellations and plot constructions), the rhyming lyrics require above all the talent for apt, witty formulation and for the atmospherically dense reproduction of moods.

Book authors of musicals were often scriptwriters for films like Ben Hecht . The emergence of the sound film from around 1928 thus also influenced theater productions. Few writers like Oscar Hammerstein or Alan J. Lerner were able to take over the book and song texts at the same time. Cole Porter wrote both the lyrics and the music for his musicals, but not the books. Even Stephen Sondheim , the "book" other authors such as Arthur Laurents left, but written to some musicals song lyrics and music.

If there is no separation between spoken prose dialogue and lyrical song text, as in the well- composed musicals of the 1980s (e.g. Les Misérables ), it is difficult to distinguish between books and texts. In these cases, as in opera, one speaks of a libretto .

literature

  • Lehman Engel: Words with Music: Creating the Broadway Musical Libretto, updated and revised by Howard Kissel, Applause Books, New York 2006. ISBN 1-55783-554-3

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