The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity / Raymond Knapp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Knapp, Raymond, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National characteristics, American.

Musicals--United States--History and criticism.

Musicals.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 361 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The American musical has achieved and maintained relevance to more people in America than any other performance-based art. This thoughtful history of the genre, intended for readers of all stripes, offers probing discussions of how American musicals, especially through their musical numbers, advance themes related to American national identity. Written by a musicologist and supported by a wealth of illustrative audio examples (on the book's website), the book examines key historical antecedents to the musical, including the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, nineteenth and early twentieth-century American burlesque and vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, and other song types. It then proceeds thematically, focusing primarily on fifteen mainstream shows from the twentieth century, with discussions of such notable productions as Show Boat (1927), Porgy and Bess (1935), Oklahoma! (1943), West Side Story (1957), Hair (1967), Pacific Overtures (1976), and Assassins (1991). The shows are grouped according to their treatment of themes that include defining America, mythologies, counter-mythologies, race and ethnicity, dealing with World War II, and exoticism. Each chapter concludes with a brief consideration of available scholarship on related subjects; an extensive appendix provides information on each show discussed, including plot summaries and song lists, and a listing of important films, videos, audio recordings, published scores, and libretti associated with each musical.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

List of Figures

Explanatory Note about Audio Examples

Preface

Part One. INTRODUCTIONS

1. Contexts and Strategies

2. Nineteenth-Century European Roots: Models and Topics

3. Early American Developments: Minstrelsy, Extravaganza, Pantomime, Burlesque, Vaudeville

4. American Song through Tin Pan Alley

Part Two. DEFINING AMERICA

5. Whose (Who's) America?

6. American Mythologies

7. Counter-mythologies

Part Three. MANAGING AMERICA'S OTHERS

8. Race and Ethnicity

9. Dealing with the Second World War

10. Exoticism

11. Afterword: Other Directions, Other Identities

Appendix A. Art and Commerce: The Business of Making Musicals

Appendix B. Additional Resources

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [341]-349) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780691186207

0691186200

OCLC:

1132229648