This dissertation argues for increased scholarly engagement with “vernacular musical knowledge,” or VMK, as a methodological possibility for the burgeoning music-theoretical study of musical theater. I define VMK as a generalist term: it exists for every type of music, both contemporary and historical, and is musical knowledge that is held by (and informally passes between) practitioners within a musical community. This project primarily engages with the VMK of musical theater practitioners in New York City, as part of the Broadway theater community.
This study offers a route for musical theoretical inquiry of musical theater that avoids introducing the common problematics that emerge from applying conventional music theory and its analytical techniques to musical theater repertoire. A detailed look at extant music theory literature, both considering musical theater topics and also concerning the pedagogy of music theory for musical theater musicians-in-training, reveals assumptions that often undermine arguments or arrive at misguided conclusions due to a basic incompatibility with the compositional realities of music for musical theater. In particular, this project investigates the socalled “work concept” that pervades western (classical) musical thought and identifies the ways in which it is not entirely applicable to musical theater shows.
The latter portion of the project both exhibits the VMK of a sample of musical theater practitioners from New York City and provides an example of the type of scholarship that can emerge from scholarly engagement with such VMK. Investigating how contemporary Broadway music arrangers have influenced modern audiences’ perceptions of the classic “Broadway sound” through their ongoing re-creative work, it becomes clear that (1) the “sound” of so-called “Golden-Era” Broadway music is often an ahistorical fabrication, and that (2) the analysis of this music benefits greatly from the elucidation of musical creatives’ goals and viewpoints, without which one would reach very different analytical conclusions. This project demands critical engagement with the normative methodologies in music theory, especially when those methodologies are applied to popular music styles (and, in particular, musical theater). I argue that the scholarly inclusion of vernacular musical knowledge offers an alternative approach for the next generation of theorists studying musical theater.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:columbia.edu/oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/qxha-dg44 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Alexander-Hills, Makulumy Shaun |
| Source Sets | Columbia University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Theses |
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