‘A Perfect Storm’

An extract from a paper written by

Martin R Grimwood

Bel Canto

Bel Canto, through solo singing, began to take shape at the start of the 16th century, during the transitional stage of music between the Renaissance style and the Baroque period. Virtuoso singers emerged from choirs, and the dominance of polyphonic singing became less pronounced. Bel Canto also refers to a predominantly French and Italian compositional era in the 19th century that featured artists such as Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti.

The term Bel Canto, an Italian phrase, literally means ‘beautiful singing’ and is characterised by the perfection of vocal tone and intonation, agility, register equalisation, elegance of phrasing, control, and effortless virtuosity through being in a constantly-engaged physical state. The Bel Canto vocal technique, unlike the more dominant modern vocal techniques of the late 20th and 21st centuries, operates according to a vastly different set of principles, as described here by Dr Graham Clarke:

“I firmly stand outside the current orthodoxy of the voice production model as being air-driven; the bag-pipe principle. The model I work with is the classical European tradition of voice; the cello principle. That is, I make a distinction between conversational and emphatic voice use. (Clarke, 2014)

Clarke continues,

Our day-to-day voice use is not ‘normal’ in that it is a neutralized and an imitative form of primal utterance. I assert that speech and music share the common source of the human cry. I also maintain that most Western art voice-use is now monotonous chiefly because of a false or incomplete physiological view — air movement through approximated vocal folds — as the premise of voice production. One of the effects of this voice-use is the stultifying of emotionally charged utterances performers would make, by the very act of making it. Since the time of the composer Caccini (1602) until the last 50 years, the vertically harmonic content of tone was seen as an essential consideration. The acoustical difference between linguistic vowels and their primary emotional counterparts may be said to reflect the difference between the limited notational analysis of a musical work, and the vertical timbral approach to music's sounding. (Clarke, 2014)

Both Caccini and Lodovico Zacconi (1555–1627), also a singer and composer, were integral to the vocal shift which occurred in the late 16th century. Both developed the vocal technique with the intention that one sing with a ‘full and natural voice’ (voce piena e naturale), or from the chest to avoid falsetto (le voci finte) (Stark, 1999, p.87). As Clarke adds, they also developed Bel Canto for “the integration of the vertically-integrated harmonic content of tone”. (Clarke, 2014)

Plato in The Republic, talked of the words, the harmony, and the rhythm being at the core of the music. (Plato, 398 BCE, p. 43-64). In Singing and Imagination, Thomas Hemsley proceeds to extrapolate from this premise that words amount to what comes from left brain activity, harmony from right brain activity, and rhythm as the ‘gut feelings’ of the impulse to express oneself (Hemsley, 2006. P.20).

Hemsley then states:

“Singers must be physically fit; they must be free of blockages in their breathing; they must cultivate a good kinesthetic sense, and a posture appropriate to the vigorous act of singing, but which does not produce unhealthy muscular tensions. They must be learned, to be aware of, and use, different resonances. They must be well centered and must develop a clear awareness of the point of concentration from which their singing is directed. They must have a strong feeling for the life-force within them, and they must be able to distinguish between that and mere personal excitement.” (Hemsley, 2006, p. 8)

Clarke meanwhile adds,

“One of the critical shifts away from the traditional approach to a modern vocal style, and its effect within the context of the artist and audience is critical. If an artist engenders an emotional response, meaning they recall an emotional state, then that can be called a ‘feeling state.’ The audience would then have a passive and observational response. They consciously then decide whether they are involved or not. They would observe the artist feeling an experience. The therapeutic learning tool for a performer is often taken to the stage and defined as a performance skill.” (Clarke, 2014)

Today, in a time when society places a significant focus on scientific modelling and evidence as a means of explaining and understanding phenomena, this traditional use of voice and its corresponding musical philosophy, require a holistic approach. It would, therefore, be inappropriate to attempt to read and practice Bel Canto solely through the lens of the cerebral and the mechanical. It is in this aspect that many modern voice practices fall short: their approach is mechanical and, in many cases, inaccurate. This approach is one part of a greater understanding and practice; however, skill and craft are critical.

Developed by Monteverdi the principle of Bel Canto (voice use) became known as ‘cantare con affetto’ (singing with affection), and marked a milestone in the development of European music. Since then, Bel Canto has formed the basis of solo singing in the classical tradition, except for occasional recurrent periods in history when singers have temporarily lost contact with their source and have become obsessed with the purely instrumental, mechanical, and more superficial aspects of their art (Hemsley, 1998, p. 21).

As noted above, Bel Canto also refers to a time period, and can furthermore be associated with the Castrato era — a virtuoso style of singing — or to specific composers and their methods of composition. By and large the term did not come into general use until the late 19th century; when it arose from the pro and anti- Wagner invective. Philip Duey, in his book on Bel Canto, makes a considered point that it was, in fact, the response to Wagner’s declamatory style that prompted the Italians to stand behind their more informal term of Bel Canto. It was this struggle over the term that subsequently created the impetus for the words to become more formalised (Duey, 1951, p. 4-12).

The Bel Canto musical era reached its peak under the auspices of the 19th-century composer Gioachino Rossini, and later through Bellini and Donizetti, composers who spearheaded the Romantic artistic period and oversaw the development of some of the most poignant operas. This period laid the groundwork for a compositional and vocal style that would continue to flourish in musical theatre until the 1960s — long after it had vanished from the world’s operatic stages.

Musical Theatre and Bel Canto

While the opera genre continued to evolve from Monteverdi in the early 17th century, 120 years later, the beginnings of what we now refer to as musical theatre were taking shape.

Operetta can be considered the diminutive form of the opera; in late 18th-century music halls, the genres of operetta, burlesque, vaudeville, and melodrama were all rising to prominence in Europe. An early music venue in England called Weston’s Music Hall emerged out of operetta’s popularity — as did music halls across England, Europe, and the US (Lloyd, Arthur, 2020). Music halls hit their peak during the Industrial Revolution and would later see the likes of Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin become household names (Zarilli, 2013, p. 332).

The works of Gilbert and Sullivan can be traced back to the French opérette composers Jacques Offenbach and Hervé, and many see Gilbert and Sullivan as emblematic of the birth of the standard musical theatre model. This era was defined by the integration of spoken word, song, dance, and an orchestra or band with a strong narrative at its core. Soon after the inception of musical theatre by Gilbert and Sullivan, and on the other side of the Atlantic, Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart were working on developing what came to be known as the musical comedy, teaming up with the English composer David Braham who wrote the music for vaudeville shows for families in working-class areas (Franceschina, 2003, p. 152).

Variety and minstrel shows — different from Harrigan and Hart’s vaudeville shows — were also performed and would take place in music halls and proscenium arch theatres. Performers trained in the primary theatrical vocal technique (i.e., Bel Canto) and composers endowed with the knowledge of the embedded compositional techniques flowed over from the opera genre to cement this new direction in live theatre. What may be observed during this era was a massive transition in theatrical style; however, the foundations of this new direction were identical to those laid out and consolidated in the late 1500s and early 1600s by the Florentine Camerata.

After the inception of musical theatre through Gilbert and Sullivan in England and Harrigan and Hart in the US, the burgeoning ‘book musical’ format found its new structural elements beyond the revue format. The ‘book musical’, through the work of the Tin Pan Alley composers, opened a new door into the music play genre in the early 20th-century (Grant, 2004, p. 19).

The inception of the modern-day ‘book musical’ is evident in a show called The Black Crook that premiered on Broadway in 1866. This show had all the elements of a newer kind of theatre and was a great success. It consisted of a full plot with orchestrated music, singing and dancing — all as relatively equal components, a hallmark of the ‘book musical’ form. Follies and musical revues would dominate Broadway until 1910; however, the ‘book musical’ form had been born (Reside, Rose, 2011).

Leading up to World War I, George M. Cohan heavily influenced Broadway, overseeing the development of shows with his partner Victor Herbert, an Irish cellist, composer, and orchestrator. They both gave musicals a distinctive style. Cohan and Herbert also contributed to the wealth of music and performances emerging in the early 20th century from a select group of buildings on West 28th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in New York City (colloquially known as the Tin Pan Alley) (Guion, 2016).

The contributions of Tin Pan Alley artists during this period have led many to view this era as a ‘line in the sand’ for the genre of musical theatre, which began with the iconic 1927 staging of the musical Showboat and continued until the late 1950s. The show that premiered in 1927 by the infamous musical theatre duo of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, with orchestration written by Robert Russell Bennett, would prove to be seminal in the historical emergence of musical theatre as a genre (Lunden, Jeff).

The Code

In Florence, Italy, in 1580, Count Giovanni Bardi gathered at his palace a small group of intellectuals, musicians, scientists, and artists. The meeting’s purpose was to formally discuss literature, science, and the arts, and to revive the practices and philosophies of ancient Greek music and drama — in so doing, developing the most authentic method and context of replicating what it means for humans to connect and engage within a theatrical environment.

This decade would represent the most profound shift in music and theatre since the origins of Greek Theatre in the 6th century BCE. This group would become known as the Florentine Camerata (see Appendix M) (Palisca, 1989, p. 146).

Among these intellectuals were Vincenzo Galilei (the father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei) and the composers Giulio Caccini and Jacopo Peri, who were instrumental in creating what is known as the first-ever opera, Dafne. Only six small parts of this opera now exist, and it is not known whether it was ever entirely performed in public. Caccini and Peri went on to compose what’s commonly referred to as the first-ever performed opera, Euridice. They worked under the auspice of the Camerata — and Caccini, with Emili de' Cavalieri, went on to develop two forms of expression known as the Aria (solo song) and the sung representation of dialogue known as recitative.

The Code is a term that I have chosen to encompass a range of elements that were established by the Camerata. It will also serve to provide the foundation for a comparison between Bel Canto, the traditional approach to European music from the 1580s through to the 1960s, and those works associated with the modern/contemporary era (i.e., the 1960s to the present day).

The proscenium arch theatre was designed, planned, and developed as a temporary structure in the Italian court in 1585, before being built permanently in Parma, Italy, as the Farnese Theatre in 1618. The primary consideration of the structure was to utilise the sound vibrations manifested by the human body and instruments within an acoustic space to ensure that it prompted as close to an immediate physical effect with each audience member as possible. This architectural structure represents the essence of the philosophy developed by the Camerata, and the primary purpose of theatre as a medium (Bradshaw, 1991, p. 238-253).

Proscenium arch theatres exist in all corners of the globe and share some fundamental architectural elements. These elements are inherent to the listener envelopment theory — that is, allowing the audience to share an identical experience through the acoustic excitation of the entire space in which it is seated.

One aspect incorporated into each theatre, from the original design and build, is the distance of 8.5 feet from the front of the stage to the front row. This calculation took into account that it would take approximately 8 feet for the sound frequencies to collectively come together from the source (performer and orchestra in the pit) in order to form a complete tone (Clarke, 2014).

Other compositional techniques developed between the 1580s and the late 1590s include the toccata and strophic aria. These developed alongside what would become known as the Bel Canto vocal technique.

The Bel Canto technique was used to perform the works of the Camerata, which contributed to the emergence of the Baroque period. Chamber music brought these new compositional pieces to the homes of the community, while opera brought it to wider public audiences. It soon became one of the primary entertainment forms in the 1600s.

The effectiveness of this collaboration is evident in an experiment titled ‘The Science of Opera’, which was recently conducted by Stephen Fry and Alan Davies in conjunction with Professor Michael Trimble from the University of London in 2013. In this experiment, Fry, Davies, and Trimble sought to investigate the mental, emotional, and physical response(s) to being in a space while listening to an opera (un-amplified). The opera performed by The Royal Opera was Simon Boccanegra by Giuseppe Verdi.

The most noticeable result of this experiment was the similarity between Fry’s and Davies’ heartrate throughout the performance. Their heartrate readings mapped out almost identically. Their involuntary physical responses were clear and mirrored the various highs and lows of the dynamics of the music and voices performed. This experiment is thus a prime example of the participatory element of theatre and the immediate and universal effect (Gunning, 2014).

Orchestra — derived from the Greek word ὀρχήστρα — was originally a gathering place in which a Greek chorus would sing and dance while music from a number of different instruments was played. Instruments were initially used in small concerts for the upper classes in the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, and Medieval Courts. However, it was not until the Camerata that a more organised and formal collaboration and compositional structure was formed.

Monteverdi, for example, was one of the first composers to write music specifically for each instrument. It was out of this early-Renaissance Florentine ‘thinktank’ that the main components of the orchestra coalesced. These components included the harp, percussion, french horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, double bass, clarinets, bassoons, flutes, oboes, violas, celli, first violins, and second violins (Carlton, 2000, p. 67-78).

The Camerata also developed a strong understanding of what we now call the ‘fundamental frequency’, together with a recognition that a fundamental frequency was not the same thing as its tonal structure.

It was recognised that a fundamental frequency might have a different character or colour depending on the vertical organisation of its harmonic structure. In the same way that it is possible to recognise the difference when a flute plays middle C and when an oboe plays the same pitch, one recognises at a primary human level the difference between a sad tone and a happy tone. The Camerata could then work with the writers and composers to develop layered musical works (Palisca, 1989. P.45).

This newly-developed practice would allow the composer and orchestrator to draw on each instrument and select a tone from that instrument to sculpt an intention, a phrase, a scene, and a story arc with absolute specificity. This musical structure and deeper understanding of musical form not only gave substance to the narrative of a piece and the complete composition’s musical arc, but also allowed the performer to draw performative insights from the score itself. This profound development allowed the audience to literally participate in each moment of the performance (Palisca, 1989, p.3-7). This compositional technique would last through the next 360 years before its eventual decline in the 1950s and 60s.

The behaviour of sound within an acoustic space, the effect of an engaged performer, and the appropriate use and selection of instruments when composing and orchestrating a piece of work to underscore emotional states, were all paramount in storytelling. The birth of the Code was consistent with the introduction, and development of the musical technique, Bel Canto.

THE STORM

Mid-20th Century

“In the late 1950s and into the 1960s, a proverbial Perfect Storm would reach its most climactic and potent state. Several elements began to evolve that would see the most significant shift in theatre and performance since the late 1500s and the round table discussions, development, and insights of the Florentine Camerata.”

This significant shift in theatre and performance would originate from unrelated developments in technology (through the introduction of amplification); composition/orchestration changes and reinterpretations; voice use through a basic change in vocal technique; and a shift in musical theatre casting (through production decisions considering the celebrity of the emerging recording artist). The cumulative effect of these changes has engendered a shift away from the traditional Code.

This shift has had a far-reaching effect, initially within musical theatre and now more broadly through theatre globally. I would suggest that this effect has seen the theatrical experience of the audience change from being a participatory experience to one of observation — a marked change from what has constituted the purpose of theatre for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

A Shift in Vocal Pedagogy

In the mid-20th century, a vocal technique — an aspect of which was known colloquially as the Belt — began to replace the widely-used Bel Canto and European-style vocal practice. This transition gathered momentum in the late 1950s. By the end of the 1960s, a substantial number of institutions, including the Julliard School in New York City, were also changing their vocal practice. The Jo Estill methodology (Josephine Antoinette Estill was an American singer, singing voice specialist and voice researcher. Estill is best known for her research and the development of Estill Voice Training, a programme for developing vocal skills based on deconstructing the process of vocal production into control of specific structures in the vocal mechanism) then came to the forefront of this new movement; at its core was the identification and use of sound figures such as the whisper, belt, opera, sob, and so on.

Apart from performance practice, the main difference between Bel Canto singing and the dominant modern-day methodology lies in the physical state and production of sound. Today, singers use the chest cavity as their main vocal ‘amplifier’, and control through their breath each pitch through one physical state or figure. Bel Canto singers also use the upper head cavities (nasopharyngeal) as vocal resonators via the engagement of a complete physical state — which varies with each physical intention. As a result, Bel Canto singers are able to use the theatrical space as an extension of their instrument to create a resounding effect and an acoustically immersive experience for the audience.

Furthermore, they do so without the need for microphones. Well-trained Bel Canto singers are perceived, even with a 42-piece orchestra, as ‘dominant’. The resulting effect for the audience is an involuntary response. This response, experienced in the same way by each audience member, is created by the presence of appropriate frequencies which are associated at a primary level with emotional states by the performers through their instrument use — the vertical sounding of any given pitch.

As the now-dominant technique requires the performer to produce a tone through a particular vocal posture, the performers’ physical state also becomes fixed. The intention of the performer becomes to maintain a singular physical vocal state — the result of which is that the performer does not have the capacity or flexibility to respond to the constant change of intentions within the score. As a result, the performer is not able to communicate the story in any great detail.

The dominant technique of today is based around the ‘bag pipe principle’ (Clarke, 2014). Here, the sound waves, without a rich harmonic system, travel in a downwards arc and may not even pass the end of the downstage lip, no matter how high the decibel level of the sound. Amplification is required for the audience to hear the sound; then, it is typically presented as a two-dimensional experience coming from a speaker box — as opposed to from a three-dimensional human. While this may be acceptable for a two-dimensional movie, two-dimensional sound for live theatre is inherently problematic as it entails an experiential disconnect happening in real time.

Introduction of Microphones

As the contemporary vocal method began to develop a following, technology was also advancing. As early as 1910, microphones were used in telephones, public address systems, radio broadcasting, and sound recording for music and film.

From the 1930s, television was experiencing unprecedented growth. By the time the Golden Age in musical theatre began in the 1940s, musical theatre producers were looking for new ways to entice audiences. With the popularity and reach of television and the radio, producers began casting television stars on stage in leading roles. The challenge the producers encountered was that many television stars did not have the vocal technique to fill the auditorium; in 1961, for example, in the musical Carnival, Anna Maria Alberghetti used the first wireless microphone. The theatre critics, Brooks Atkinson and Richard Watts, publicly took Earl Carrol to task in 1940 for the use of floor microphones in DuBarry Was a Lady. The latter were introduced to counter the use of the dense brass orchestrations (Grant, 2004, p. 193-194).

In 1981, the musical Cats became the first show to use individual microphones for each cast member. Radio microphones are now standard practice across musical theatre and many opera houses globally.

The difficulty with using microphones in a space that was designed and built for an acoustic experience is that the output of a microphone is two-dimensional and therefore creates a two-dimensional dynamic within a three-dimensional medium. The speaker position on the left and right side of the stage respectively means that the sound directly reaches each audience member from specific positions, and not from the stage. The sound does not appear to come from what the audience perceives to be the mouth of the performer.

The effect produced is much like sitting opposite someone at a dinner table, with their words coming from two speakers on stands several feet to either side of them, while observing their mouth move. As humans, we cannot fully engage with this experience. Therefore, technological amplification does not serve the purpose of theatre as a direct form of communication and interaction between humans. Nonetheless, as the new technique became more widely practiced, a marriage between microphones and the new vocal technique strengthened. Both were reliant on each other and would cement their place in theatre from the 1980s up until today.

The Introduction of Film and its Impact on ‘Legitimate Theatre’

The introduction and growth of the film industry through the development of a two-dimensional storytelling form using celluloid in the early 20th century proved to be challenging on many fronts for those working in so-called ‘legitimate theatre’.(‘Legitimate theatre’ engages a paying audience sitting inside a theatre with the expectation that they will watch the performance of a play or musical. These production employ conventions normally associated with traditional theatre).

Film became a highly accessible cultural medium, breaking from the traditional modelling of theatre companies, touring companies, and the repertory theatre structure. The visual nature of film provided an exciting alternative. It quickly became popular, mainly riding on the back of a surge in the burgeoning Hollywood industry. A film’s ability to reach more of the community through the housing of multiple screens and the lower cost to show in a theatre was enticing to both producers and audiences alike.

Marketing, new financing, and celebrity comprised an active component of the Hollywood business model, which soon began to challenge traditional theatre. New actors and technicians, a new performance technique for film, and a reluctance by those in traditional theatre to be involved in film in the early days (accompanied by the development of a strong theatre union), meant a new industry needed structure and development.

New actor training soon began to develop, and the Method acting approach, amongst others, was developed within the first three decades of the 20th century. The central point of training for a Method actor is commonly known as ‘being in the moment’ (Brody, 2014). At its base, it is a technique that asks the actor to present the actual reality and be truthful to it, without regard for the specific situation in which they may be acting. This approach represented a marked shift away from the traditional storytelling technique. It shifted the role of the actor from occupying a physically engaged state through intention within a scene, to establishing a direct relationship with the narrative and exercising their personal ‘experience’, which would then be filmed. As a result, the audience went from participating within a theatrical context to observing the actor’s experience.

Again, this potent change represented a marked shift away from the traditional Code to a more disconnected and less involved physical experience for the audience. As film and theatre industries further developed, bilateral relationships also developed, and each industry became increasingly regulated.

Heading into the Golden Age of musical theatre, the developed relationships between the two industries provided the opportunity for film actors to work within theatre and vice versa. Musical theatre producers were keen to draw film audiences to the theatre. They used the popularity of film stars — and later television personalities — to attempt to increase attendance in musical theatre (Santana, 2009, p. 1-10). These new developments led to the integration of new acting techniques in theatre, which also meant that vocally, performers could not resonate within the space.

As a specific consequence of their film/television-based training, these performers were thus not skilled at integrating appropriately-sized physical gestures. The development of technology meant that microphones were available to assist the performers in instances where vocal skill was lacking.

To this day, celebrity, and performers with substantial public exposure are seen as key to ticket sales to the public and the longevity of productions. I would challenge this business model by proposing that employing appropriate theatre- skill-based artists at the forefront of the decision-making process when mounting a production would dramatically change the success (and cost) of almost all current large-scale theatrical productions globally.

Unfortunately, the notion of an active physical and emotional participation while in the theatre is low on the list of priorities in the theatre business — and in most performance contexts today, is non-existent.

From Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to Stephen Sondheim.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were the biggest force on Broadway when Broadway was the biggest force in popular entertainment. The two were seen as the most influential musical theatre writing duo ever, producing plays, musicals, concerts, and revivals together. They presided over Broadway runs, London transfers, national tours, and major motion pictures (The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, 2019).

A significant shift away from the Code is very much apparent in the ‘changing of the guard’ era during the Golden Age of music theatre. The ‘changing of the guard’ that I here refer to is the shift from the era of Rodgers and Hammerstein II to that of Stephen Sondheim. This era began during the late 1950s.

Through his close professional relationship with Oscar Hammerstein II, Stephen Sondheim developed solid skills as a librettist. Under the watchful eye of Hammerstein II, Sondheim would dissect the structure of existing musicals and plays and restructure them while learning the importance of how to structure a ‘book musical’ and play. In 1946 Sondheim attended Williams College in Massachusetts (Brown, 2002) and enrolled in English as a major with a ‘gut course’(A ‘gut course’ is known as a university course that is very easy to pass. Collins English Dictionary. 2020. In the case of Sondheim’s study in music at Williams, the course didn’t have any specific requirements except regular meetings with the supervisor (Swayne, 2002, p.258). for his Music minor.

In his second year of study, Music became his major and he focused on musicology under the head of music at Williams, Professor Robert Barrow Prior to his position at Williams, Barrow was a music history and theory teacher as well as the second organist at the National Episcopal Cathedral in Washington D.C (De Brie, 2000). Barrow’s musical influence and education mainly favoured the Second Viennese School and employed the vocabulary of Paul Hindemith (Swayne, 2002, p. 258) (Lipton, 1997). Barrow and Sondheim would meet twice a week, with the former serving as Sondheim’s music supervisor for the latter’s honours degree. In the two semesters of his honours year, Barrow walked Sondheim through independent study including the history of music, through art classes – to explore how “art was a structured and conscious effort” said Sondheim (Foley, 2010), and theory relating to how, and why, music is an art.

Sondheim left Williams in 1950 with a Hubbard Hutchinson Fellowship, which he used to study elements of musicology including music theory with Milton Babbitt. “I would meet with him once a week for about four hours and we’d spend the first hour analysing his favourite songs. Then we’d spend the rest of the time analysing Beethoven and Mozart” said Sondheim (Lipton, 1997). Babbitt — also a mathematics lecturer like Stravinsky — was renowned for his shift away from the traditions of the European traditional music structure (Leyden, 2020).

Oscar Hammerstein II, having mentored Sondheim previously, suggested that Sondheim should follow a librettist pathway if the opportunity arose. After a chance meeting at a cocktail party, Sondheim met the stage director Arthur Laurents.

Laurents, who was working on a ‘book musical’ based on Romeo and Juliet, needed a lyricist to accompany the music of the composer Leonard Bernstein. Sondheim sought Hammerstein’s advice and he encouraged Sondheim to take the job. West Side Story was his first hit, allowing him to enter the upper echelons of the Broadway musical theatre scene. “Oscar advised me that the job would be an extraordinary opportunity to work with men of such ability, talent and imagination as Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins and Arthur Laurents...and he was right” said Sondheim (Lipton, 1997).

With access to funding, Sondheim was quickly becoming a go-to in the next chapter of musical theatre. Following the death of Oscar Hammerstein II in 1960 and the ongoing alcoholism of Richard Rodgers (and his subsequent professional inactivity), Broadway was searching for new leaders and a new visionary. Through West Side Story, and after providing the lyrics for Jule Styne’s Gypsy, an opportunity presented itself to Sondheim to establish himself as the leader of the Broadway theatre scene.

Sondheim's first shows following West Side Story and Gypsy were undoubtedly indicators of his skill in lyricism. They also presented his lack of compositional and orchestral craft. After a host of misfires in his next several projects (for which he had dedicated himself to writing the lyrics and music), Sondheim had to reframe his approach.

His subsequent works would include collaborations with orchestrators including Jonathan Tunick. Sondheim’s lyrical concerns found their equivalent in Tunick’s compositions, which had one foot in the Tin Pan Alley tradition and the other in a contemporary style of classical music. This combination had its critics.

For example, there is the famous anecdote of how Ethel Merman refused to let Sondheim write the music for Gypsy. Jule Styne, who did compose the music for Gypsy, once said of Sondheim, “if he is the hope of musical theatre, he has to write melody” (Freedman, 1984). Sondheim recalls that even his previous collaborator Leonard Bernstein said of the dissonant score that the former had written for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: “'You have a lot of wrong notes in there” (Freedman, 1984).

As part of his professional reinvention, Sondheim would go on to develop relationships with orchestrators who would support — and often correct — the melodic lines that he scripted. They would, in effect, re-score his work in a more appropriate manner and from a skill base derived from European compositional techniques. Just as Robert Russell Bennett orchestrated many of the compositional works of Richard Rodgers, Jonathan Tunick undertook the same responsibilities for Stephen Sondheim. Tunick would take a melodic line constructed by Sondheim, and through his orchestrations attempt to give it substance, meaning, and depth in the context of the show.

There is no doubt that Sondheim possessed skills in lyricism. He was taught by one of the greatest lyricists in Oscar Hammerstein II, and he successfully drew on traditional storytelling concepts to present modern works. His inspiration is evident in the sources for his adaptations, namely Plautus (Forum), Aristophanes (The Frogs), a Bergman film (Night Music), Grand Guignol (Sweeney Todd), Kabuki (Pacific Overtures) and Seurat’s pointillist art (Sunday in the Park with George).

However, at no time did Sondheim receive any formal training as a composer in the European tradition. At no time did his professional music collaborators seek to teach him, and in fact, it is clear today that Sondheim’s music education – whilst mostly geared towards musicology - was a departure from the traditional in his inclinations towards an avant-garde and contemporary sensibility.

When Tunick was asked whether he thought Sondheim’s show Company was a landmark shift, he responded by saying, “that's what they say. I'm reminded of something Barbara Cook said at one of her concerts, “I didn't know I was in the middle of a Golden Era! I was just looking for work!” That's really the way it was. On Company, I was very aware that this music was very unique and original, maybe even fresh. However, it was an unusually demanding task to orchestrate because there was so little of it that had a predetermined, generic style, aside from a few pastiche numbers. Every number in that show had to have a style created for it. I think it was one of the most difficult tasks I've had to do. (Kanfer, 2004)

Similarly, Stefan Kanfer recalls, “from the inception of the music at the melodic development stage through to delivery, he struggles” (Kanfer, 2004). Meanwhile, Elaine Stritch — one of Sondheim’s favourite performers — stated, “he really lets you have it. He's terrible when you're not with it, but when you get it right, he is so overjoyed by the material being interpreted the way he saw it that he makes you feel like a million bucks (Kanfer, 2004). And more than once, Tunick saw the composer literally willing his material to thrive, “standing at the back of the house during a run-through or a tech rehearsal, his face bathed in tears” (Kanfer, 2004).

Early musicals had their traditional melodic lines composed based on the colours and intentions of the characters, the scene relevance, and the arc for each half or full story of the book or play. There are three basic styles of orchestration in the Broadway Musical. The first comes from old vaudeville and military bands; it is what orchestrators would call the ‘Broadway sound’ and is perhaps best typified by Hello Dolly! The second — the ‘Academic school’ — is based mainly on classical operetta. Candide, written by Voltaire, would be a case in point. The third is the ‘interpretive style’, where the arranger draws from many sources to interpret the lyrics in a dramatic sense. Robert Russell Bennett’s orchestration of Lonely Room in Oklahoma! is an excellent example of an orchestration that helps set the mood and character — much as a piece of theatre design like sets and lighting supports the work’s narrative and musical intention (Winer, 1990).

In the case of Sondheim, Tunick’s comments that the former’s melodic lines were “original, maybe even fresh” might be read as an immediate sign of Sondheim’s shift away from the Code. Tunick and others — including Robert Ginzler (Gypsy) and Don Walker (Anyone Can Whistle) — both formally and informally classically trained in the European craft, worked with Sondheim, attempting to underpin his work with traditionally-structured musical orchestrations.

However, working under Sondheim meant there were limitations as to how far they could go. Tunick’s polite and diplomatic response above indicates the potential challenges involved when merging the traditional European craft with Sondheim’s desire to explore a new compositional form.

Sondheim’s determination to bring his musical work to life resulted in complicated working relationships. He said that Walker’s work on Carousel was “probably the best orchestration I ever heard in my life”; (Suskin, 2009, p. 324) however, when working with Walker on Anyone Can Whistle, he was disappointed to find that Walker treated him with contempt, ignored his suggestions, and apparently “resented working for any young composer” (Suskin, 2009, p. 324).

Sondheim’s mentoring and musical influences can be seen today in many of his contemporaries, including the late Jonathan Larson (Rent), Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party), and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton). The compositional and orchestral shift that he spearheaded represented the largest and most populist (contextual) shift away from the Code in almost 400 years. This shift arguably set the agenda for a cultural movement to redefine how theatre takes place in the modern-day.

‘My Fair Lady’ Debut and the Modern-day ‘Mega Musical’.

If one were to buy a ticket to see Ethel Merman in Gypsy at the Imperial Theater on Broadway in 1957, the cost would be $2.50 for a seat in the orchestra. (Haas, 2009) For a ticket to the most recent show at the Imperial Theatre in February 2020, a ticket would cost upwards of $190 for the equivalent seat. To give these figures some context, when adjusted to inflation and the Consumer Price Index (As per the inflation table at usinflationcalculator.com) the recent equivalent of $2.50 would be close to $55. The $190 ticket today thus represents a price increase of almost 4 times the amount for a ticket compared to its equivalent in 1957.

An effect of this price increase is that Broadway, and many other theatre houses around the world, have become too expensive for the greater public. This significant price increase is a substantial departure from theatre’s purpose as a space in which communities can gather and engage in compelling and effective storytelling, regardless of their economic position.

In 1974, the cost of putting on a musical was one-tenth of what it cost in 2000; in 2016, the average cost was close to 30 times greater than in 1974 (Maslon, 2016). Again, to put that into context, the CPI index states that the value of $1.00 in 1974 has risen to $7.94 in 2016. That places capitalisation and running costs close to 30 times more expensive over the 42 years, as opposed to the buying power of the dollar — which sits at just under eight times more expensive.

On its Broadway debut in 1960, My Fair Lady — orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett — took just under 23 weeks to break even. By contrast, the ‘Mega’ musicals of the last ten years will lose money for over 208 weeks (at full capacity) before a break-even is forecast. The investment in today’s musicals have skyrocketed, and, at least from a business perspective, there is a high risk of no return.

An article in the New York Times in 2013 focused on a public survey released by the National Endowment for the Arts on the public’s attendance of musicals. It found audience rates had dropped 9% between 2008 and 2012 (Cohen, 2013). In 2017, that figure had dropped a further 8.5%. Between 2002 (when figures began being recorded by the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States) and 2017, that figure dropped 15.1%. If we were to take that trend back a further 15 years, based on the figures from the National Endowment for the Arts, we are coming close to a drop of approximately 30% over 30 years (Cohen, 2013).

Randy Cohen, vice-president of Research and Policy for the Arts in the United States said that people “are not walking away from the arts so much, but walking away from the traditional delivery mechanisms. A lot of what we are seeing is people engaging in the arts differently” (Cohen, 2013). Randy Cohen’s position — that theatre is losing ground to other mediums — is widely held. In part, this may well be for the reasons that many are articulating. Many of the ‘newer’ mechanisms are not experienced by people in a pure three- dimensional form; these include internet viewing through handheld devices, ‘2d’ in film, and amplified indoor and outdoor concerts. Audiences are no longer engaging with the three-dimensional experience that theatre was developed and intended for.

One is comparing apples and oranges in this comparison. Subsequent attempts to remedy the problem, such as Broadway producers’ use of spectacle, for example, is theatrically inappropriate and ineffective. As evidenced by the length it takes for a modern ‘Mega’ musical to break even, the industry is and will experience a further short-and long-term decline.

The statistics show quite clearly that fewer people are attending the theatre, and costs are rising as producers try to introduce a myriad of techniques — including heavily detailed sets, digital film, and effects — to compete with other two- dimensional mediums. Audiences are not responding in the way that they traditionally have. Unfortunately, figures are not available for attendances of My Fair Lady in 1960. However, if we collate the facts that we do have available, we gain greater insight into the stark difference between the ‘then’ and the ‘now’. Capitalisation costs for My Fair Lady at the Mark Hellinger Theater in 1960 were $360,000 (Taubman, 1964 p. 455). In 26 weeks ($13,846 per week in revenue), the show broke even. The production ran for 338 weeks in total.

If we take the weekly revenue figure of $13,846 and multiply that out over 338 weeks, we get $4,679,948. The average ticket price for the run was close to $2 per seat. The Mark Hellinger Theatre originally had 1,600 seats (it now has 1510). My Fair Lady had 8 performances per week for its entire run. With these figures in mind, the production ran at approximately 52% capacity (taking into account different ticket prices for a range of seats within the theatre) to break even and was drawing in profit within six months.

Compare those figures to a current day ‘Mega’ musical such as Spider Man, with its $75 million capitalisation costs, over $1 million weekly running costs, and $1.25 million gross weekly income at theatre capacity (Healey, 2013); these prices mean that the show would need to run at 100% capacity for 312 weeks to simply pay back the capitalisation costs.

The difference in the two examples is as pronounced as it is widespread. Furthermore, we know that audience numbers to musical theatres have been declining since 2002 — and possibly far longer than that, at a rate of 15% every 15 years.

Audience Expectation in a Modern World.

Towards the latter part of the 20th century, various new elements (as articulated earlier in the section ‘A Modern 20th century’) began to cement themselves within theatres across the globe. Audience perceptions and expectations began to change. The development of television, film, and radio meant that audiences were experiencing a new form of music and performance delivery. Recorded music within a studio was becoming more and more accessible, and soundtracks within film and television were also increasingly accessible.

The public’s expectation came to be increasingly geared towards hearing on stage what they were becoming used to in their lounge through the television and radio. Theatre audiences were also becoming increasingly content and familiar with the ‘recording studio’ sound. Given the inherently two-dimensional nature of those mediums, the ability of the theatre to mimic this new human experience was not only misguided, but simply impossible.

As a three-dimensional engagement, the stage experience from the position of the Code is different from the film, radio, and television experience, which all exist as two-dimensional mechanisms. They are simply not comparable. Although legitimate in their own right, they are fundamentally different in their construction and delivery.

We now have an industry that is partly driven by the ‘studio artist’. Many performing artists now make a living from recording music within a studio and can live from the sales of those recordings. What we continue to wrestle with is that it is a medium that is not a true reflection of human interaction. It is a two- dimensional form that can be highly manipulated and structured.

The ‘live’ studio approach has had a pronounced effect on shaping public expectations and experiences — and, more broadly, social and cultural development. It has shifted the public’s attention away from a participatory approach to an observational approach, and the former is key in allowing our communities to learn (through experience) something of what it means to engage with each other.

It is now normal behaviour for an audience to applaud a performer for reaching the high note of a song, a behaviour reinforced by television singing contests. The audience is observing that the performer successfully hit the pitch — effectively grading their performance through critical observation.

Theatre need not simply exist with the sole function of entertaining; it may serve to provide an avenue through which the ‘every-day man and woman’ can engage with what it means to experience something of the human condition. At its essence, it is a service industry rather than an entertainment industry (Clarke, 2014).

Two examples of contemporary classically-trained singers who predominantly work as ‘recording artists’ (rather than consistently working in a performance context within a lyric theatre) are Cecelia Bartoli and Amaury Vasilli. Both are renowned performers in the public mind; however, the majority of their work is done as a recording artist. This further reinforces the modelling that performance artistry is a form that can be, and is, delivered in a two-dimensional context. Bartoli and Vasilli’s professional commitment is a reflection of how the industry functions, and what the public now demands from theatre performances on and off the stage.

The post-Rodgers and Hammerstein II era — from Stephen Sondheim onwards — now represents a different approach to musical composition and orchestration. Through a shift in the framework of orchestration and a move away from the elements of melodic structure to identify a human or character intention within a performance, an audience may not have the opportunity to experience an involuntary human, emotional, and physical response due to the contemporary use of compositional structure.

Discussions, such as the following one in the New York Times, are beginning to take place, and are representative of a broader series of questions concerning this fundamental theatrical shift: American vocal training has long been bruited as the best in the world and is supposed to be better than ever. Yet there has been no commensurate rise in great new talents. (Midgette, 2005)

Other discussions are often concerned with the relevance of theatre and how a modern audience relates to it. This discursive shift has witnessed the development of a strong movement that wishes to see a professional redefinition of the medium: the profession needs to be re-defined, and modern storytelling is relevant in modern society. We have the infrastructure in our theatres, churches, and acoustically-appropriate spaces such as the Guggenheim Museum, the Lincoln Centre, and the Barbican, to reinvent storytelling for a modern audience. Contemporary story-telling in theatre can adhere to a series of tried and tested skills and practices, i.e., the philosophies of European traditional vocal and musical crafts.

From a vocal perspective, the gradual departure from the European tradition, led by Jo Estill, is a movement that is now dominant, and has ensured that the understanding of the voice has shifted from one of an expression of primal human reflexes to being cerebral and mechanical in nature. As a result of a vocal philosophy shift in the late 1950s, the theatre industry has had to employ various techniques to ensure that the performers are heard within each space. Amplification, speakers, and sound engineers within the theatre are now commonplace.

The role of the audience shifts from one of participating in a wholly three- dimensional human experience, to observing a mixture of two and three dimensions. Architectural amendments are now being made to some of the world’s most iconic spaces to accommodate these adjustments, and have been employed to dampen the natural acoustics. Ironic, given that these spaces were first designed for the unaided human acoustics.

When questioning a senior director of one of the leading Broadway organisations recently on whether he thought sound amplification was necessary, he said, “well, what choice do we have? Audiences pay big dollars to buy a ticket these days, and when sitting in the back row of an auditorium of one of our theatres, they have to be able to hear! No one can sing without them anymore”. “Does this push up the production costs?” I asked, to which he responded, “Of course it does! That and paying the celebrities to put bums on seats — it is a whole different ball game that, in my opinion, simply can’t last.”

The modern-day theatre industry has found legitimacy through new business modelling, performance delivery, and artistic philosophies. Many commercial theatre organisations also adhere to a new corporate structure. As a result, we have seen the values of theatre shift from those of a primarily artistic nature to those that prioritise current market and corporate trends, including modern corporate modelling.

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