Lynne Morgan Markel Nikolov on Musical Theater Songs

Morgan Lynne Markel Nikolov has written “Voice Leading in Golden Age Musical Theater Songs,” an excellent PhD dissertation from the Eastman School of Music, 2022. Her two topics are “common voice-leading strategies for ending on a high note and opening and closing in two different keys in Golden Age musical theater songs composed between 1943 and 1960.” After the opening chapter, which includes discussion of the repertoire and its contexts as well as the traditional literature review, chapter 2 looks at how upper-register closes can be analyzed in terms of “five [familiar] voice-leading transformations: initial ascent, octave coupling, ascending register transfer, reaching-over, and cover tones.” Chapter 3, then, takes up the question of “those songs whose concluding high notes could not be accounted for” by those means, the answer being “that these songs . . . feature a background ascending ^5-^6-^7-^8 [or ^6-^7-^8] line.” A particular strength of Markel-Nikolov’s study is the detailed and convincing way she demonstrates how “voice leading and lyrics work closely together to create dynamic trajectories towards important moments in the song form.”  (The quotations in this paragraph are from her concluding chapter, pp. 159-160.)

On pp. 210-211 is a table of songs “that end with a clear ^5-^6-^7-^8 closing gesture in the melody line”: 53 numbers from 22 musicals; and those with a ^6-^7-^8 background:  9 songs from 8 musicals.

Needless to say, I am delighted by this work, which was carried out with strong analytical and interpretative skills based on real sympathy with and knowledge of the repertoire. At present, I am preparing two more entries for the New Historical Survey: Music for the Stage, 1860s-1889 and Music for the Stage, 1890-1928. These might be thought of as documentary pre-histories, or “prequels,” to Markel-Nikolov’s more contemporary and engaging narrative.

Tin Pan Alley and Broadway, 1910s and 1920s (4), continued

Yesterday I wrote about two numbers in The Vagabond King (music by Rudolf Friml, 1925). As a postscript, here is a number from Friml's version of The Three Musketeers (1928). Another march, like the drinking song in The Vagabond King, this one is a vigorous affirmation of D'Artagnan's (and the Musketeers') loyalty to king and country.

Focus on ^5 is very strong, but in the musical example below note the equally strong internal rising figure in the accompaniment.

In the cadence, a remarkable wedge figure takes the bass down through the octave and the melody up. The melody is easily divided at the focal note (C5, circled), with fifth below and fourth above, so that an ascending line ^5-^6-^7-^nat7-^8 is readily heard.

The entr'acte between Acts I and II is this same composition, but the orchestral accompaniment only: see the opening below. Of course, the same rising line ends, as above.

As a postscript to the postscript, here is the ending of number 24, a duet for Constance and D'Artagnan that parallels the one between Katherine and Villon that I discussed in yesterday's post.
Note especially the optional ending (arrow) that keeps the rising line in its "obligatory register."

Tin Pan Alley and Broadway, 1910s and 1920s (4)

Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King was produced on Broadway in 1925. It remains the composer's best-known work. Wikipedia link to the musical: link. Because the music is still under copyright, I have reproduced only very brief excerpts with annotations.

The book for this musical is a heavily fictionalized and romanticized story about François Villon, taken from a popular novel and play, If I Were King (1901), by Justin McCarthy. In fact, about the only thing historical is the character of François Villon and his engagement in criminal activities. That he is presented as a swashbuckling type who would eventually put his skills to positive use fits a well-established stereotype in the nineteenth and early twentieth century stage and film repertoires (think Zorro, Captain Blood, Robin Hood [as played by Errol Flynn], and many others).

Briefly and very roughly, Louis XI condemns Villon to death; the latter raises the Paris rabble to defeat the besieging Burgundians; Villon is condemned anyway; Katherine de Vaucey offers to die instead; the King pardons -- and exiles -- them both. (The Wikipedia article has a good synopsis.)

Number 4 is a comic drinking song -- or one might say, a drinking march: note the "Marziale" annotation for the refrain, whose opening melody is shown here:

The second half of the refrain is a steady ascending approach to the cadence. The first motive offers a "flagon" (below) then expanding repetitions of the motive move upward -- the steps taken are shown at the right in the first system -- until we reach Ab5 and A5 (second system) and "an ocean of wine."

"Tomorrow" (n12) is a romantic duet for Katherine and Villon. Villon sings the verse and refrain, then Katherine sings the verse (to new words), and finally he repeats the refrain while she adds a descant part -- see the opening of this last below. Note the persistently rising figure in the descant, while the main melody hovers about ^3 (as C5).

In the cadence, a complicated set of figures emerges out of this pairing. In the main melody, C5 -- see circled note almost at the end of Villon's part -- substitutes for ^2 in an abstract third-line we would trace back to the focal note C5 at the beginning. When ^3 substitutes for ^2 over the dominant seventh chord, the V13 effect is created -- one can trace its use back at least to 1840. At the same time, the melody moves much more concretely up from ^5 -- see boxed notes in Villon's part. The double arrows show the complications: Katherine picks up ^5 an octave higher (Eb5) and doubles the chromatic progression and the tonic-note ending (boxed notes), but she uses the common substitution of ^5 for ^7 in the rising line. The progression, however, is literally given in the accompaniment, as Eb4-E4-F4-G4-Ab4 (see the sequence of arrows in the accompaniment).