At 6:40 AM -0400 4/3/08, dhbailey wrote:
I personally think any of Coltrane's originals can stand up to reinterpretation (just as most pieces of music can) and if they don't match the original, that's fine. They can't because the original depends on the tone and personality of the original artist. That doesn't mean that the reinterpretation fails for people who haven't heard the original.
It occurs to me, David (and Darcy), that it might be easier to understand this if we can step outside the realms of either pop or jazz and look at it through the lens of a different, if allied art, namely, theater.
Think about Robert Preston, the original "Music Man," or Julie Andrews as the original Maria in "The Sound of Music," or Yul Bryner as the original King in "The King & I," or Ethel Merman as the singer who created the original roles of any number of distinctive characters, up to and including "Call Me Madam." Or Michael Crawford, the original "Phantom of the Opera."
Every one of those actors created a role that was imbued with their own personalities. They BECAME those characters! Their names will be forever associated with those characters. And while the movie versions tend to shrink those roles just because of the expansiveness of the medium, in the original stage productions the personalities of those actors filled the stage to overflowing.
So does that mean nobody else should ever attempt those roles? That if they do attempt them, they should slavishly imitate the original (and inevitably fail in the attempt)? That those money-making properties should be retired out of respect for those who created the roles?
Just asking the questions shows how silly they are. Every day of every year there are younger actors who are able to reconceive and recreate those characters, whether in revivals, in touring companies, in professional theater, or in community theater. And the mark of a good actor is the ability to find a NEW way to bring a particular character to life. That's what good actors DO!!! And they NEVER think of it as "covering" the original.
The summer we did "Annie!" we double cast the role of Annie for safety. Each girl got an equal amount of stage time and an equal number of performances. And I told them flat out, "Don't imitate the Annies in the movies or in the stage versions, and don't imitate each other. Find how YOU can best become Annie, and then play it that way. They did terrific, and when one was rehearsing on stage the other was watching and taking notes. (We originally double cast the Sandies as well, but ended up using just one dog!)
Elvis' songs could all be reinterpreted and prove they have life beyond Elvis. John Howell's point is that none of them seem to have made that leap, that nobody seems interested in the songs themselves. Thus the songs themselves haven't much life, whereas Elvis's performances have great longevity.
Exactly my point, David. Thank you for putting it so clearly. John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
