Any Music Majors?
Any Music Majors?
millie_dillmount
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/22/04
#0Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 1:25am
What does the "K" stand for? Example:
Horn Concerto in E Flat Major K. 495
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611
millie_dillmount
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/22/04
#1re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 1:28amNever mind...I found out. Thanks!
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611
#2re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 9:35am
Then I don't suppose you've gotten to BWV yet 
Suzanne: I never use catalogs. I'd rather go in the store and see all the salespeople groveling and sucking up to you.
Julia: Pardon me, I never knew they were so solicitous at the K-Mart.
#3re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 9:42am
See, Millie, this is when you should do a service to everyone who opened your thread, not knowing the answer themselves, and post it! 
Jaily could have done the same but I know he's just the kind of mean gay who would bring up BWV and then wait to see if it annoys people (by the way, I do know what they mean).
#4re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 9:51am
Darlingissima, I am QUITE sure that people on a MUSICAL THEATRE board do not give two shakes of a rat's hairy hind end about Kochel numbers or the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, deary.
I mean, have you BEEN to an audition?
"Ok, young lady. You're up...tell the accompanist what key you're most comfortable singing your song in."
"Um...er...high?"
Suzanne: I never use catalogs. I'd rather go in the store and see all the salespeople groveling and sucking up to you.
Julia: Pardon me, I never knew they were so solicitous at the K-Mart.
#5re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 9:58am
Wait, wait. Jaily, are you suggesting that, at auditions for musicals, they'll actually TRANSPOSE for you?
I caught crap from a particular a-hole of an accompanist for daring to bring in a Bernstein piece that had three treble clefs and one bass clef (the top treble was the vocal line, of course, and the piano part had two trebles and a bass). He wouldn't even let me tell him to just play the bottom clef before he diva'd out like a tired drag version of Betty Buckley.
So, like a good actor who learns that he can't dare to be good, just a drone, I cut out the top line of the piece so as not to confuse those poor, tired accompanists.
#6re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:12am
Then he was a horrible excuse for an accompanist, and should be shot. All of the accompanists that I know (and I have several friends who are) are consummate musicians, and would have no trouble transposing on sight into any key you're comfy with.
Of course, most singers (not ALL, I know, I know) don't know a key from a coconut. They just hear it, then they sing it. Tell them they're singing in C minor and then to take it up a third, and most of them have petit-mal seizures and a mild stroke.
Suzanne: I never use catalogs. I'd rather go in the store and see all the salespeople groveling and sucking up to you.
Julia: Pardon me, I never knew they were so solicitous at the K-Mart.
#7re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:19am
hehe. My nickname in grad school was "up a third."
Thing is, I'd never ask an accompanist in an audition to play a song I handed them in a different key. I'll have someone transcribe the song and put it in my preferred key.
Now, if a casting director asks me to sing it in a different key, then I'd expect they will know the accompanist and his/her ability to transpose.
True story: I once tried to sing "I Met a Girl" and the accompanist couldn't play the simple oom-pah-pah accompaniment.
And this was for a national tour.
Then, I auditioned for a Jesus Christ Superstar production and the guy couldn't play a song from Chess. Granted, he was clearly stoned and the director and casting director knew it, but it really doesn't change the fact that you sound like poo on a stick when accompaniment shifts keys and tempos at whim.
To keep on topic: I wasn't a music major but I did play instruments from 4th grade through undergrad. It comes in quite handy as a singer, especially a musical theatre one.
#8re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:32am*sighs and slinks off to a corner with Do_Re_Milla*
Suzanne: I never use catalogs. I'd rather go in the store and see all the salespeople groveling and sucking up to you.
Julia: Pardon me, I never knew they were so solicitous at the K-Mart.
#9re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:38am
F you Jaily.
F. You.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#10re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:39am
Whoa!!!
Ok, ok, you DO know a key change from a coconut! Jesus!!
Suzanne: I never use catalogs. I'd rather go in the store and see all the salespeople groveling and sucking up to you.
Julia: Pardon me, I never knew they were so solicitous at the K-Mart.
#11re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:40amDamn right you do.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#12re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:44amHoney, did you take your special pill today? :)
Suzanne: I never use catalogs. I'd rather go in the store and see all the salespeople groveling and sucking up to you.
Julia: Pardon me, I never knew they were so solicitous at the K-Mart.
#13re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:45am:P
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#14re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:46amI started out as a music major......they used to make us sing phone numbers.......I hated that
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story...
AGATHA CHRISTIE, Life magazine, May 14, 1956
#15re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:47amIn all seriousness, how stupid do you have to be to bring in a piece of music to an audition and expect the pianist to compose on sight??? Whether MAYBE they can or not - that's taking a big-ass risk.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#16re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:48am
I'd never expect an accompanist to COMPOSE on sight, dearie.
"ok, I want a peppy, upbeat number a la Styne. Key of E. Go."
#17re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:49am
Oh good Lord. Sorry! I do need to take a pill, don't I?
I meant, of course, TRANSpose.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#18re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:50am
We know how you feel about trans, honey. We read the fat ban thread.
#19re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:50am
Ok, honey, they're not *composing* on sight...the composition has already been done.
However, it's perfectly fine to ask a pianist to TRANSPOSE a piece. Not everyone is comfortable in every key, and the point of an audition is to show you at your BEST. It can be difficult to find an arrangement in the key you sing best in, so you bring whatever music you have, and ANY pianist worth his salt should be able to read it in ANY key.
It makes me ILL to think that there are "musicians" out there who are being PAID to play, and still don't have a grasp of the basic rudiments of music. It REALLY burns my dress, dammit!
(Dammit, you bitches beat me!!!)
Suzanne: I never use catalogs. I'd rather go in the store and see all the salespeople groveling and sucking up to you.
Julia: Pardon me, I never knew they were so solicitous at the K-Mart.
Updated On: 10/4/06 at 10:50 AM
#20re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:51am
Jaily, is that what's burning your dress or is it your gay gayness?
#21re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:54amI looked at it too long when I was trying to decide what to wear today.
Suzanne: I never use catalogs. I'd rather go in the store and see all the salespeople groveling and sucking up to you.
Julia: Pardon me, I never knew they were so solicitous at the K-Mart.
#22re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:54amYes, Jaily, they should be able to transpose on sight. But it's ridiculous for them to be expected to. That's part of the singer's job - to find the key they need for the song and then get the correct charts/sheets. These days, that's easier than ever, there is NO excuse.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
#23re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 10:58am
I suppose I just need to have more faith in singers these days, then
(I must confess to having that classical-musician-thing when it comes to singers...when I was in school, we always used to make fun of the vocalists... "But, darling, you know this is a MUSIC school, right? For MUSICIANS?" And it really can be an absolute horror to work with a singer, because a lot of them, for some reason, don't view their voices as an instrument, and don't feel the need to learn theory and the fundamentals of musicianship; I realize that the training that young singers get today focuses on fixing this stereotype, but I guess some habits just die hard!)
Suzanne: I never use catalogs. I'd rather go in the store and see all the salespeople groveling and sucking up to you.
Julia: Pardon me, I never knew they were so solicitous at the K-Mart.
#24re: Any Music Majors?
Posted: 10/4/06 at 11:00amI remember referring to myself a musician in a discussion with the next-door neighbor when I was a kid, and she was an adult, and she said, "You're not a musician - you don't play an instrument!" So it's not JUST singers who have that mindset - and look where they get it anyway.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
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