Why Bother?-Annoying Sheet Music Things

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 10:05pm

-Green Finch and Linnet Bird in the Sweeney Todd vocal selection. THEY TRANSPOSED IT FROM THE KEY OF F TO THE KEY OF Db! First, that makes it harder. Second, that takes it out of the Soprano range. Why they did that, I will never know, but I had to go looking for the song in the key of F only to be told I should wait another year or two for my voice to mature a little more before singing this.
-Page long introductions. Can you go into an audition and ask the accompanist to play a page-long introduction and still look like a kind person? Why not just write in a simple 8-16 bar intro that actually makes sense? And then there's "Simple Joys of Maidenhood"-one page of introduction, 2 pages of vocal introduction where you hardly do anything, and one page of accompanying to speaking, sorta like a monologue. The real song doesn't actually start until the fourth page of the song. Ugh.

Sorry, just needed to vent with my recent sheet music experiences.

[Pinguin]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 10:51pm

HAHA, many people have complained about the Green Finch problem, it's a biggie.

When it comes to intros, I mean, the intros written in the sheet music are the ones in the show where there's things happening (or not, if its badly done, HA), but for an audition, you can just tell the accompaniest to start a bar or two before the vocals come in, or have them play one or two bars before the part of the song you want to sing, as you may want to do with Simple Joys -that's completely valid.

[M J R]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 11:44pm

"simple 8-16 bar intro"

Do you do alot of auditioning? Your ENTIRE selection isn't more than 16 bars most of the time...

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 11/28/05 at 12:45am

Please, MJR, I've had 4-bar auditions before. No joke. Here in the city. And I've gotten cast.

MFL, follow the advice given and suggest a starting point (pencil markings are good, mark up your music! In fact, I often cut and paste cuts and make my own truncated piece of sheet music, cutting out the bars that are unnecessary). In fact, be bold and just go for a bell tone intro whenever possible.

[Calvin]

Posted: 11/28/05 at 12:54am

And as someone who has been an audition accompanist a few times, let me say: The easier you make it for us, the harder we'll try to make you look good.

[touchmeinthemorning]

Posted: 11/28/05 at 10:35am

Exactly, Calvin. I knew I loved you for some reason.

Everyone should completely do away with the possibility of mistakes -- don't mark up the music -- re-photocopy it with everything already printed there. It makes it SO MUCH EASIER than having to remember "take the second ending", "spf here", and "don't play the melody with me on these bars". Don't forget that pianists have been playing ALL DAY LONG -- it's a hard gig.

Feel free to cut all sorts of stuff down -- just also bring the whole song in case they ask for it -- as often happens.

[MatthewAddison]

Posted: 11/28/05 at 11:28am

Sheet music selections are crap for one reason and one reason only. So you don't try to put on "Insert Show Title Here" in your church fellowship hall. I am convinced publishing companies muck up, simplify, and change the key of music so you don't have 16 year olds ripping off their precious royalties.

However, if you want music from the show in the same version and key you can get a Piano Vocal Score and just choose the bars you want from that version. It costs more, but look at it as an investment.

Also the other crackheads on this thread are right about their various opinions.

[paradox_error]

Posted: 11/28/05 at 1:28pm

Sondheim's songs are quite notorious.

For example. I bought one book of sheet music for several songs, but mainly for a decent, easy to play version of NOT WHILE I'M AROUND. I have the Piano Vocal Score (that was expensive!), but it includes all dialogue, underscoring, Mrs Lovett's section etc. So I thought, "Hey, I'll buy a better copy - the easy to play version!"

It's down a fourth! Instead of hitting the lovely Ab, it's only an Eb! And, the "nothing's gonna harm you" starts at a low Bb, making it more of a song for a Baritone voice. It's not like I can't sing it, but the song just doesn't work that low...

The book also contains GREEN FINCH AND LINNET BIRD in the lower key.

The only kindness is that LOSING MY MIND, a song I love to sing, but is too low, is up a third, putting it in a fairly lovely place for my voice. Thank heavens for small mercies...

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/28/05 at 1:35pm

Agreed, Calvin.

One time this woman came in with "Think of Me" in German from the German production of PHANTOM. She sang it in English, and it was very difficult to follow her. Furthermore, the music looked like it had been crumpled up, uncrumpled, and photocopied 4567 times. I was so annoyed that I didn't even TRY to play well for her.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/28/05 at 1:47pm

Thank Jebus I've never been a rehearsal pianist. Duetting is hard enough when you actually have rehearsal time.

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 11/28/05 at 3:37pm

I should mention that there are music transposition services which can restore "Green Finch" to the original key.

However, in the long run, it might be a good investment to buy the entire vocal score.

You may want to also check with your library. The Chicago Library system does check out vocal scores. Maybe yours does too!

[JailyardGuy]

Posted: 11/28/05 at 3:38pm

A good pianist will just transpose it into whatever key you want, assuming the singer in question has enough of a grasp of music theory to make such a request.