Are most vocal selections pretty similar from what actual broadway musicians have to play?

[PiPlayer]

Posted: 8/24/19 at 7:21pm

Just as the title says, are most vocal selections (I play the piano) similar from the actual music that musicians play in official broadway musicals or are they different? 

[Justin D]

Posted: 8/24/19 at 7:27pm

im not a music expert but i'd probably say no, listening to phantom instrumentals, they are very different to the vocals that go 'on top' where as the vocal selections are more the vocal 'tracks' (orchestrations are sometimes vastly different from the vocal melody)

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 8/24/19 at 8:05pm

For the most part, Vocal Selections are vastly simplified renditions of the numbers from a show, and very different to what would appear in a Piano/Vocal or Piano/Conductor score.

Firstly, vocal selections are designed to be accesible to a large range of performers of varying ability. Therefore, the piano writing is much simpler and will generally consist of doubling the vocal line and chords either on the beat or in the rhythm of the melody with the bassline often single notes. Notable instrumental sections of a song may be an excuse for a slightly more demanding passage. They are also generally printed with guitar chords above, which is very helpful for those who don’t read music as well, or want to perform with a guitar/small ensemble. On occasion, these chords will be incorrect, as they can be misidentified, particularly in Sondheim Vocal Selections (these should generally be avoided as they are of poor quality, and all of Sondheim’s scores are available as full piano/vocal publications.)

Vocally speaking, having the melody doubled in the piano part is often helpful to a performer who is less experienced, or just singing for fun. It can be very annoying to more experienced performers. Broadway vocal scores nowadays generally don’t double the vocal line, although it was standard practice during the golden age, as the vocal line would often be doubled on a melody instrument.

To aid both the pianist and the singer, the keys are often adjusted. This can be so that it puts the song into an easier-to-read key (Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, for example, is frequently published in C Major, whereas it appears in the show score in D Flat Major), and also so that it is an easier to sing key (a high belting song may be brought down to make it more universally accesible, especially to younger voices).

Finally, the vocal selections frequently make an attempt to divide the score much more into individual “numbers”, as opposed to what might appear in the Piano/Vocal score. This is to make it more performable and enjoyable for a solo artist. The vocal selections of Wicked are a good example of this. Defying Gravity and Thank Goodness both appear as solo songs.

The creation and publication of Vocal Selections are an art in itself, and can be the only way a score is accesible in sheet form these days, given that piano/vocal scores are now very rarely published. Many vocal selections get it wrong (too small a selection/over-simplified/convoluted arrangements), but many are spot on and are, in fact, very good substitutions for a piano/vocal score with a large majority of the score being represented. Hamilton and Half a Sixpence are recent examples of this.

Hope this goes some way to explaining the differences!

Updated On: 8/24/19 at 08:05 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 8/24/19 at 8:24pm

ClapYo'Hands is spot on. More often than not, it isn't a proper representation of the score as heard in the theatre or on the cast album, especially for songs with dance breaks, interspersed dialog, and multiple characters singing.

One other thing: Sometimes the composer/arranger/orchestrator is very involved in putting the Vocal Selections together, sometimes they are hardly consulted on it.

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 8/25/19 at 12:26am

ClapYo'Hands is absolutely correct; the vocal selections are not indicative of what Broadway musicians actually play.  For that you'd have to get your hands on the piano/conductor score, since you play piano.  That will have the official accompaniment the conductor/arranger wrote, without the melody, which is what you want.

[JudyDenmark]

Posted: 8/26/19 at 11:52am

PiPlayer, if I’m reading correctly between the lines of your question, and you want to be learning the actual piano/keyboard orchestral part from a show, know that many of those Piano/Conductor scores ARE available to anyone. Just make sure that that’s what you’re searching for wherever you typically get your sheet music.

[OKBroadwayFan]

Posted: 8/26/19 at 6:09pm

One of the times that I saw Pippin, I had the opportunity to set in the first row seat that was next to the conductor.  He doubled as a keyboardist and I could see his score.  It was fascinating to look at it.  It had numerous cues, lines, even staging comments.  And typical of many musicians, some of his own cues- with highlighted and circled parts and the occasional "watch!" "wait" , etc.     It was not anything like the vocal selections books.   I noticed also that some pages looked totally different, I assume this could have been something that was added or changed during previews.    As a former music major and pianist, I caught myself watching his score as much as I did the show.   :)

[trentsketch]

Posted: 8/26/19 at 9:37pm

The differences have been covered already.

I will say that vocal selections can be very useful for starting to get the feel of a show if rental materials aren't going to get there for a minute. Key changes are typically marked (something like "originally performed 1/2 step up" or even "originally performed in "x" key"  ) as are significant changes (there's a lovely solo version of "Some Things Are Meant to Be" from Little Women that specifies that the song was originally a duet). There are also shows where you can access vocal selections but the show itself isn't currently licensed (or the production of a show you want to play from isn't licensed at all). You can always embellish from a simpler vocal arrangements book to better match a cast recording/score. I've also noticed newer vocal selections (and I mean like the last 10-15 years or so) are including more of the accurate harmonies than they used to.

Updated On: 8/26/19 at 09:37 PM