Best Scores of the Last 20 Years- Page 3

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 7/22/12 at 9:39pm

Forgot to mention Dessa Rose. I don't think anyone has said that yet, but correct me if I'm wrong.

[bdn223]

Posted: 7/22/12 at 9:52pm

Contemporary score(aka rock) Next to Normal

Classical Score: ragtime/Wicked

Showtuny score: Hairspray



**The Little Mermaid has one of the most beautiful scores ever written, film or stage version.


**not sure if it counts since film came out in 89..

[broadway guy]

Posted: 9/8/12 at 8:02am

BEST SCORES:

Rent
Wicked
Caroline or Change
Ragtime
Next to Normal
Hairspray
In the Heights
Beauty and the beast( if it counts)
Billy Elliot

In my opinion the best is RENT,with N2N in second.

How are people putting Avenue Q on the list? I love that show but I don't consider "the internet is for porn"one of the greatest songs of the last 20 years.However it does have some beautiful songs like "fine fine line" and "fantasies come true"

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/8/12 at 8:53am

Hedwig (score 10, show 10), Next to Normal (score 10, show 9), Grey Gardens (score 10, show 8 ) Titanic (score 10, show 7) Side Show (score 10, show 3).





Updated On: 9/8/12 at 08:53 AM

[chewy5000]

Posted: 9/8/12 at 8:56am

One has to consider that styles change, and so too do our conceptions of art, and what constitutes 'great'. Many people look at old paintings, old buildings, old music and consider anything more recent, and different, as somehow inferior.

If I wrote a musical in the style of Rogers and Hammerstein, no matter how good it was, it would most likely be considered pastiche, or generally frowned upon as unoriginal. It is an argument that can never be won, in my mind. All an artist can do is 'hold to their vision' and hope that one day, it might be recognised for its own value.

[Nickhutson]

Posted: 9/8/12 at 9:01am

Ragtime
Matilda
Producers
New Brain
Wicked*
Mary Poppins*
Glockner Von NotreDame

*for orchestrations

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/8/12 at 9:40am

"If I wrote a musical in the style of Rogers and Hammerstein, no matter how good it was, it would most likely be considered pastiche, or generally frowned upon as unoriginal."

It's an interesting question to ponder, Chewy. I'm sure some people would have that response. However, I'd like to think that if anyone wrote a score nearly as thrilling as - and in the style of - South Pacific, King and I or Carousel today, and if the music fit the material, most people would be awestruck. And if the style of music fit the period of those show's settings, it might by definition be "pastiche" but that would hardly be a disparagement.

The score of Phantom is anachronistic, but "Prima Donna" and the operas within the musical are not objectionably pastiche. The score of Pippin is anachronistic, but there's nothing objecstionable about the numerous moments that suggest madrigals, plainchants and troubadours .

Neither "Titanic" nor the first act of "Grey Gardens" are problematically pastiche.

A Little Night Music was a waltz score composed in the 70s (talk about pastiche!) for a belle epoque comedy confected in the 50s by the world's greatest screenwriter. It is unquestionably Sondheim. However, had the show been done/scored in the 30s by Rodgers and Hart, in the 40s by Weill and Anderson, in the 50s by Lerner and Loewe, or in 60s by Bock and Harnick, no doubt they would have used a similar musical vocabulary. The same general approach I would expect Sondheim, Yeston or Frankel & Korie might bring (in their own individual ways) to the material today; should the results be half (or should I say 3/4) as enchanting as Sondheim's were in 1973, I would expect the audience would be delighted.












Updated On: 9/8/12 at 09:40 AM