Broadway Vocabulary Lesson

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 1/7/06 at 9:53pm

OK, I thought this would be fun. What words from show tune lyrics have you had to look up? (Or which ones have you never looked up so you still don't kown what they mean!?). I'll get us started:

"And I'll appear in a lavaliere that goes all the way down to my waist." - "Roxy" from Chicago
lavaliere - a pendant on a fine chain that is worn as a necklace

"With isinglass curtains you can roll right down in case there's a change in the weather." - "The Surrey With The Fringe On Top" from Oklahoma
isinglass - 1. a semitransparent whitish very pure gelatin prepared from the air bladders of fishes (as sturgeons) and used especially as a clarifying agent and in jellies and glue. 2. MICA

(These are from http://www.m-w.com)

Updated On: 1/7/06 at 09:53 PM

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 1/7/06 at 10:25pm

isinglass

/izingglaass/

noun: 1 a kind of gelatin obtained from fish. 2 (chiefly US) mica or a similar material in thin transparent sheets.

— ORIGIN alteration, by association with GLASS, of obsolete Dutch huysenblas ‘sturgeon’s bladder’

Taught me something, ChrisLovesShows. I am rather fond of dictionaries. This definition 2 is a little better. From the Compact Oxford English Dictionary. Plus the origins of words can fascinate a word lover...
Updated On: 1/7/06 at 10:25 PM

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 1/7/06 at 10:33pm

Yes, I was originally horrified trying to imagine the sturgeon’s bladder curtains on the Surrey. Much better to think of transparent sheets of mica!

[jimmirae]

Posted: 1/7/06 at 11:48pm

"And I'll appear in a lavaliere that goes all the way down to my waist."
I looked this up too, way back in 1975, When I was only young and ignorant as well.
(I hope that doesn't sound like a dis to anyone, It's simply a self observation.)

[Prisoner 24601]

Posted: 1/7/06 at 11:58pm

From 'By the Sea' in Sweeney Todd:

"I'll warm me bones
On the esplanade,
Have tea and scones
With me gay young blade"

Esplanade (n.)
A flat open stretch of pavement or grass, especially one designed as a promenade along a shore.

Wow. I had no idea.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 1/8/06 at 12:03am

I thought that one was pretty self-explanatory.

Harder ones?

[BreakingTheCircle07]

Posted: 1/8/06 at 12:16am

Jeez, it only took 5 posts for this thread to become condescending.

This seems fun! ::searches through songs in head and returns shortly::

[liotte]

Posted: 1/8/06 at 12:22am

I have looked up almost all the words used during Spelling Bee. Does that count?

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 1/8/06 at 12:25am

haha, sure

No, I'm serious. I like really hard ones if anyone knows any.

If you drive a car or travel you see "esplanade" a lot.

I've been trying to think up some but I don't have any sassy librettos around. I'll bet Cole Porter or Harold Arlen or Sondheim or some other great has plenty of them...

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 5:58pm

My friend remebered some great ones from "I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General," including:

"I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalcules
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General."

animalcules - A microscopic or minute organism, such as an amoeba or paramecium

"I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;
I answer hard acrostics; I've a pretty taste for paradox,"

acrostic - A poem or series of lines in which certain letters, usually the first in each line, form a name, motto, or message when read in sequence

Updated On: 1/9/06 at 05:58 PM

[Jenny1284]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 7:04pm

From "Kiss Me" in Sweeney Todd:

I'll take my reticule.
I need my reticule.
You mustn't think
Me a fool
But my reticule
Never leaves my side,
It's the only thing
My mother gave me —

reticule
(n) a woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; used in 18th and 19th centuries

[dancinfan]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 7:59pm

Music Man has a million great vocabulary words, but here's one little sequence:

"They'll be tryin' out bevos, tryin' out cubebs, tryin' out tailor-mades like cigarette fiends. And braggin' all about how they tried to cover up their telltale breath with Sen-sen."

Bevos, cubebs, and tailor-mades were all different kinds of hand-rolled cigarettes, and Sen-sen was a tiny, very powerful breath freshener

[Flahooley]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 8:06pm

GREAT IDEA FOR POST!

The first time I ran to a dictionary while listening to a cast recording was with THE SOUND OF MUSIC

"Of things beyond your ken"

ken: To have knowledge or an understanding.

Most recently I had to look up a couple words from WICKED.

"Seem fixated on your verdigris"
verdigris: A green patina or crust of copper

"Defaming our poor Wizard/With her calumnies and lies!"
calumies: A false statement maliciously made to injure another's reputation

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 1/12/06 at 9:12pm

We get these two gems from "Maria" from The Sound of Music:

How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!

will-o'-the wisp - a delusive or elusive goal; a deceptive goal or hope; a light that sometimes appears in the night over marshy ground and is often attributable to the combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter (IGNIS FATUUS).

flibbertigibbet - A silly, scatterbrained, or garrulous person; a silly flighty person; a gossip or chatterbox.

Updated On: 1/12/06 at 09:12 PM

[broadwaygiant19122]

Posted: 1/12/06 at 9:17pm

i had to look up reticule as welll


oooh and detente from please hello in pacific overtures.

[elsie]

Posted: 1/12/06 at 11:04pm

Little Shop of Horrors:
"Shang-a-lang, feel the strum and drang in the air..."

Strum und Drang: Storm and Stress, movement in German literature that flourished from c.1770 to c.1784. It takes its name from a play by F. M. von Klinger, Wirrwarr; oder, Sturm und Drang (1776). The ideas of Rousseau were a major stimulus of the movement, but it evolved more immediately from the influence of Herder, Lessing, and others. With Sturm und Drang, German authors became cultural leaders of Europe, writing literature that was revolutionary in its stress on subjectivity and on the unease of man in contemporary society. The movement was distinguished also by the intensity with which it developed the theme of youthful genius in rebellion against accepted standards, by its enthusiasm for nature, and by its rejection of the rules of 18th-century neoclassical style.

[bwaymyway84]

Posted: 1/12/06 at 11:19pm

That's interesting you brought up Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress). I have a big classical music background and that term applies to some music composed during the same time period by composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Gluck. The characteristics of Strum und Drang music include a predilection for the minor mode and such extreme gestures (now this is of course in their time period) as large melodic leaps, jagged syncopations and sudden dynamic contrasts. Well that sorta describes musical theatre today! It would be cool to actually analyze the music of that section from Little Shop and see what was actually composed

[elsie]

Posted: 1/12/06 at 11:35pm

hmm... haven't gotten that far in music history yet... we're still stuck on chants and the Mass (which reminds me, I should be reading my textbook... lol). But in that part, I'm pretty sure it's not minor or tense at all... It's actually, hmm, what would it be called, Doo-wap, mebbe? It's the three girls that narrate the show that are singing this at the opening.

[elsie]

Posted: 1/13/06 at 12:03am

Ooo, I thought up another one (This game is so much more fun than Music History homework)

Aida, My Strongest Suit:

"From your cradle, via trousseau, to your deathbed, you're on view..."

trous·seau
n. pl. trous·seaux (-sz, -sz) or trous·seaus
The possessions, such as clothing and linens, that a bride assembles for her marriage.

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 1/30/06 at 10:22am

Nice one Elsie! I had to dig up the thread when I thought of this one:

From "One" from A Chorus Line:

She walks into a room
And you know
She's un-commonly rare, very unique,
Peripatetic, poetic and chic.

paripatetic - 1 capitalized : ARISTOTELIAN (of or relating to the Greek philosopher Aristotle or his philosophy)
2 of, relating to, or given to walking; moving or traveling from place to place; ITINERANT
(from www.m-w.com)

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 1/30/06 at 1:15pm

Here's one from The Fantasticks:

callow - Lacking adult maturity or experience; immature.

"When you were a tender and callow fellow."