Flaherty copies himself?
Flaherty copies himself?
#0Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 10:13amI'm listening to a backing to Waiting for Life and one part sounds EXACTLY like the bridge to Alone in the Universe! Coincidence? I think not.
#1re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 10:13amDon't composers do that sort of thing often?
#2re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 10:15amYeah, it's called having a signature sound...
#3re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 10:16am
That's funny because just a few minutes ago, I was thinking about the melodic similarities between "Ladies" and "Crime of the Century"...
Not saying there's anything that awful about it...
#4re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 10:27am
Hell, listen to Rent and TTB. You can pair some of those songs up almost exactly.
Gasp. I bet even Sondheim has done it. I've noticed it in Finn's work.... it's not unsual.
#5re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 10:32am
Finn does it all the time. I remember sitting in my seat thinking how similar the music to "Pandemonium" sounded to the music of "A Day in Falsettoland".
Sondheim has done it many times, as well.
Ironically, I think the melody for "Ladies" sounds like a faster "Our Children".
Jazzysuite82
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/6/05
#6re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:03pm
hmmm I don't hear it. Ahh Well yeah it's a signature sound and it's an unconscious thing too. Sondheim does it all the time, but he doesn't know he's doing it. He just has his style and uses it. Bernstein had it, Debussy had it, Mozart had it. That's just what happens when you composer for a while.
Updated On: 1/27/06 at 02:03 PM
BSoBW3
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/21/06
#7re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:23pm
Well, Andrew Lloyd Webber has never done that.
I guess that means he is ALWAYS original.
wickedrentq
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/6/04
#8re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:33pmDid Alone in the Universe come before Waiting for Life? I mean I adore all of Once On This Island, but WFL is one of my favorites, and the bridge and all aspects of that song fit perfectly--I think if it's appropriate sounding and right for the sound of the character, does it really make that big a difference if the bridges sound similar?
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#9re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 2:54pm
Waiting For Life came more than 10 years before Alone in the Universe.
Much of SEUSSICAL sounds like leftovers from ONCE ON THIS ISLAND and RAGTIME.
wickedrentq
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/6/04
#10re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 3:00pmOh, it's from Seussical. Oops, thanks.
BSoBW3
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/21/06
#11re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 3:02pm
The question really is which was written first?
did they start writing Seussical - and stop?
Just wondering....(since, like Jon said, it seems liek a mix of everything)
#12re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 3:04pmAh yes, Andrew Lloyd Webber is the epitome of original...
#13re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 6:01pm
haha. Hamlisch does that A LOT.
especially the parallels between "a chorus line" and smile"
understudygirl
Chorus Member Joined: 12/8/05
#14re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 8:20pmsomeone mentioned rent and tick, tick.. boom! sounding a lot a like at certain parts. A really good example of this is the beginning parts of "No More" (TTB) and "Rent" (Rent)
TheEnchantedHunter
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/27/05
#15re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/27/06 at 10:23pm
It's not that SF copies himself, which all composers do, but that he lacks a pronounced individual style. Except for somebody like Elton John, I can't imagine a less appropriate composer for a project about Gertrude Stein, one of the most singular voices in all literature.
Captain Nemo
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Updated On: 5/1/08 at 10:23 PM
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#16re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/28/06 at 12:39amJule Styne always copied from himself
maybethistime
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/3/04
#17re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/28/06 at 1:19am
I was also just thinking about how in the finales of both ONCE ON THIS ISLAND and SEUSSICAL the casts all yell something in almost identical voices...
"A Tree!"
"An Elephant-Bird!"
Coincidence? Is this in any other of his shows?
#18re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/28/06 at 8:57amSometimes it's really hard. You find some great melodic line or specific harmonic progression and you love it...and you don't just want to use it once. I think it's good to quote yourself a little, but some composers do it way way way too much.
#19re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/28/06 at 9:32pmI love Flaherty's music. I just wanted to point that out. I'm surprised JRB wasn't mentioned...he copies himself throughout all of L5Y.
neddyfrank2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/23/05
#20re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/28/06 at 9:49pm
Jerry Herman songs sound the same to me...there is nothing wrong with that, because he is my favorite composer, so I like that all the songs the sound the same, because I like how they sound. Same with Frank Loesser (spelling?)
Updated On: 1/28/06 at 09:49 PM
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#21re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/28/06 at 10:01pmRegarding Tick Tick Boom and RENT - remember that TTB was never fully produced during Larson's lifetime. When the decision was made to stage it, the producers had to hire an arranger/orchestrator to work on the songs, which were fairly "bare bones". I think a deliberate decision was made to try and match the "sound" of RENT - similar instrumentation, arrangements, etc. There are times on the OCR when Raul Esparza sounds as if he's trying to sing like Adam Pascal.
Jazzysuite82
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/6/05
#22re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/28/06 at 10:14pmwho in their right mind would WANT to sound like Adam Pascal.
iliketheater
Broadway Star Joined: 12/10/05
#23re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/28/06 at 11:17pmI like his vioce - the early stuff anyway
#24re: Flaherty copies himself?
Posted: 1/28/06 at 11:47pm
MyFairLady wrote: "I'm surprised JRB wasn't mentioned...he copies himself throughout all of L5Y."
I don't think copying one's self throughout a show is really copying, though - a LOT of shows have recurring things (a la "Woman in White," "Evita," etc.), especially sung-through musicals. In my opinion, it's more a composer copying him/herself when you can trace parallels between two or more of their shows (Hamlisch, Webber, and then again, JRB's shows are all VERY Jason Robert brown...)
just my two cents.
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