How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
joe5
Broadway Star Joined: 5/17/06
#2re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 1:47pmditto
It's just a message board. Let's not take it too seriously.
#2re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 1:48pmI enjoyed his work on The Producers. I'm interested to see what he does with Young Frankenstein.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
#3re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 1:50pmHis compositions worked for THE PRODUCERS. It's a style. Enjoyable but becomes dull after you hear it more than once or twice.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
--Aristotle
#4re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 1:55pmI really enjoyed The Producers. I disagree, it was very "Jerry Herman" (whom I love) and I listen to it quite often. I'm excited to hear what he has done with YF.
#5re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 4:32pm
The Producers was lucky to have a gifted, experienced Broadway writer involved in the creation of its score.
Is Glen Kelly going to be "assisting" Mel on the Young Frankenstein score as well?
"I have got to have some professional music!" - Big Edie
#6re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 4:41pm
Mel Brooks is not a composer. He hums tunes into a tape player. Anyone can do that. He has people around him that compose his hums into actual music.
(That is not to completely dismiss the work's entertainment value but to say he's a composer, simply because he can hum a melody, is fairly insulting to people who understand the art and craft of musical composition.)
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#7re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 4:41pmLerner & Lowe & Rogers & Hammerstein need not worry
Poster Emeritus
NathanLaneStalker
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#8re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 4:43pm
I think he's really good. He's not amazing and he's not going to go down in history as the best composer Broadway ever had. But he's good.
I enjoy The Producers. It was the show that got me into theatre. I loved it.
"I'm tellin' you, the only times I really feel the presence of God are when I'm having sex and during a great Broadway musical." - Nathan Lane - Jeffrey
#9re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 4:44pmMan. I would love to be called a composer by just humming a tune!
#10re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 4:50pmI agree that The Producers score was boring by the third or forth listen. It's not bad it just gets old really fast.
mejusthavingfun
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/12/06
#11re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 4:50pmI think it fits the material, but it's like a parody. I doubt he could write anything outside it.
clarkstallings
Leading Actor Joined: 1/9/05
#12re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 5:36pmThe man is a very talented melody writer. Many say that's it's easy to hum a melody, that might be true, but the melodies found in The Producers' score are rhythmically, and to some extent, stylistically diverse. I know many melody writers who can't accomplish the same task. The art of the melody is being lost on Broadway I fear except for a few composers who really know how to write them.
#13re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 5:47pm
Yeah i really wonder how much "writing" he really does. He basically admits to only writing the melodies on "Recording The Producers", and that Glen Kelly does the rest. But I can't believe he gets billed for"writing the score" if that's the case.
Scrambles my mind...
#14re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 5:49pmAt least he doesn't take credit for orchestrations as well. (At least not yet...)
"I have got to have some professional music!" - Big Edie
#15re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 5:51pm
He has a big Broadway hit on his resume. What have the rest of us got?
Like him or not, he's a solid-gold success and will probably equal his success with YF.
And BTW, there have been a few very successful "hummers" in Broadway's past, so Mel has some company....
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=972787#3631451
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=963561#3533883
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955158#3440952
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954269#3427915
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955012#3441622
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954344#3428699
MarkRascati
Broadway Star Joined: 5/24/06
#17re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 6:42pmHe has a big Broadway hit SHOW !!!! Shows and scores are different things ! When you enjoy the show, buy the cast recording, listen to it a couple of times and then put it away for life, that doesn't mean that the creator is a good COMPOSER !!!
Julian2
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/10/06
#18re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 6:50pm
"And BTW, there have been a few very successful "hummers" in Broadway's past, so Mel has some company...."
Like who?
I have several names, one is Julian2. I am also The Opps Girl. But cross me, and I become Bitch Dooku!
#19re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 7:06pmWell what about the songs in his movies? I think he has done some good melodies for those, particularly "The Inquisition" in "History of the World, Part I".
My avatar = A screencap from Avatar, arguably the greatest animated show of all
ashbash1990
Broadway Star Joined: 10/15/06
#20re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 7:10pmhis songs are very funny, not neccesarily the best pieces of music ever heard, though...
What a night! I was in more laps than a napkin!
#21re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 7:17pmi love you Triumph !
#22re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 8:03pmLionel Bart. And there are others....
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=972787#3631451
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=963561#3533883
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955158#3440952
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954269#3427915
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955012#3441622
http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954344#3428699
#23re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 8:18pmHe has one more Tony that Schwartz does.
#24re: How do you feel about Mel Brooks as a composer....
Posted: 6/29/07 at 8:32pm
I'm looking through the score now and the songs are extremely technical. Theres pretty much at least one key change in every song and some very technical rhythms. Obviously, Brooks, not being a musicain, was not responsible for these brilliant aspects, so I am very surprised that he is the ONLY one credited for the score.
Another thing I have noticed though, is that every song ends with a PLONK even slow songs like THAT FACE and TILL HIM. So even most of the songs are structured the same.
A little known fact is that in the original screenplay, Pan's Labyrinth was Pan's FLAByrinth. Hmmmmmmm...glad they changed it.
Videos