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A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Book and Lyrics by Willie Reale Music by Robert Reale Based on the books by Arnold Lobel Overview / Synopsis Adapted from the three-time-Tony-nominated Broadway hit comes A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS. Based on Arnold Lobel's well-loved books, the jazzy, upbeat score bubbles with melody. Part vaudeville, part make-believe, and all charm, this musical tells the story of a friendship that endures throughout the seasons. This whimsical show follows two great friends - the cheerful, popular Frog, and the rather grumpy Toad - through four fun-filled seasons. Waking from hibernation, Frog and Toad plant gardens, swim, rake leaves, go sledding and learn life lessons along the way. Throughout the year, two best friends celebrate and rejoice in the differences that make them unique and special. A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS is a great first choice for young performers, with plenty of ensemble roles, accessible music and minimal sets and costumes. Audio Sampler - HL00200524 $10.00 ShowKit - HL00200511 $545.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 - Student Books 1 - Director's Guide 1 - Piano/Vocal Score 1 - Accompaniment CD 1 - Choreography DVD 1 - Media Disc 30-Minute KIDS Request Individual Components 00200515 - Director's Guide $100.00 00200516 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00200517 - Student Book $10.00 00200518 - Student Book 10-pak $75.00 00200519 - Performance/Accomp CD pack $75.00 00200520 - Student Rehearsal CD $10.00 00200521 - Student Rehearsal CD 20-pak $100.00 00200522 - Choreography DVD $50.00 00200523 - Media Disc $10.00 00200524 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hear A Sample A Year with Frog and Toad The Letter #1 Getta Loada Toad The Letter #2 Cookies Leaves: A Year with Frog and Toad He'll Never Know The Letter #3 Down the Hill Merry Almost Christmas Merry Almost Christmas (Reprise) Finale: A Year with Frog and Toad Frog Frog is a friendly, confidant, positive and caring character. This leading role requires a strong actor and singer. He should always seem comfortable solving Toad's problems and reacting to Toad's traumas. When auditioning, mix and match your Frog and Toad hopefuls into different pairs and determine the best chemistry. Gender: Male Vocal Range: B3-D5 Toad Toad is serious, irritable, self-conscious yet an oddly charismatic character. The friendship that he shares with Frog must appear loyal through and through. This role requires a good actor and singer and should be one of your stronger students. Auditioning several pairs of Frogs and Toads will enable you to cast actors that can have fun with this "tight yet quirky" friendship. Gender: Male Vocal Range: Bb3-D5 Turtle Turtle is a "rabble-rouser" and loves to get the whole gang to tease Toad in fun! This actor should be a strong singer and be able to be a comedian at the same time. He (or she) only has a solo in one number. Audition this student along with Mouse and Lizard to achieve a good trio for "Getta Loada Toad". There are solo singing lines for this role. Gender: Both Vocal Range: B3-C5 Mouse Mouse is always able to ask all the right questions like a talk-show host. Mouse, like Turtle, is full of fun and they should have a good chemistry because of their call/response dialogue and song. This could be a good place to use a smaller child that can perform with mouse like qualities. Gender: Both Vocal Range: B3-C5 Lizard Lizard is definitely the most confused of the Turtle, Mouse, Lizard trio, but eventually joins in the fun. He (or she) should be able to confidently sing the short solo and be a strong addition to the ensemble as an actor and singer. Gender: Both Vocal Range: B3-C5 Snails The Snails are simply unflappable. They will deliver without fail "in the rain or sleet or snow." Cast actors that can deliver their songs with personality, confidence and musical accuracy. They have few spoken lines but their singing entrances are the comedic relief of the show. Gender: Both Vocal Range: C4-D5 Birds The Birds communicate the passage of time (seasons) and set the stage for the story to follow. This is a great opportunity to cast children that have a good sense of musical timing and can sell their songs like cabaret singers! Have visual fun with your "bird family" and cast all size actors. Enjoy the "diva moments!" Gender: Both Vocal Range: B3-D5 Moles The Moles should have expressive faces to convey the excitement in "Down The Hill" as well as sincerity in their angelic solo "Merry Almost Christmas". The Moles should be singers more than actors as their lines are few. A good choral blend sets them apart! Gender: Both Vocal Range: Bb3-D5 Squirrels The Squirrels are full of mischief and the actors should be comfortable moving, talking and singing with squirrel like qualities. Cast actors that have good diction, as their soft shoe rendition of "He'll Never Know"" is wordy and quick. Play up the wonderful contrast between the Squirrels and Frog and Toad in this ballad! Gender: Both Vocal Range: Bb3-C4

Annie Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Book by Thomas Meehan Music by Charles Strouse Lyrics by Martin Charnin Based on "Little Orphan Annie" By Permission of the Tribune Media Services, Inc. Overview / Synopsis The idea of turning Harold Gray's "Little Orphan Annie" into a musical comedy was the inspiration of lyricist-director Martin Charnin, who convinced Charles Strouse and librettist Thomas Meehan to join in creating it. The show, which places Annie, Daddy Warbucks and Annie's mutt, Sandy, in New York City in the midst of the Depression, opened on Broadway on April 21, 1977. As an infant, Annie had been abandoned on the front steps of The New York City Municipal Orphanage with a note from her parents promising to return for her someday. Life in the orphanage had been rough under the strict hand of Miss Hannigan, but Annie's life was about to change. Billionaire Oliver Warbucks invites Annie to spend Christmas with him in his mansion, and together, they each discover new happiness. Warbucks soon decides he wants to adopt Annie, but when he learns about her dream of finding her parents and the secret of the half-locket she has treasured for so long, he sets his own feelings aside and orders an exhaustive search for Annie's parents. Annie went on to win seven Tony awards and became the third longest running musical of the 1970s with 2,377 performances. It also won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. Writing in The World of Musical Comedy, author Stanley Green has said, "...she has unquestionably taken her place as Broadway's most beloved waif of all times." Audio Sampler - HL00235709 $10.00 ShowKit - HL00235700 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: Production Guide Director's Guide Piano/Vocal Score 30 Actor Scripts 2 Rehearsal/Accompaniment CDs Choreography DVD Media Disc 30 Family Matters Booklets 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 00235701 - Director's Guide $100.00 00235702 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00235703 - Actor's Script $10.00 00235704 - Actor's Script 10-pak $75.00 00190202 - Rehearsal/Accompaniment CDs $75.00 00235705 - Student Rehearsal CD $10.00 00235706 - Student Rehearsal CD 20-pak $100.00 00235707 - Choreography DVD $50.00 00235708 - Media Disc $10.00 00235709 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hear A Sample SCENE 1 Maybe [Annie, Orphans] Hard-Knock Life [Annie, Orphans] Hard-Knock Life (Reprise) [Orphans] SCENE 2 Tomorrow [Annie, Sandy] SCENE 3 Little Girls [Miss Hannigan] Little Girls (Reprise) [Miss Hannigan] SCENE 4 I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here [Annie, Grace, Servants] SCENE 5 N.Y.C. [Warbucks, Grace, Annie, Star-to-Be, Chorus] SCENE 6 Easy Street [Rooster, Miss Hannigan, Lily] SCENE 7 You Won't Be an Orphan for Long [Warbucks, Annie] SCENE 8 Maybe (Reprise) [Annie] SCENE 9 You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile [Warbucks, Annie] Easy Street (Reprise) [Rooster, Miss Hannigan, Lily] SCENE 10 I Don't Need Anything but You [Warbucks, Annie] Maybe (Second Reprise) [Annie] SCENE 11 Tomorrow (Reprise) [Warbucks, Grace, Roosevelt, Annie, Orphans, Chorus] Annie Annie is a tough, streetwise urchin, who must be able to portray a variety of traits, from aggressive and crafty to friendly and caring. As lead character, she must be a strong actor and singer. Orphans Orphans (Molly, Pepper, Duffy, Kate, Tessie, July) are gritty, neglected and vulnerable, yet basically honest and potentially lovable. They need to have vocal strength and be visually expressive. Miss Hannigan Miss Hannigan is definitely a has-been, whose acrid delivery of her lines and torch-like rendition of her songs must distinguish her from the rest. She must be strong vocally with a good sense of comic timing. Grace Farrell Grace Farrell is mature, calm, cool and together. She is businesslike when dealing with Miss Hannigan and Warbucks, yet maternal toward Annie. Vocally, she has challenging intervals to handle in "N.Y.C." Rooster Hannigan and Lily St. Regis Rooster Hannigan and Lily St. Regis are a team who play off each other's lines constantly. Rooster is flashy, self-assured and the leader; Lily is always distracted and bringing up the rear. Both need to be strong vocally and visually. Oliver Warbucks Oliver Warbucks is the most challenging role for this age group. This actor must appear middle-aged, self-assured and confident. His posture, walk and speech patterns are very important. Servants, Drake, Mrs. Greer, Mrs. Pugh Servants, Drake, Mrs. Greer, Mrs. Pugh are the most fastidious of domestic help - your actors will have fun perfecting precision steps, nods and curtsies. Their heads are always held high and they rarely show their emotions. Vocally not difficult. Additional Characters (limited lines and non-speaking parts) Bundles McCloskey - Laundry Man Apple Seller Dog Catcher Sandy - Annie's Dog Lt. Ward - Policeman Star-to-Be Man in Brownstone Window Usherette Radio Announcer Sound Effects Man Bert Healy - Radio Show Host President Roosevelt Louis Howe - Newspaper Reporter, Friend of Roosevelt Policeman Additional Orphans Servants

The Big One-Oh! Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Music by Doug Besterman Lyrics by Dean Pitchford Book by Timothy Allen McDonald Overview / Synopsis Charley Maplewood has never been one for parties - that would require friends, which he doesn't have. Well, unless you count his monster friends, but they're only imaginary. But now that he's turning ten-the big one-oh-he decides to throw a birthday party for himself, complete with a "House of Horrors" theme. Of course, things don't work out as he plans. Will Charley be able to pull it together before the big one-oh . . . becomes the big OH-NO!? Based on the beloved book, The Big One-Oh! JR. features lyrics by Academy Award-winner (Fame, Footloose) Dean Pitchford, the author of the novel; music by three-time Tony-winner Doug Besterman (The Producers, Fosse, Elf, Young Frankenstein), and a book by iTheatric's award-winning playwright Timothy Allen McDonald (Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka, James and the Giant Peach). Audio Sampler - HL01132729 $10.00 ShowKit - HL01132730 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 Libretto/Vocal Books Piano/Vocal Score Director's Guide Choreography Videos Guide Vocal Tracks Performance Accompaniment Tracks Logo Pack (Coming Soon!) 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 01132730 - ShowKit $695.00 01132725 - Director's Guide $100.00 01132726 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 01132727 - Actor's Script (Single) $10.00 01132728 - Actor's Script (10 Pack) $75.00 01132729 - Audio Sampler $10.00 MUSICAL NUMBERS Happy Birthday From Scotland Monsters & Maniacs (Part 1) Monsters & Maniacs (Part 2) The Birthday Card Some Sort Of Celebration So Lame (Part 1) So Lame (Part 2) So Lame (Part 3) Delicious Can You Call This Person A Friend? (Part 1) Can You Call This Person A Friend? (Part 2) A Perfect Party Jennifer Is Gonna Have A Birthday So Lame (Reprise 1) Better Than A "Boo!" Making Invitations Lullaby The Invitation Making Special Effects So Lame (Reprise 2) This Is Big This Is Big (Encore) That Could Be Me Better Than A "Boo!"(Reprise 1) We've Got Each Other House Of Horrors Better Than A "Boo!" (Reprise 2) This Is Big Finale Cast of Characters Cast Size: Large (21 or more performers) Cast Type: Children Charley Maplewood The hero of our story. he's a nine-year-old about to turn ten with no clue about how to celebrate his upcoming birthday. His family has recently moved, so he's in a new school where he feels friendless. To cope with his loneliness, Charley has conjured up three imaginary friends - his Monsters - from the pages of his favorite comic book series, Monsters & Maniacs. Cast an actor who can sing, move, and act very well. The single most important quality to look for in an actor, however, is likeability. You want a Charley with whom your audience will fall in love and cheer for from the start. Gender: Male Vocal range top: D5 Vocal range bottom: A3 Boing Boing Charley's dog, his most patient and supportive friend. Without words, Boing Boing communicates with a whimper or a bark, a turn of the head, a scowl, the lifting of a paw, or the raising of an eyebrow. Cast an actor with good physicality and a sense of playfulness. A clever and agile performer can improvise moments beyond those in the script. Mrs. Cleveland Fresno's biggest snoop and the neighborhood busybody. Cast an actress with a BIG speaking voice who's unafraid to overact - someone who can dominate the stage whenever she enters. She has no solos but should be able to contribute to ensemble numbers. Gender: Female Dad Charley's father, lives in Scotland but pops up whenever Charley refers to him. He's big-hearted and upbeat, even though he never seems to get the date of Charley's birthday right. He's a chef - a really good one, according to Charley. Look for an actor with a good voice, a strong sense of rhythm, and a big smile. Gender: Male Vocal range top: F5 Vocal range bottom: C4 Zombie King, Swampy, and Alien Charley's imaginary friends - his 3 Monsters. When Charley is feeling frazzled or friendless, his Monsters appear to talk him through any dilemma. To play these fantastical creations, cast actors who can give their own special spin to these characters, starting with quirky speaking voices that will differentiate them. Look for actors who are physically adept, since these 'creatures' might squat or slither or jump or roll as they weave their way around Charley. They sing together a lot, so be sure your actors are good with harmonies. Vocal range top: C5 Vocal range bottom: A3 Garry Quarky Charley's puzzling next- door neighbor. He starts out seeming like a scatterbrained mad scientist, but eventually reveals himself to be a talented creator of special effects who shares many of Charley's interests - not only in Monsters & Maniacs but in all sorts of scary and ooky stuff as well. Their friendship is one of the most surprising in Charley's young life. Cast an excellent actor and singer with improvisational and comedic skills who is also able to handle props with ease. Gender: Male Vocal range top: G5 Vocal range bottom: C4 Mom A nurse with a challenging work schedule, patient and supportive of both her children, always trying to figure them out as best she can. She goes out of her way to say good things about her ex-husband (Dad) whenever he comes up. Cast a steadfast actress with a calm demeanor and a ready smile whom we'll believe can weather the obstacles facing a single mother of two. She has a very small solo ("Lullaby"), but sings in group numbers. Gender: Female Vocal range top: C#5 Vocal range bottom: A3 Lorena Charley's eye-rolling older sister who works at a fast-food restaurant. Because she is always tossing her hair and scoffing in exasperation, look for an actress who's not afraid to be funny. Lorena carries one number ("So Lame"), which is deceptive in its difficulty. Cast an actress with a good sense of timing who can hold her own when singing harmonies with others. Gender: Female Vocal range top: C#5 Vocal range bottom: A3 Lillian, Lilith, and Leilani (The 3 L's) Lorena's friends who sing backup for her during "So Lame." Cast performers who can match Lorena's teenage attitude and are comfortable singing tight harmonies. Gender: Female Vocal range top: E5 Vocal range bottom: F#4 Donna Pointer The most popular girl in school. She's a bouncy social butterfly who has lots of friends and a very full calendar. She has important solo lines in several numbers, so cast someone with a solid singing voice who can exude effervescent enthusiasm. Gender: Female Vocal range top: B4 Vocal range bottom: F#4 Dina and Dana Donna's best friends. These three go everywhere together, so cast actors who can match Donna's high energy. Gender: Female Vocal range top: Bb4 Vocal range bottom: F4 Darryl Egbert The smartest boy in fourth grade. He's also a bit of a mess. His brain - and his mouth - are constantly running at a hundred miles an hour as he obsesses and processes every little thing. The role requires an actor who can explode with energy while also accurately delivering some challenging Gender: Male Vocal range top: E5 Vocal range bottom: D4 Cougar Together with Scottie - Fresno Elementary School's resident bad guys. Cougar (whose real name is Leland, but don't call them that!) enjoys swaggering through the school hallways, acting tough but never following through on their threats. Cast any actor with an imposing physicality - someone with a lot of bark but no bite. Like all of Charley's classmates, Cougar must sing with conviction and power and be able to harmonize Vocal range top: D5 Vocal range bottom: A3 Scottie Cougar's sidekick - a bully without a mean bone in their body. Scottie, lacking Cougar's inventiveness, is always ready to go along with whatever shenanigans Cougar suggests. Cougar and Scottie together form a comedy duo, so cast two actors with strong voices who can make us (and each other) laugh! Vocal range top: C5 Vocal range bottom: A3 Jennifer Mobley New to Fresno Elementary School and having trouble making friends. But because they both share an interest in Monsters & Maniacs, Jennifer has targeted Charley with her aggressive excitement, dashing into every scene she's a part of and interrupting whatever else is going on. Her indomitable high spirits seem indestructible... until Charley fails to invite her to his birthday party. She carries one of the most important songs in the show - the only ballad! - so cast an actress with a strong voice and a good vocal range who can portray manic energy as well as wounded introspection Gender: Female Vocal range top: E5 Vocal range bottom: A3 Vince Champagne A back-slapping, loud- talking party planner who's unafraid to speak his mind, no matter whom he offends in the process. Vince is dating Mom, which is how he comes to offer Charley "Vince Champagne's three basics of a good birthday party." Cast an actor who - with his voice, personality, and physicality - can fill up a stage and mow down anyone who gets in his way. Gender: Male Vocal range top: D5 Vocal range bottom: B3 Assistant Andy and Assistant Annie Vince Champagne's assistants in "A Perfect Party." They each have brief featured solo lines in the song and sing with small groups too. These are great roles for young performers who are newer to the stage. Vocal range top: B4 Vocal range bottom: B3 Stacy Garry's ex-girlfriend. She has no sung solos but can shine during her brief breakup scene with Garry. This is a good role for a fantastic actor who can do a lot with a cameo. Gender: Female Ensemble Consists of Company, Monster Chorus, Students (Popular Kids, Bullies, Nerd Herd), Lion King Performers, Lion King Soloist, Jennifer's Mom, Jeffrey Stovall, Motorcycle Cop, and Garry's Community Theater Friends. These are great spots for anyone who'd like to be involved in your show! Note that Jennifer's Mom, Jeffrey Stovall, and Motorcycle Cop are non-singing.

Dear Edwina Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Book by Marcy Heisler Lyrics by Marcy Heisler Music by Zina Goldrich Overview / Synopsis Dear Edwina JR. is a heartwarming musical about the joys of growing up, from the creators of Junie B. Jones, The Musical. Written in a "show-within-a-show" format, Dear Edwina JR. is the perfect "girl power" musical for a new generation. Dear Edwina JR. follows the adventures of plucky advice-giver-extraordinaire, Edwina Spoonapple, as she directs the neighborhood kids in a series of buoyant production numbers for the latest edition of her weekly "Advice-a-Palooza." Edwina and her friends share wisdom on everything from trying new foods to making new friends through clever, catchy and poignant songs. Featuring a host of supporting roles that can be distributed widely or doubled (or even tripled), depending on your cast size, Dear Edwina JR. provides a perfect opportunity to showcase your young performers. Audio Sampler - HL00218201 $10.00 ShowKit - HL00218175 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 Actor's Scripts Director's Guide Piano/Vocal Score 2 Rehearsal/Accompaniment CDs Choreography DVD Media Disc 30 Family Matters Booklets 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 00218192 - Director's Guide $100.00 00218193 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00218194 - Actor's Script $10.00 00218195 - Actor's Script 10-pak $75.00 00218196 - Rehearsal/Accompaniment CDs $75.00 00218197 - Student Rehearsal CD $10.00 00218198 - Student Rehearsal CD 20-pak $100.00 00218199 - Choreography DVD $50.00 00218200 - Media Disc $10.00 00218201 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hear A Sample MUSICAL NUMBERS Paw-Paw Michigan Up On the Fridge Dear Edwina Here Comes a Letter Aphrodite Say No Thank You Becky's Cheers Another Letter Abigail Frankenguest Carrie Fork, Knife, Spoon Time for Intermission Here Come More Letters Periwinkle Hola, Lola Becky's Second Cheers Ziggy Put it in the Piggy Thanks for Coming 1 Edwina Thank for Coming 2 Up on the Fridge Breakdown Sing Your Own Song Hola, Lola (Encore) Edwina Spoonapple The creator, director and choreographer of The Dear Edwina Show and is the main-staple of the play. Her character goes through a tremendous arc throughout the series of events in the play; from frustration to relief, anger to joy, horror to happiness & all within one afternoon in her own garage! The role of Edwina demands your most talented actor to pull off her bossy yet lovable character. Also, since the play is designed around her and she has the most stage time, the actor playing Edwina should feel more than comfortable onstage. Edwina's music is also a bit challenging. Your actor should have a strong, clear voice with good diction. A musical background would be helpful. Gender: Female Vocal range: A3-C5 Becky Edwina's enthusiastic friend and the top of the cheerleading pyramid for the Paw Paw Wildcats. Cheerleading consumes her life and creating new cheers for everyday occasions brings her great joy. This girl even cheers her anger! Becky is a vocally non-demanding role with only a few vocal lines. Stage presence is more important when it comes to casting Becky. Cast the loudest, most outgoing un-shy person you can. Athletic ability, if not cheerleading experience, would be helpful, but not necessary. Gender: Female Scott A neighbor boy who is helplessly in love with Edwina. He dotes on her every move and is always conniving a way to gain her attention. Choose a strong actor who feels comfortable being bold with his emotions. A good singer is a must for this role. Scott's song requires vocal dexterity and is demanding in style. An actor with strong comedic timing will be an asset to your production during Scott's 'transformation.' Gender: Male Vocal range: C4-Ab5 Kelli Edwina's neighbor and Paw Paw, Michigan's resident ballerina. The character of Kelli can go one of two ways, depending on your talent pool. If you have a cast member with a background in ballet, great! Let her go wild, perhaps even choreograph her own piece, and turn "Poshkonozovich Dance" into a showcase. If the actor playing Kelli has no ballet experience, not a problem. We've all flapped our arms and stood on our tippy-toes pretending to be ballerinas, have her do the same and turn it into a comedy bit! No one said Kelli was a good ballerina. Gender: Female Bobby Edwina's new next-door neighbor. He is a friendly and compassionate character who goes out of his way to help others. The character of Bobby will be able to get away with imperfections throughout the show, as he is a last minute replacement for Lars. Cast an actor who is outgoing and gets along with everyone. Gender: Male Lars Vanderploonk One of the Vanderploonk triplets and a neighborhood friend of Edwina. He is incredibly accident-prone and twists his ankle in the first scene. Lars has many prat falls before he actually twists his ankle. Casting an actor with good physical comedy skills would be helpful (always remember that any staged fall or injury should be carefully choreographed and rehearsed to prevent a real injury. Safety first!). You may want to consider having Lars return to the stage a little while after his injury in a wheelchair, a cast or leg brace, or on crutches. This adds to the comedy of the play and opens up the casting of Lars for the actor who wants to be in your show so badly but isn't exactly Baryshnikov. Gender: Male Billy Vanderploonk One of the Vanderploonk triplets and a neighborhood friend of Edwina. He works double duty on The Dear Edwina Show by performing onstage and serving as Box Office Manager. Gender: Male Cordell Vanderploonk One of the Vanderploonk triplets and a neighborhood friend of Edwina. He works double duty in The Dear Edwina Show by performing onstage and serving as House Manager. Gender: Male Annie Edwina's friend and the Girl Scout of Paw Paw. Annie works for and collects her Girl Scout badges like they were buried treasure. No matter what problem may arise, she is prepared with the know-how and resources to solve it in a flash - A MacGyver for the new generation! She is perky, energetic and helpful & maybe even too helpful. Gender: Female Aphrodite One of the 'letter readers' in The Dear Edwina Show. They each have vocal solos (aside from the Marching Band, who only sing backup vocals) whereby they explain their dilemmas in hopes of receiving Edwina's advice. Consider casting these roles from your ensemble or you can have any of the other characters above perform one of the roles. Gender: Both Vocal range: A3-Eb5 Carrie One of the 'letter readers' in The Dear Edwina Show. They each have vocal solos (aside from the Marching Band, who only sing backup vocals) whereby they explain their dilemmas in hopes of receiving Edwina's advice. Consider casting these roles from your ensemble or you can have any of the other characters above perform one of the roles. Gender: Female Vocal range: B3-D5 Abigail One of the 'letter readers' in The Dear Edwina Show. They each have vocal solos (aside from the Marching Band, who only sing backup vocals) whereby they explain their dilemmas in hopes of receiving Edwina's advice. Consider casting these roles from your ensemble or you can have any of the other characters above perform one of the roles. Gender: Female Vocal range: B3-D5 Periwinkle One of the 'letter readers' in The Dear Edwina Show. They each have vocal solos (aside from the Marching Band, who only sing backup vocals) whereby they explain their dilemmas in hopes of receiving Edwina's advice. Consider casting these roles from your ensemble or you can have any of the other characters above perform one of the roles. Gender: Both Vocal range: Bb3-C5 Ziggy & The Marching Band One of the 'letter readers' in The Dear Edwina Show. They each have vocal solos (aside from the Marching Band, who only sing backup vocals) whereby they explain their dilemmas in hopes of receiving Edwina's advice. Consider casting these roles from your ensemble or you can have any of the other characters above perform one of the roles. Gender: Both Vocal range: Ab3-Ab4 Vladimir Edwina's scary uncle from afar. The actor should be a strong enough singer to feel comfortable with their own song and a strong enough actor to engage the audience with their story (and keep them engaged through the duration of the song). Impeccable diction is a must for this character as Vladimir's lines are written with a Transylvanian "Dracula" accent in mind. The actor may be pulled from the company or, depending on your cast size, carry just this one role. Gender: Male Vocal range: A3-F5 Frank A rude, self-centered, bratty, offensive, disrespectful, socially inept child and the subject of Vladimir's song, Frankenguest. This non-singing role requires the actor to speak their lines during musical breaks in the song. Cast an "over the top" actor and you'll be just fine. Gender: Male Chef Ludmilla Part of a team to instruct the rest of the company on how to set a table in "Fork, Knife, Spoon." Each actor should have strong music and vocal skills. Actors may be selected from the company or, depending or your cast size, carry just their one role. Gender: Both Vocal range: A3-F5 William Part of a team to instruct the rest of the company on how to set a table in "Fork, Knife, Spoon." Each actor should have strong music and vocal skills. Actors may be selected from the company or, depending or your cast size, carry just their one role. Gender: Male Vocal range: Eb4-F5 Sonoma Part of a team to instruct the rest of the company on how to set a table in "Fork, Knife, Spoon." Each actor should have strong music and vocal skills. Actors may be selected from the company or, depending or your cast size, carry just their one role. Gender: Both Vocal range: Eb4-F5 Fairy Forkmother Part of a team to instruct the rest of the company on how to set a table in "Fork, Knife, Spoon." Each actor should have strong music and vocal skills. Actors may be selected from the company or, depending or your cast size, carry just their one role. Gender: Female Vocal range: Bb4-Bb5 Susie & The Napkins Susie & The Napkins are a local band who have just come from a Battle of the Bands concert at the Paw Paw Community Center to sing "Say No Thank You." Susie and The Napkins should be able to move well, if you choose to choreograph the number. Johnny and The Queen act out the story in the lyrics. They are not required to sing, but to merely speak in rhythm during the song. Be sure you cast someone who can 'feel the beat.' Your actors may be selected from the company or, depending on your cast size, carry their one role. Gender: Both Vocal range: Bb3-D5 Johnny and Queen of Boola Boola Susie and The Napkins are a local band who have just come from a Battle of the Bands concert at the Paw Paw Community Center to sing "Say No Thank You." Susie and The Napkins should be able to move well, if you choose to choreograph the number. Johnny and The Queen act out the story in the lyrics. They are not required to sing, but to merely speak in rhythm during the song. Be sure you cast someone who can 'feel the beat.' Your actors may be selected from the company or, depending on your cast size, carry their one role. Gender: Both Vocal range: A3-F5 Lola New to America, Lola expresses her shyness in the song, "Hola, Lola." It would be helpful if this actor speaks Spanish or has a good ear for languages. She may be selected from the company or, depending on your cast size, carry this one role. Gender: Female Vocal range: B2-A4 Harry Lola's cousin and the reason she flies from Lima, Peru, to Honolulu. He is a fun, happy-go-lucky character who just wants to make sure his favorite cousin is having a good time. Harry may be selected from the company or, depending on your cast size, carry this one role. Gender: Male Vocal range: Ab2-C#4 Mary Sue Betty Bob Mary Sue Betty Bob's backup for "Put it in the Piggy." The girl company members play the "Girls" and the "Pigs" are played by the boy company members. Vocal range: C4-D5 Farmer Jerry, Girls and Pigs Mary Sue Betty Bob's backup for "Put it in the Piggy." The girl company members play the "Girls" and the "Pigs" are played by the boy company members. Gender: Male Katie Spoonapple Edwina's little sister and a math wiz. Although she arrives at the end of the play, she has the very important role of influencing Edwina's thoughts and feelings. It is Katie that brings about the climax of the play, showing Edwina the "best advice of all." Choose an actor who looks younger than Edwina or is diminutive in stature. Gender: Female Ann Van Buren The Kalamazoo Advice-A-Palooza talent scout. She is represented only by a brief voice-over that may be recorded beforehand. When it comes to casting this voice, think very L.A., sweetie darling. Gender: Female Myra/Myron Spoonapple Edwina's little sister/brother and musical director of The Dear Edwina Show (played by the Musical Director). Gender: Both Joe/Jo Spoonapple Edwina's older brother/sister. Percussionist of The Dear Edwina Show. Gender: Both

Hairspray Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Hairspray Jr. is not available for licensing at this time. MTI and the authors are refurbishing the materials, please check back for updates. Credits Book by Mark O'Donnell & Thomas Meehan Music by Marc Shaiman Lyrics by Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman Based on the New Line Cinema film written and directed by John Waters Overview / Synopsis One Act, Book Musical, Rated G Broadway Junior Version You can't stop the beat in this big and bold musical about one girl's inspiring dream to dance. (60-MINUTE VERSION FOR YOUNG PERFORMERS) The 1950s are out and change is in the air! HAIRSPRAY JR. the family-friendly musical piled bouffant high with laughter, romance, and deliriously tuneful songs is adapted from the Original Broadway Version which won 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical. It's 1962, and spunky plus-size teen Tracy Turnblad has one big dream -- to dance on the popular Corny Collins Show. When she finally gets her shot, she's transformed from social outcast to sudden star. In balancing her new-found power with her desire for justice, Tracy fights to dethrone the reigning Miss Teen Hairspray, Amber von Tussle, and integrate a TV network in the process. With the help of her outsized mom, Edna, and guest DJ Motormouth Maybelle, the rhythm of Tracy's new beat just might prove unstoppable. HAIRSPRAY JR. is filled with a host of parts for a wide cross-section of students and an abundance of energetic production numbers. HAIRSPRAY JR. is a show that will celebrate your students' diversity and bring audiences to their feet with its positive message and uproarious sense of humor. - See more HERE. Early on a Monday morning in early June, 1962, Tracy Turnblad wakes up to face another day, full of hope and big dreams (Good Morning Baltimore). After school, Tracy and her best friend Penny Pingleton race home to watch "The Corny Collins Show," a local teenage music and dance show on TV (The Nicest Kids in Town). On the show, teen idol Link Larkin pledges his love to Amber Von Tussle by giving her his Council Member ring, and Corny Collins announces auditions for new Council Members. Seeing her chance at stardom, Tracy plans to cut school and audition for the show, but her mother Edna Turnblad does not approve. Elsewhere, Penny and Amber also argue with their mothers (Mama I'm a Big Girl Now). Tracy goes to the audition, but is ridiculed by the girls on the show and sent away by Amber's mother and show producer, Velma Von Tussle. Sitting in detention, a frustrated Tracy learns some new dance moves from Seaweed J Stubbs, a black student whose mother is Motormouth Maybelle - the DJ who hosts the monthly Negro Day on "The Corny Collins Show." The next evening there is a school dance and there, Tracy is able to impress Corny with the new moves she picked up in detention, earning her a spot on "The Corny Collins Show." During her debut, Link Larkin sings a song just for Tracy (It Takes Two). Now a local star, Tracy gets an offer to be the spokes-girl for Mr. Pinky's The Hefty Hideaway, a clothing store, gets her mother out of the house for the first time in years as the duo heads to the store to update their wardrobes (Welcome to the Sixties). At school, Tracy continues to be teased by Amber and becomes the target in a dodgeball game. After the game, Link, Penny, and Seaweed stay behind to help Tracy, and there Seaweed invites them to join him at his mother's record shop (Run and Tell That). The Von Tussles barge in and spoil the party with their bigotry, however, this gives Tracy the idea to integrate "The Corny Collins Show" by having Motormouth and her daughter, Little Inez, crash Mother/Daughter Day on the show. Fears of police and jail don't stop Tracy from moving forward with the plan. Unfortunately, the plan for integration lands all of the mothers and daughters in jail (The Big Dollhouse). Everyone gets out, except Tracy who is denied bail (Baltimore - Reprise). Link comes to the rescue and professes his love for Tracy, while elsewhere Seaweed and Penny reveal their feelings for each other too (Without Love). The kids hatch a plan to get Tracy on the nationwide Miss Teenage Hairspray broadcast, and bring the news to Motormouth, who expresses that she will never stop fighting for equality (I Know Where I've Been). Corny Collins begins his nationwide broadcast ((It's) Hairspray) and introduces Amber for her dance (Cooties). Just before Amber is crowned Miss Teenage Hairspray, Tracy and her friends storm in and take over the show (You Can't Stop the Beat - Part 1). Corny declares Tracy as the new Miss Teenage Hairspray 1962, and Tracy declares that "The Corny Collins Show" is officially integrated. Edna makes a grand entrance, and even the Von Tussles can't resist the celebration (You Can't Stop the Beat - Part 2). Audio Sampler - HL00123343 $10.00 ShowKit - HL09971731 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 Actor's Books Choreography DVD Director's Guide 30 Family Matters Booklets Media Disk 2 Performance/Accompaniment CDs 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 09971732 - Director's Guide $100.00 09971733 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 09971734 - Actor's Script $10.00 00123341 - Actor's Script 10-Pak $75.00 09971735 - Rehearsal/Accompaniment CD $75.00 09971737 - Student Rehearsal CD $10.00 00123342 - Student Rehearsal CD 20-Pak $100.00 09971736 - Choreography DVD $50.00 09971738 - Media Disc $10.00 00123343 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hairspray Jr. is not available for licensing at this time. MTI and the authors are refurbishing the materials, please check back for updates. Hear A Sample Good Morning Baltimore The Nicest Kids In Town Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now The Nicest Kids (Reprise) It Takes Two Welcome To The Sixties Run and Tell That The Big Dollhouse Baltimore (Reprise) Without Love I Know Where I've Been (It's) Hairspray Cooties You Can't Stop The Beat (Part 1) You Can't Stop The Beat (Part 2) Hairspray Jr. is not available for licensing at this time. MTI and the authors are refurbishing the materials, please check back for updates. AMBER VONTUSSLE A prom queen nightmare! She is definitely "The Corny Collins Show" favorite, but she is competitive and has a bad attitude. Range: C4-E5 CORNY COLLINS The host of "The Corny Collins Show," and a Baltimore celebrity. Foremost, Corny is a charmer. Range: C3-G4 COUNCIL MEMBERS- BRAD, TAMMY, FENDER, SKETCH, SHELLEY, IQ, BRENDA and LOU ANN The famed teenage performers on "The Corney Collins Show." EDNA TURNBLAD Tracy's loving mother who doesn't spend much time outside the house. She works days and nights as a laundress in her home, and her lack of social interaction has made her a bundle of nerves. Range: Bb3-Eb5 LINK LARKIN Baltimore's biggest heartthrob, and Tracy's dream guy. Link is considered the best performer in town. Think of any teenage idol who is able to reduce girls to tears - there's your guy! Range: G2-A4 LITTLE INEZ STUBBS Seaweed's little sister and a great breakout role for a black actress. Range: Bb3-E5 MOTORMOUTH MAYBELLE MOTORMOUTH MAYBELLE is the face of the Civil Rights Movement and sings the beautiful anthem, "I Know Where I've Been." Range: F3-F5 MR. PINKY Owner of a ladies' clothing shop and is a salesperson inside and out - he is always the first to give a compliment. Range: C3-C4 PENNY PINGLETON Tracy's fun and sheltered sidekick. She is a young lady caught between her mother's very strict rules and her own wants and desires to be just another teenage girl. Range: C4-E5 PRUDY PINGLETON Penny's eccentric but loving mother, who wants the best for her daughter but is extreme in her means. SEAWEED J. STUBBS The object of Penny's affections, and together, they are determined to defy the segregation laws of the 1960s. Range: Gb2-Bb3 THE DUNAMITES (JUDINE, KAMILAH & SHAYNA) A dynamic musical trio, iconic of the Motown era and the 1960s. Think the Supremes. Range: E4-A5 TRACY TURNBLAD A young lady with big hair and an even bigger personality! She is the hero of our story and she is sweet but also strong in her convictions. She is bigger in size than the other girls, but she isn't shy about it - she can still dance with the best of them! Range: G3-C#5 VELMA VON TUSSLE A carbon copy of Amber - just twenty years older and meaner! She is most concerned with making sure her daughter wins Miss Teenage Baltimore. Range: C4-E5 WILBUR TURNBLAD Edna's loving husband and Tracy's supportive father who just wants the best for his girls.

Disney's High School Musical Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Book by David Simpatico Songs by Matthew Gerrard & Robbie Nevil; Ray Cham, Greg Cham & Andrew Seeley; Randy Petersen & Kevin Quinn; Andy Dodd & Adam Watts; Bryan Louiselle; David N. Lawrence & Faye Greenberg; Jamie Houston Music Adapted, Arranged and Produced by Bryan Louiselle Based on a Disney Channel Movie Written by Peter Barsocchini Overview / Synopsis One of the biggest pop-culture phenomena in recent memory, High School Musical topped the music charts and broke records within weeks of its 2006 Disney Channel premiere. Follow the antics of East High's most popular student as they come alive on your stage in this fun-tastic, family-friendly show that only Disney can bring you. Get'cha head in the game! Audio Sampler - HL00287703 $10.00 ShowKit - HL00287704 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 Libretto/Vocal Books Piano/Vocal Score Director's Script 2 Performance/Accompaniment CDs Choreography DVD 30 Family Matters Booklets Production Handbook Cross-Curricular Book 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 00287697 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00287696 - Director's Guide $100.00 00287694 - Actor's Book (Single) $10.00 00287695 - Actor's Book (10-Pak) $75.00 00287698 - Performance/Accompaniment CD $75.00 00287702 - Media Disc $10.00 00287701 - Choregraphy DVD $50.00 00287699 - Student Rehearsal CD (Single) $10.00 00287700 - Student Rehearsal CD (20-Pak) $100.00 00287703 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hear A Sample Scene 1 Wildcat Cheer [All] Start of Something New [Troy, Gabriella, All] Scene 4 Get'cha Head in the Game [Troy, Jocks] Get'cha Head in the Game (Playoff) [Troy, Jocks] Scene 7 Auditions (Bop to the Top / What I've Been Looking For) [All] What I've Been Looking For [Ryan, Sharpay] What I've Been Looking For (Reprise) [Troy, Gabriella] Scene 9 Stick to the Status Quo [All] Scene 14 Counting On You [Chad, Taylor, Zeke, Martha, Brainiacs, Jocks] Scene 16 We're All in This Together [All] Scene 17 Bop to the Top [Sharpay, Ryan, Jocks, Brainiacs, All] Breaking Free [Troy, Gabriella, All] Scene 18 We're All in This Together (Reprise) [All] Bows High School Musical Megamix [All] TROY BOLTON Troy Bolton, the most popular kid at East High, is the star of the basketball team who yearns to be more than what people want him to be. Troy discovers he loves to sing, but is afraid to admit it to his friends. Look for a solid young actor who can convey the full range of emotions and character traits Troy Bolton embodies: athletic, independent, sometimes shy, smitten with Gabriella, a true leader. Troy should be your strongest male singer and able to sing from his heart in a naïve yet convincing manner. He should also be able to move like a natural athlete while dancing and singing. JACK SCOTT Jack Scott is the nerdy school announcer who trips over his own feet. Think about casting a student who will make this role his own and can portray a "gift of gab" radio voice. Jack can be quirky in all aspects: looks, dress and comportment. Most importantly, look for a character actor with superior diction and good comic timing. CHAD DANFORTH Chad Danforth is a hot-wired jock, second in command to Troy. He is focused on winning his school's basketball championship, but is slowly understanding that there might be more to this world, including his sparring crush on Taylor. Look for an actor that partners naturally with Troy, is a leader in his own accord, and can handle Chad's couple of solos and large number of acting scenes. RYAN EVANS Ryan Evans is Sharpay's fraternal twin and a star in the making. This character loves singing, dancing and lots of attention. He follows Sharpay's orders, but wants to break free from her shadow. Choose a "triple threat" for this actor: strong singer, dancer and actor. Everything Ryan does is calculated and executed impeccably. It will probably be helpful to audition Ryan and Sharpay in pairs as the success of "Bop to the Top" depends on the duo. ZEKE BAYLOR Zeke Baylor is a basketball player on the Wildcats Team. He has two secrets: a crush on Sharpay and a love for baking! Zeke and Chad are the most prominent of Troy's friends, so look for an actor that can work with them while being able to stand out in his own spotlight, especially when he reveals his secrets! Zeke has solos, so make sure your actor can sing as well as act. COACH BOLTON Coach Bolton is the stern basketball coach and Troy's dad. He lost the big game years ago and wants a second chance through his son. Cast a student that can handle the demands of acting older than almost everyone else in the show. Coach Bolton is primarily an acting role, so focus on finding a student who can convincingly spar with Ms. Darbus. GABRIELLA MONTEZ Gabriella Montez is the new girl in school. Gabriella is intelligent, pretty ("girl next door" type) and shy. She possesses a fantastic voice when she sings with Troy. Look for a girl that can take positive risks with both her acting and singing. She must be able to portray her intelligence and independence and then easily switch over to her shy and vulnerable side. Cast an actress with a strong sense of pitch and the ability to hold her own with a partner in order to make the most of this role. Make sure a portion of your audition is seeing your potential Troys and Gabriellas as a pair. TAYLOR MCKESSIE Taylor McKessie, the head Brainiac of the school, is the president of the Science Club. She wants Gabriella to join the Science Decathlon team so they can finally win the competition. Taylor has a hidden soft spot for Chad, which might be why she is always making fun of him. Cast a girl that can portray Taylor's assertiveness as well as sing a solid solo. SHARPAY EVANS Sharpay Evans is the egocentric star of the school musicals. She is Ryan's older twin (and the alpha dog of the two) and has a mad crush on Troy. Sharpay has never met a mirror she didn't like. Look for someone who can portray a diva and has solid acting chops and strong singing and dancing skills. Sharpay knows how to work a crowd. She is in a good number of scenes, so cast an actress that can handle this sizable role. MARTHA COX Martha Cox is a proud member of the Science Club and is brainy with a secret love of dancing. She has a fun-loving sidekicky personality and becomes an adoring devotee of Gabriella. Cast an actor who is kind and funny. The role has important featured solos but the voice quality is not as important as the character. If you have a student that can show off some crazy brake dancing moves, bravo! Brava! KELSI NIELSEN Kelsi Nielsen is a thespian rehearsal pianist and student composer extraordinaire. Underneath her shy demeanor, Kelsi has no tolerance for people (read: Sharpay) who use their talent only to be number one. Cast an actor who can play the underdog but has the intelligence and ability to shoot the "zingers" at Sharpay with timing and accuracy. She must be coached to look like a pianist as she continually accompanies onstage. Kelsi has a small solo in "We're All in This Together," but it is secondary to her acting importance. The "group hug" with Troy and Gabriella has unbeatable charm if you cast a student who is smaller than the other two. MS. DARBUS Ms. Darbus is the eccentric drama teacher. She is an amusing blend of Gertrude Stein and Ethel Merman. Passionate and disciplined, she is always trying to expose students to the enrichment and fun of theatre. Cast an actress who knows how to milk every word, phrase and gesture for this role. She must make her eccentricities appear second nature. Ms. Darbus's acting skills and timing should be topnotch; her singing voice is secondary as she has no solos. Ms. Darbus exudes wacky, yet it doesn't detract from her true love of theatre and her students. ENSEMBLE The ensemble makes up all the other characters who populate East High School: Jocks, Brainiacs, Thespians, Skater Dudes, Cheerleaders, Ms. Tenny, Science Decathlon Moderator, etc., with a few featured solo parts further described below. The ensemble is present throughout the show and provides the vocal power for the group numbers. These roles vary in size and in vocal, acting and dance requirements, so you can cast performers with a wide range of abilities. The ensemble participates in several self-contained numbers, which provide great opportunities to use groups of students that can rehearse together. (For example, the sixthgrade chorus in one number, the seventh-grade classes in another, etc.) Don't be afraid to mix your age groups here. Look for students whose enthusiasm and ability to take direction can allow your ensemble to look like a perfect representation of your school and community. RIPPER Ripper is a cool skater dude who is, lo and behold, a cello player! Cast a student who can sell this fun "double personality" with one short but sweet air cello solo! In the big Audition scene, JAMES is the auditionee who sings so badly off key it would scare anyone! Cast a person who can confidently sound bad... this can be a challenge for a good musician. SUSAN is the "pop star wanna be" audition candidate. Cast someone who is not afraid to go over-the-top with this short yet humorous part. CATHY is the auditionee who can belt like Ethel Merman! Cast a student that can fill the auditorium with her voice. It doesn't need to be pretty! CYNDRA is the final auditionee and she sounds like an opera audition for the Met. If you have a young singer that can imitate an obnoxious vibrato in a serious manner, there's your perfect choice!

Disney's The Little Mermaid Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Lyrics by Glenn Slater Book by Doug Wright Lyrics by Howard Ashman Music by Alan Menken Overview / Synopsis In a magical kingdom fathoms below, the beautiful young mermaid Ariel longs to leave her ocean home to live in the world above. But first, she'll have to defy her father, King Triton, make a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, and convince Prince Eric that she's the girl with the enchanting voice. Adapted from Disney's 2008 Broadway production, Disney's The Little Mermaid JR. features the hit songs such as "Part of Your World," "She's in Love," and the Oscar®-winning "Under the Sea." Audio Sampler - HL08754783 $10.00 ShowKit - HL09971687 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 Actor's Scripts Piano/Vocal Score Director's Script Performance/Accompaniment & Guide Vocal Audio (Digital Only) Choreography Videos (Digital Only) Downloadable Media Resources (Digital Only) Digital Delivery Update Now you can receive digital access to many of the ShowKit components you know and love. Look forward to easily distributing these crucial components to your cast and creative team: Performance Accompaniment Tracks and Guide Vocal Tracks (Formerly Accompaniment CD & Rehearsal CD, respectively) will now be delivered together as a digital download and easily shared with your entire team, cast, and crew Choreography Videos (formerly the Choreography DVD) will be available to stream directly from mtishows.com. Now not only your choreographer but the entire cast will have access to fantastic step-by-step instruction for every Broadway Junior title! Downloadable Resources (formerly the Resources (or Media) Disc), including Audition Materials, a customizable press release, program and other helpful templates, and more can all be accessed with a click of a button 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 09971685 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 09971684 - Director's Script $100.00 09971686 - Actor's Script $10.00 09971745 - Actor's Script 10 Pak $75.00 09971688 - Performance/Accompaniment CD $75.00 09971689 - Choreography DVD $50.00 09971691 - Student Rehearsal CD $10.00 09971744 - Student Rehearsal CD 20 Pak $100.00 09971690 - Media Disc $10.00 08754783 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hear A Sample Fathoms Below [Pilot, Sailors, Prince Eric, Grimsby] Daughters of Triton [Mersisters] Human Stuff [Scuttle, Gulls, Ariel, Flounder] Part of Your World [Ariel] Under the Sea [Sebastian, Sea Creatures] Part of Your World (Reprise) [Ariel] She's in Love [Mersisters, Flounder] Poor Unfortunate Souls [Ursula, Flotsam, Jetsam, Tentacles] Beluga Sevruga [Ursula, Ariel] Les Poissons [Chef Louis, Chefs] One Step Closer [Prince Eric] Kiss the Girl [Sebastian, Lagoon Animals] The Contest [Grimsby, Princesses] Poor Unfortunate Souls (Reprise) [Ursula, Tentacles] Part of Your World (Finale) [Ariel, Company] Under the Sea (Bows) [Company] Ariel Ariel, the heroine of our story, is a little mermaid who longs to be human. Cast a strong singer and dynamic performer in this role. Ariel has some beautiful solos but must be able to convey meaning through gesture once she loses her voice. PRINCE ERIC Prince Eric is the adventurous prince who captures Ariel's heart. Look for a charming performer with a sensitive nature. Prince Eric has a few small solos, but it is more important to cast a strong actor in this role. SEBASTIAN Sebastian is the meticulous and anxious crab who tries to keep Ariel safe while getting to lead some of the most memorable songs in the show! Sebastian can be played by a boy or girl. FLOUNDER Flounder is Ariel's sincere and sensitive best friend who is loyal to the end. This spunky fish also has a show-stopping solo in "She's in Love." Flounder can be cast with a girl or a boy with an unchanged voice. KING TRITON King Triton rules the sea and is a force to be reckoned with. This non-singer needs to command the stage as a strong leader but also show the tenderness of a parent. Cast a mature performer who feels comfortable playing father to Ariel and the Mersisters. The Mersisters The Mersisters (Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Atina, Adella, Allana) are Ariel's siblings and full of personality and sass. These are great roles to showcase talented singers and dancers who can create and play six distinctive characters. URSULA Ursula is the manipulative sea witch who tries to overthrow King Triton. She is cunning and devious and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. TENTACLES The Tentacles are extensions of Ursula, perhaps the poor unfortunate souls who are now trapped in her lair. FLOTSAM & JETSAM Flotsam & Jetsam are Ursula's slippery spies. These electric eels are sinister and sneaky, so look for performers who can be underhanded and devious while still being heard on stage. Flotsam and Jetsam can be played by boys or girls. SCUTTLE Scuttle is the know-it-all seagull who serves as Ariel's expert on humans. He is funny and off-beat. Look for a performer with good comedic timing who is willing to have fun with Scuttle's eccentricities. Gulls The Gulls are Scuttle's flock of zany "back-up singers" who help explain human stuff to Ariel. GRIMSBY Grimsby is Prince Eric's prim and proper valet. He is rigid in personality and constantly trying to guide Prince Eric towards the throne. CHEF LOUIS Chef Louis is the over-the-top head chef in the palace. He is always wild and frenetic. This is an excellent featured role for a comedic performer. THE CHEFS The Chefs are Chef Louis's assistants. CARLOTTA Carlotta is the headmistress in Prince Eric's palace and Ariel's greatest human ally. This non-singing role needs to be warm and maternal to make Ariel feel welcome. THE SIX PRINCESSES The six Princesses try everything they can to win the heart of Prince Eric. The six Princesses can double as the six Mersisters. THE PILOT The Pilot is the head sailor on Prince Eric's ship. THE SAILORS The Sailors are the crew of Prince Eric's ship. THE SEAHORSE The Seahorse is the court herald for King Triton. SEA CHORUS The Sea Chorus is responsible for creating each world within the show. The Sea Chorus can double as Merfolk, Sea Creatures and Lagoon Animals. MERFOLK The Merfolk of King Triton's Court and can double as Sea Creatures. LAGOON ANIMALS The Lagoon Animals try to convince Prince Eric to kiss Ariel. This ensemble can double as the Sea Creatures.

Disney's Moana Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Music and lyrics by Opetaia Foa'I, Mark Mancina & Lin-Manuel Miranda Book adapted by Susan Soon He Stanton Music & Orchestrations adapted and arranged by Ian Weinberger Overview / Synopsis Disney's Moana JR. is a 60-minute musical adaptation of the 2016 Disney animated film, bringing the adventures of Moana and her village of Motunui to life onstage. Moana JR. features all the beloved songs from the film, written by Tony®, GRAMMY, Emmy, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa'i, and Mark Mancina, including "How Far I'll Go," "Shiny," and "You're Welcome." This thrilling and heartwarming coming-of-age story follows the strong-willed Moana as she sets sail across the Pacific to save her village and discover the truth about her heritage. Moana and the legendary demigod Maui embark on an epic journey of self-discovery and camaraderie as both learn to harness the power that lies within. With empowering messages of bravery and selflessness, Moana JR. is sure to bring out the hero within each of us. Celebrating the rich history of Oceania and based on the beliefs and cultures of the people of the Pacific Islands, Moana was developed in collaboration with an Oceanic Trust - a group of anthropologists, cultural practitioners, historians, linguists, and choreographers from the Pacific Islands. The same respect and attention to detail used to develop the film was carried forward in the creation of this stage adaptation, with a host of cultural resources available in the ShowKit® materials Audio Sampler - HL00303981 $10.00 ShowKit - HL00303985 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 Actor's Scripts Piano/Vocal Score Director's Script Performance/Accompaniment & Guide Vocal Audio (Digital Only) Choreography Videos (Digital Only) Downloadable Media Resources (Digital Only) Digital Delivery Update Now you can receive digital access to many of the ShowKit components you know and love. Look forward to easily distributing these crucial components to your cast and creative team: Performance Accompaniment Tracks and Guide Vocal Tracks (Formerly Accompaniment CD & Rehearsal CD, respectively) will now be delivered together as a digital download and easily shared with your entire team, cast, and crew Choreography Videos (formerly the Choreography DVD) will be available to stream directly from mtishows.com. Now not only your choreographer but the entire cast will have access to fantastic step-by-step instruction for every Broadway Junior title! Downloadable Resources (formerly the Resources (or Media) Disc), including Audition Materials, a customizable press release, program and other helpful templates, and more can all be accessed with a click of a button 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 00303976 - Director's Guide $100.00 00303978 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00303979 - Actor's Script $10.00 00303980 - Actor's Script 10-Pak $75.00 00303981 - Audio Sampler $10.00 In the Beginning... Tulou Tagaloa Where You Are (Part 1) Where You Are (Part 2) How Far I'll Go We Know the Way Where You Are (Reprise) How Far I'll Go (Reprise) You're Welcome Warrior Face (Part 1) Warrior Face (Part 2) Warrior Face (Part 3) Shiny (Part 1) Shiny (Part 2) Song of the Ancestors Warrior Face (Reprise) / Logo Te Pate Know Who You Are Te Fiti Restored Tulou Tagaloa (Reprise) We Know the Way (Reprise) Moana The vibrant, tenacious, and optimistic daughter of Motunui's chief. She struggles to reconcile her father's plans for her to take over as the village chief with her own desires to voyage beyond the reef. Ultimately, Moana proves a compassionate and capable leader. Cast an actor who can portray great maturity, possesses incredible energy, a fun sense of humor, and can confidently deliver songs like "How Far I'll Go." Gender: Female Range: D5 - G3 Maui A demigod and master wayfinder with charisma to spare and a reputation of being a trickster. Despite his hard exterior, Maui becomes a wonderful friend and mentor to Moana throughout their journey. Cast an actor with great comic timing who can portray this shapeshifter's larger-than-life personality through big gestures and high energy, making moments like "You're Welcome" true showstoppers. Note: The character Maui is based on the fabled Pacific Island demigod, so proceed with respect and caution in costuming and portrayal. Gender: Male Range: B3 - G2 Chief Ancestors (1-3) Chief Ancestors (1-3) are the three ancient leaders of Motunui. They guide Moana on her quest and narrate her story through speaking and singing solos. These ancestors should be animated storytellers who have excellent diction. Range: A4 - G3 Gramma Tala Moana's wise grandmother and the mother of Chief Tui. She is the village storyteller known for being eccentric and dancing to the beat of her own drum. Look for a playful actor and singer who can balance comic timing in "Where You Are (Part 2)" with heartfelt sincerity in "Song of the Ancestors." Gender: Female Range: B4 - G3 Chief Tui The proud leader of Motunui and Moana's father. He prioritizes the safety of his people and his family. For this beloved and respected ruler, cast a mature and poised actor who can sing very well. After Chief Tui's scenes at the top of the show, the actor can join the Maui, Monster, and/or Shiny ensembles before returning to this primary role at the show's end. Gender: Male Range: A#2 - E2 Sina Moana's supportive mother. She is compassionate, perceptive, and strong-willed, and trusts her daughter to make the right decisions. With both speaking and singing solos, look for a confident singer and actor who can embody a mature and respected leader. After Sina's scenes at the top of the show, the actor can join the Maui, Monster, and/or Shiny ensembles before returning to this primary role at the show's end. Gender: Female Range: C#5 - C#4 Pua Moana's fiercely loyal friend. Pua always supports Moana - even if it means facing her own fears. An actor who is also a confident singer can make Pua's moments in "Where You Are (Part 2),""How Far I'll Go," and "We Know the Way (Finale)" stand out. Range: C#5 - B3 Hei Hei Moana's not-so-bright friend. Hei Hei is well- meaning, but naive. Cast an actor who can portray Hei Hei's innocence and own both speaking and singing solos in "Where You Are (Part 2),""How Far I'll Go," and "We Know the Way (Finale)." Range: C#5 - B3 Tamatoa The vicious and egotistical giant crab who lives in Lalotai, the Realm of Monsters. Tamatoa enjoys gathering shiny baubles to add to an ever-growing collection. For this self-centered crab with a keen sense of showmanship, cast an actor who isn't afraid to own the stage and really shine. Range: B4 - B3 Ensemble Ensemble roles include Ancestor Ensemble, Ocean Ensemble, Villagers (Dancers, Weavers, Fishers 1 & 2), Maui Ensemble, Monsters, Gate Monster, Left Claw, Right Claw, Shiny Ensemble, Te Fiti, Te Kā

Peter Pan Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh Music by Morris "Moose" Charlap Additional Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green Additional Music by Jule Styne Overview / Synopsis Based on J.M. Barrie's classic tale and featuring an unforgettable score by Morris "Moose" Charlap and Jule Styne with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh and Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Peter Pan is one of the most beloved and frequently performed family favorites of all time. This high-flying Tony Award-winning musical has been performed around the world and delighted audiences for 60 years and is now adapted for young performers. Peter and his mischievous fairy sidekick, Tinkerbell, visit the nursery of the Darling children late one night and, with a sprinkle of pixie dust, begin a magical journey across the stars that none of them will ever forget. In the adventure of a lifetime, the travelers come face to face with a ticking crocodile, a fierce Indian tribe, a band of bungling pirates and, of course, the villainous Captain Hook. Featuring the iconic songs, "I'm Flying," "I've Gotta Crow," "I Won't Grow Up" and "Never Never Land," and a rousing book full of magic, warmth and adventure, Peter Pan JR. is the perfect show for the child in all of us... who dreamed of soaring high and never growing up. It's is a dream come true for groups looking to bring magic to their stage and entertain countless families. Audio Sampler - HL00173430 $10.00 ShowKit - HL00173420 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 Student Books Director's Guide Piano/Vocal Score 2 Accompaniment CDs Media Disc Choreography DVD 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 00173421 - Director's Guide $100.00 00173422 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00173423 - Student Book $10.00 00173424 - Student Book 10-pak $75.00 00173425 - Perf/Accomp CD pack $75.00 00173426 - Student Rehearsal CD $10.00 00173427 - Student Rehearsal CDs 20-Pak $100.00 00173428 - Choreography DVD $50.00 00173429 - Media Disc $10.00 00173430 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hear A Sample Neverland [Peter, Lost Boys, Brave Girls, Darling Family] Prologue Tender Shepherd [Mrs. Darling, Wendy, John, Michael] I'm Flying [Peter, Wendy, John, Michael, Ensemble] Pirate March [Pirates, Lost Boys] Hook's Tango [Hook, Pirates] Brave Girl Dance [Tiger Lily, Brave Girls] Wendy [Peter, Lost Boys] Hook's Tarantella [Hook, Pirates] I Won't Grow Up [Peter, Lost Boys, John, Michael] Ugh-A-Wug [Peter, Tiger Lily, Brave Girls, Lost Boys, Children] Distant Melody [Wendy, Peter, Lost Boys] I Gotta Crow [Peter, Tiger Lily, Brave Girls, Lost Boys, Children] Nursery Music [Wendy, John, Michael] Finale Ultimo [Full Cast] Peter Pan Peter Pan is a boy without a care in the world. Originally written for and cast as a female, this role is for a girl with a soaring can-do spirit who most certainly "won't grow up!" Cast a young girl who can do it all: act, sing, and be as physical as the part demands. Again, Peter Pan is intended to be played by a girl. Gender: Both Vocal range: C5-F3 Wendy Wendy is the eldest of the Darling children and has a certain maternal quality. Wendy is very bright, ever-practical and ready for an adventure! Cast a young lady with warm presence and great singing voice. Gender: Female Vocal range: Ab3-Db5 John John is the middle Darling child and has an amicable and open presence. A little more proper than his younger brother, look for a good actor and singer who is the perfect complement to his siblings. Gender: Male Vocal range: Ab3-Db5 Michael Michael is the youngest Darling boy and seems to have unlimited energy. Find a good actor who can easily portray the youngest and most stubborn of the Darling children. If your actor also possesses a terribly cute disposition, that's perfect! Gender: Male Vocal range: Ab3-Db5 Nana Nana is a dog, but you don't need to find a real dog to fill the part! Cast a young performer who is unafraid to jump in and play this iconic part of the story. This performer should have a knack for physicality and be comfortable making bold acting choices. Gender: Both Mrs. Darling Mrs. Darling is the mother of Wendy, John and Michael, and she is the perfect picture of a mother. Cast a young lady who reads onstage as an older character and is experienced in acting and singing. Gender: Female Vocal range: Ab3-Db4 Mr. Darling Mr. Darling is the father of Wendy, John and Michael, and he is a man with one concern: keeping his house in order. Cast a young man with an older presence who is a perfect complement to Mrs. Darling. Gender: Male Liza Liza is the Darling's housekeeper who always seems to be in a bit of a frenzy as she tries to keep everyone pleased. This is a great cameo role for a young woman who can make strong character choices. Gender: Female Tiger Lily Tiger Lily is the fearless leader of the Brave Girls. Cast a young lady who can command the stage and is a good actor, singer and mover. Gender: Female Vocal range: Ab3-Db5 Brave Girls The Brave Girls, including Brave Girl #1, Brave Girl #2 and Small Brave Girl, are a group of Neverland inhabitants. They are a fun bunch of girls who are as strong as they are kind. Cast a group of young ladies who are proficient movers as well as competent singers. Gender: Female Vocal range: Ab3-Db5 Lost Boys The Lost Boys are a group of lads who live in Neverland without a care in the world! Cast advanced performers (and good singers) in the roles of Nibs, Slightly, Curley, Tootles, Twin #1 and Twin # 2. There is no need for the actors playing the Twins to be identical. If you create strong physical action to link the two, they can be anybody. Feel free to cast as many Lost Boys as desired, ideally making sure that the group is comparable in size to that of the Brave Girls. Gender: Male Vocal range: Bb3-C5 Pirates The Pirates are a gaggle of villains who are looking to cause some trouble. Cast a group of young performers, male, female or both that can act, move well, and aren't afraid to sing! Noodles, Cecco, and Starkey are all are great cameo roles for young performers to make strong acting choices. Gender: Both Captain Hook Captain Hook, the leader of the Pirates, has a bone to pick... or rather a Peter Pan to hook! This is the perfect role for a young performer who can sing and act, but above all, has great comedic timing. Though Captain Hook is the villain of the show, he's also a bit of a clown who just can't seem to get what he wants. He has to be as treacherous to the Lost Boys as he is a complete wimp around the Crocodile. Cast a strong actor who can make bold choices. Gender: Male Vocal range: B3-E5 Smee Smee is Captain Hook's sidekick who wants nothing more than to see Captain Hook succeed in his evil plotting. Cast a young performer who is a solid actor and a great complement for Captain Hook. Gender: Male Crocodile Like Nana, the Crocodile is a silent part for a young performer who can take a leap and become the wickedest beast that ever was! Cast a performer who can fill the role with life and great presence. Gender: Both

Seussical Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Music by Stephen Flaherty Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens Book by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty Co-Conceived by Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty and Eric Idle Based on the works of Dr. Seuss Music Supervised, Adapted and Produced by Bryan Louiselle Overview / Synopsis After all those years being stuck on a page, Did you ever imagine you'd see me onstage?" So says the mischievous Cat in the Hat at the onset of this fantastical, magical, musical extravaganza! All of our favorite Dr. Seuss characters come to life in this delightful Seussian gumbo of musical styles, ranging from Latin to pop, swing to gospel, and R&B to funk! So let your toes tap, your fingers snap, and your imagination run wild for "Oh, the thinks you can think, when you think about Seuss!" Audio Sampler - HL00257760 $10.00 ShowKit - HL00257761 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 Libretto/Vocal Books Piano/Vocal Score Director's Script 2 Performance/Accompaniment CDs Choreography DVD 30 Family Matters Booklets Production Handbook Cross-Curricular Book 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 00257751 - Director's Guide $100.00 00257752 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00257753 - Actor's Script $10.00 00257754 - Actor's Script 10-Pak $75.00 00257755 - Performance/Accompaniment CDs $75.00 00257756 - Student Rehearsal CD $10.00 00257757 - Student Rehearsal CD 20-Pak $100.00 00257758 - Choreography DVD $50.00 00257759 - Media Disc $10.00 00257760 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hear A Sample Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! Horton Hears a Who Biggest Blame Fool Biggest Blame Playoff / Gertrude McFuzz Here on Who Meet JoJo the Who How to Raise a Child Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! (Reprise) It's Possible (Pt. 1) It's Possible (Pt. 2) Alone in the Universe The One Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz / Amayzing Mayzie Amayzing Gertrude (Pt. 1) Amayzing Gertrude (Pt. 2) Monkey Around / Chasing the Whos Notice Me, Horton How Lucky You Are Mayzie's Exit / Horton Sits on the Egg / Dilemma / Hunters Egg, Nest and Tree Sold / Mayzie in Palm Beach Mayzie at the Circus Amayzing Horton Alone in the Universe (Reprise) Solla Sollew Gertrude / Espionage (Pt. 1) Gertrude / Espionage (Pt. 2) All for You The Whos Return / The People Versus Horton the Elephant (Pt. 1) The People Versus Horton the Elephant (Pt. 2) Yopp! Alone in the Universe (Reprise) Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! (Finale) Green Eggs and Ham (Finale Bows) Exit Music The Cat in the Hat The Cat in the Hat is the essence of mischief, fun, and imagination. The Cat stirs things up, causes trouble, but always sets things right again, helping JoJo to discover the power of his own imagination as they create the story for the show together. Look for a physically adept actor (male or female) to play THE CAT, one who will be able to play many comic cameos and is comfortable improvising with an audience. The Cat does not need to be your strongest singer, but should still have good rhythm and timing. JoJo JoJo is a "Thinker", a smart child with a wild imagination. He can be played as being a little bit awkward, a little bit of a loner, or simply a rambunctious kid whose Thinks get him into constant trouble. By the end of the show, he learns what it means to be a responsible member of his world, using the power and possibilities of his own Thinks. He should be one of your stronger singers. Horton the Elephant Horton the Elephant is a gentle giant. Think of him as a big-hearted blue-collar guy who is steadfast, responsible and always tries to do the right thing for his friends. He is imaginative and receptive to the world around him. He is very unselfconscious. Horton's view of the world never changes - he believes in its goodness. By the end of the show, without even realizing it, he is ready to become a parent. Gertrude McFuzz Gertrude McFuzz is very self-conscious and aware that her one-feather tail isn't perfect. Gertrude changes during the show from a neurotic, nervous and shy bird into one with the power to protect and care for a baby elephant bird and commit herself to Horton. In other words, she stops worrying about her looks and grows up. Mayzie La Bird Mayzie La Bird is self-centered, selfish, and vain. Mayzie will never admit to her own flaws. She manipulates anyone she can into doing what she wants. But Mayzie isn't all bad. In giving up her egg to Horton once and for all, she has a moment of generosity: she realizes she isn't the kind of person who would be a good parent, and she does the best thing she can for the egg. Sour Kangaroo Sour Kangaroo isn't really sour at all. She's just got a lot of attitude. She's loud, brassy, and a lot of fun. The Wickersham Brothers The Wickersham Brothers are not bad guys! They're simply a lot like kids who tease, play pranks, and get a kick out of making mischief, although often at others' expense. They enjoy hanging around with one another, making music together on the street corner, and playing off on another. Encourage each of your actors to find their own Wickersham persona. The Whos The Whos are a lot like you and me, only so small as to be invisible. Don't think of them as weird little aliens. They should be played for their inherent humanity. Encourage everyone playing a Who to try and create his or her own unique character. Mr. and Mrs. Mayos Mr. and Mrs. Mayos are Whos who are parents trying hard to raise a difficult child in a difficult world. They may get aggravated with JOJO, but they love him dearly and try to do the right thing, even if it turns out to be a mistake. The Jungle Creatures The Jungle Creatures are real people at heart, just like us, even though they may be described as animal characters. We discourage masks and literal "animal costumes." Each student should be encouraged to create his or her own individual character with human characteristics.

Singing In The Rain Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Screenplay by Betty Comden & Adolph Green Songs by Nacio Herb Brown & Arthur Freed Based on the classic Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film, by special arrangement with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Inc. Overview / Synopsis The "Greatest Movie Musical of All Time" is faithfully and lovingly adapted by Broadway legends Betty Comden and Adolph Green from their original award-winning screenplay in Singin' In The Rain JR. Hilarious situations, snappy dialogue, and a hit-parade score of Hollywood standards make Singin' In The Rain JR. a guaranteed good time for performers and audience members alike. Singin' In The Rain JR. has all the makings of a Tinseltown tabloid headline - the starlet, the leading man and a love affair that could change lives and make or break careers! In silent movies, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are a hot item, but behind the scenes things aren't always as they appear on the big screen! Meanwhile, Lina's squeaky voice might be the end of her career in "talking pictures" without the help of a talented young actress to do the talking and singing for her. Three extraordinary roles for young dancers and a tour de force comedic turn make Singin' In The Rain JR. a perfect choice for any group with an abundance of talent ready to shine. Audio Sampler - HL00151890 $10.00 ShowKit - HL00151881 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: Production Guide Director's Guide P/V Vocal Score 30 Actor Scripts 2 Rehearsal CDs 2 Accompaniment CDs Media Disc Choreographic DVD Cross-curricular Guide 30 Family Matters Booklets 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 00151882 - Director's Guide $100.00 00151883 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00151884 - Actor's Script $10.00 00151885 - Actor's Script 10-pak $75.00 09971451 - Perf/Accomp CD $75.00 00151886 - Student Rehearsal CD $10.00 00151887 - Student Rehearsal CD 20-pak $100.00 00151888 - Choreography DVD $50.00 00151889 - Media Disc $10.00 00151890 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hear A Sample SCENE 1 Fit As a Fiddle [Cosmo, Don, Crowd] SCENE 3 All I Do is Dream of You [Kathy, Kathy's Girls] SCENE 4 Make 'Em Laugh [Cosmo, Stagehands, Chorus Girls] Lucky Star [Kathy] You Were Meant For Me [Don, Kathy] SCENE 5 Moses Supposes [Don, Cosmo, Students] SCENE 6 Good Morning [Kathy, Cosmo, Don] Singin' in the Rain [Don, Ensemble] SCENE 7 Lina's Film Would You [Lina] Kathy's Film Would You [Kathy] What's Wrong With Me [Lina] SCENE 8 Broadway Melody [Broadway Melody Host, Dancers, Chorus] SCENE 9 Lina's Would You [Lina, Kathy, Cosmo] Lucky Star (Reprise) [Don, Kathy, Ensemble] Bows [Cast] Dora Bailey Always first on the scene for any major film opening, and she has the Hollywood scoop. This is a perfect non-singing role for a student with a great speaking voice who isn't quite ready for a lead. Gender: Female Don Lockwood Hollywood's leading man in silent film. Charming and charismatic, Don has no shortage of female admirers. Don is smart and levelheaded; he likes being a famous Hollywood actor, but he doesn't let the celebrity hype go to his head. Cast your best male singer and actor in this role, and someone who pairs well with Kathy. Gender: Male Vocal Range: Eb4 - Bb2 Lina Lamont A glamorous star of Hollywood's silent films. She believes everything amazing she reads about herself in the gossip magazines, including that she and Don Lockwood are madly in love. Your actress will have to work to accomplish the right amount of exasperating ditz to bring this character to life. Cast a confident, comedic actress who is not afraid to take positive risks and can keep Lina's nasal, grating voice consistent throughout the entire show. Gender: Female Vocal Range: Db5 - Bb3 Cosmo Brown Often serves as the comic relief in the show. Quick-witted and sure-footed, Cosmo is fast with a one-liner to lighten the mood. Cosmo is Don's right-hand man, and it's great to cast someone who physically contrasts with Don. Cast someone with great comedic chops and a strong musical sense as he leads many numbers in the show. Gender: Male Vocal Range: Eb5 - Bb2 Roz Always by Lina's side, or trailing after her. As Lina's manager, Roz works hard to make sure nothing upsets her. This non-singing character is a great supporting role for a promising young actress. Gender: Female R.F. Simpson The studio producer in charge of "Lockwood-Lamont" films. R.F.'s first and foremost goal is to make money, and if that means doing a talkie film that's fine with him. Cast a character actor who can show off R.F.'s anxious boss persona. This is a great non- singing role for a physically smaller actor with a big voice. Gender: Male Dexter The studio's director for Lamont and Lockwood films. He's loud and blustery, and he's easily frustrated with his assistants and Lina. This is a perfect non-singing role for an actor with a big voice who can show his frustration as he works to complete his first talkie. Gender: Male Dexter's Assistants Dexter's 1st, 2nd and 3rd Assistants are great featured roles for ensemble members who are new to the stage. Gender: Both Kathy Selden Wants to become an actress. She takes her career as an artist seriously and is embarrassed that she has to take jobs like singing and popping out of a cake just to get by. Cast your strongest singer and actress who can easily portray an honest likability as well as a tough exterior. An actress who pairs well with Don is also important as they have many scenes together. Gender: Female Vocal Range: Eb5 - G3 Miss Dinsmore and the Teacher The vocal coaches hired to turn Lina's voice into cultured perfection and to work with all of the other actors in the show. Tough, proper and slightly overworked, these characters are great roles to feature your hard-working ensemble members. These are non-solo singing roles. Gender: Female Zelda Lina's right-hand gal, who informs her that Kathy's voice is being dubbed over hers. Zelda can be dramatic and over-the-top like Lina, but at her core, she cares about her friend. This is a fantastic featured role for a confident performer who is unafraid to make bold choices. Gender: Female Sam A sound engineer, should be all business. Cast a young person who is comfortable taking charge onstage. Gender: Both Broadway Melody Host A natural leader. This role can be male or female and should be one of your stronger singers. This actor doesn't need to be an excellent dancer, but he or she needs to command the stage with an air of confidence. Gender: Both Vocal Range: F5 - Bb2 Broadway Dancers Broadway Dancers #1 and #2 are featured in "Broadway Melody" and should be excellent singers and dancers. Gender: Both Vocal Range: F5 - C3 Chorus Girls The Chorus Girls #1, #2, #3 and #4 are great featured singing roles in "Make 'Em Laugh." They don't need to be great singers as long as they can convey character and are able to be heard. Gender: Female Vocal Range: D5 - C4 Stagehands Stagehands #1, #2 and #3 are great featured singing roles in "Make 'Em Laugh." They don't need to be great singers as long as they can convey character and are able to be heard. Gender: Both Vocal Range: C5 - F4 Ensemble The ensemble roles in Singin' In The Rain JR. are comprised of the Crowd, Pedestrians, including Pedestrian #1 and Pedestrian #2, Stars, Fans, including Fan #1 and Fan #2, Policeman, Party Guests, including Young Lady, Kathy's Girls, Chorus Girls, Broadway Chorus, Guests, a Sound Engineer, Stagehands, Students, Sound Crew, Screening Guests, a Passerby, the Butler, Orchestra Leader and Audience Members. They really make the 1920s Golden Age of Hollywood come alive and are essential to this romantic light-hearted comedy. These ensemble groups are filled with named characters that have lines, so many of your ensemble students will have featured moments. Depending on your cast size, these ensemble groups can all be double or triple cast. Even if you have actors playing three or four different ensemble roles, emphasize the importance of character, and make sure your young performers make consistent character choices when they step onstage. Gender: Both

Sister Act Jr. - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Music by Alan Menken Lyrics by Glenn Slater Book by Bill & Cheri Steinkellner Additional Book Material by Douglas Carter Beane Overview / Synopsis It's Christmas Eve in 1977 Philadelphia, and Deloris is in the middle of a high- energy audition with her backup singers ("Take Me To Heaven (Nightclub)"). She and the girls are performing for Curtis, Deloris's boyfriend, and his thugs, Joey, TJ, Pablo, and Ernie. Despite praise from the thugs, Curtis doesn't believe Deloris and her singers are ready to perform in his club. After this rejection and a disappointing Christmas gift, Deloris decides that she deserves better, walking away from Curtis and his club with confidence ("Fabulous, Baby!"). However, Deloris is unwillingly drawn back in when she accidentally witnesses Curtis murdering Ernie for being a police informant. Curtis confronts her, but she flees. Deloris goes straight to the police station where Officer Eddie Souther takes an interest in what she has to say. Immediately recognizing the officer as "Sweaty Eddie," a boy who had a crush on her in high school, Deloris puts her faith in Eddie, trusting him to find her a place to hide from her dangerous boyfriend. Eddie thinks of "the perfect place," Queen of Angels Cathedral in South Philadelphia. Mother Superior hesitates to take in the "wayward woman" Monsignor O'Hara describes, but upon his insistence, she agrees. Both Deloris and Mother Superior are shocked when they discover Deloris will be hiding there for a month. Mother Superior is especially distressed to discover that Deloris is not religious. She describes Deloris's new environment to her, handing her a nun's habit to wear ("Here Within These Walls"). Mother Superior introduces Deloris to the nuns, referring to her as Sister Mary Clarence "from a more progressive order." The nuns say a prayer and begin to eat dinner, but when Deloris complains about the food, Mother Superior proposes a fast. While Deloris complains, the nuns enthusiastically share all the reasons why they love being nuns ("It's Good To Be A Nun"). Mother Superior and Deloris are left alone, and Mother Superior has a proposition: would Deloris like to join the choir? The singer quickly says she will. The next morning, Deloris arrives at choir practice and is immediately shocked at how terrible the choir sounds. The nuns, however, are amazed at Deloris's musical talent. Taking the musical baton from choir leader Mary Lazarus, Deloris reminds the nuns that they are "rejoicing" and "singing to the Lord." She encourages the nuns to sing louder, to sing on key, and to blend with each other. By the end of the rehearsal, the choir sounds incredible ("Raise Your Voice"). The choir continues to impress at the next church service, where they draw crowds the church hasn't had for a long time ("Take Me To Heaven (Nun Choir Version)"). But not everyone is impressed by the choir's new sound - Mother Superior calls Eddie to the church, asking him to take Deloris away. Eddie relays this command to Deloris, who is frustrated and concerned that Curtis will find her. She is disappointed with Eddie, and Eddie wishes desperately that he could be her knight in shining armor ("I Could Be That Guy"). Deloris approaches Mother Superior about the choir, trying to get her to understand their performances could be beneficial to the church. Mother Superior disagrees... until Monsignor O'Hara reports that the church is receiving a large number of donations. Mother Superior agrees to keep Deloris in the choir, and the next church service is even more energetic than the previous one ("Sunday Morning Fever - Part 2"). Positive publicity flows in, and the choir is even invited to perform for the pope! The nuns are ecstatic. However, all the publicity has a price - Curtis and his thugs recognize Deloris on TV. They hatch a plot to get into the convent and steal her away ("Lady In The Long Black Dress"). Right before their performance for the pope, the nuns nervously gather in Deloris's room. They ask her to lead them in a blessing, and she does ("Bless Our Show"). Suddenly, Mother Superior bursts into the room, telling Deloris she is in danger and must leave. The nuns are confused - who is Deloris? The musician reveals her true identity and the reason she has been staying in the convent. Though the nuns are shocked and saddened by the news, sweet young postulant Mary Robert approaches Deloris and asks to go with her. The young woman is beginning to doubt being a nun is her true calling ("The Life I Never Led"). Deloris tells her she can't make Mary Robert's decision for her; she must figure that out herself. Mary Robert leaves Deloris her rosary, and Deloris expresses her wish to stay with her sisters ("Sister Act"). The nuns are rehearsing for their performance for the pope when Deloris walks into the room. She has chosen to perform with them, and the nuns are overjoyed. But their joy is quickly interrupted when they hear the sound of a window breaking. Curtis has come for Deloris! The nuns scatter, attempting to hide their sister. After a few minutes of antics, Curtis corners Mary Robert, and Deloris steps in to protect her. With her sisters behind her and Curtis coming for her, Deloris kneels and prays ("Sister Act (Reprise)"). Curtis crosses to Deloris, ready to strike, when Eddie jumps out from the middle of the nuns, surprising the thug. The cops handcuff Curtis and take him away, and Deloris rewards Eddie with a kiss. Mother Superior asks if Deloris will come back to the church to visit, and Deloris says she will be back often to sing. The sisters end the show with a rousing performance for the pope ("Spread The Love Around"). Audio Sampler - HL00294768 $10.00 ShowKit - HL00294771 $695.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 Actor's Scripts Piano/Vocal Score Director's Script Performance/Accompaniment & Guide Vocal Audio (Digital Only) Choreography Videos (Digital Only) Downloadable Media Resources (Digital Only) Digital Delivery Update Now you can receive digital access to many of the ShowKit components you know and love. Look forward to easily distributing these crucial components to your cast and creative team: Performance Accompaniment Tracks and Guide Vocal Tracks (Formerly Accompaniment CD & Rehearsal CD, respectively) will now be delivered together as a digital download and easily shared with your entire team, cast, and crew Choreography Videos (formerly the Choreography DVD) will be available to stream directly from mtishows.com. Now not only your choreographer but the entire cast will have access to fantastic step-by-step instruction for every Broadway Junior title! Downloadable Resources (formerly the Resources (or Media) Disc), including Audition Materials, a customizable press release, program and other helpful templates, and more can all be accessed with a click of a button 60-Minute JR. Request Individual Components 00294756 - Director's Guide $100.00 00294757 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00294758 - Actor's Script $10.00 00294759 - Actor's Script 10-pak $75.00 00294768 - Audio Sampler $10.00 MUSICAL NUMBERS TAKE ME TO HEAVEN (NIGHTCLUB) FABULOUS, BABY! THE PERFECT PLACE HERE WITHIN THESE WALLS IT'S GOOD TO BE A NUN RAISE YOUR VOICE TAKE ME TO HEAVEN (NUN CHOIR VERSION) I COULD BE THAT GUY SUNDAY MORNING FEVER TAKE ME TO HEAVEN (NEWSCAST) LADY IN THE LONG BLACK DRESS BLESS OUR SHOW THE LIFE I NEVER LED SISTER ACT SISTER ACT (REPRISE) SPREAD THE LOVE AROUND Deloris Van Cartier A strong, street- wise aspiring singer who gets caught up with the wrong crowd. When she witnesses a crime involving her ex-boyfriend, she is put in witness protection - as a nun! Deloris is reluctant at first, but the more time she spends at the convent, the more she realizes that time with the sisters is exactly what she needed. Cast a great actress and wonderful singer in this powerhouse role. Tina One of Deloris's backup singers. These featured roles are perfect for enthusiastic performers who may not be quite ready to take on a larger role. Cast solid, good singers who are comfortable with speaking lines in this fun girl group! (And feel free to add these actors to your nun ensemble later in the show.) Nina One of Deloris's backup singers. These featured roles are perfect for enthusiastic performers who may not be quite ready to take on a larger role. Cast solid, good singers who are comfortable with speaking lines in this fun girl group! (And feel free to add these actors to your nun ensemble later in the show.) Elle One of Deloris's backup singers. These featured roles are perfect for enthusiastic performers who may not be quite ready to take on a larger role. Cast solid, good singers who are comfortable with speaking lines in this fun girl group! (And feel free to add these actors to your nun ensemble later in the show.) Michelle One of Deloris's backup singers. These featured roles are perfect for enthusiastic performers who may not be quite ready to take on a larger role. Cast solid, good singers who are comfortable with speaking lines in this fun girl group! (And feel free to add these actors to your nun ensemble later in the show.) Curtis Jackson To put it frankly, a complete jerk. He's not only mean and dishonest, he's also dangerous - and he's got Deloris on his radar. Curtis does not sing a solo, so cast a fantastic actor in this role who can make the most out of playing the bad guy. Joey The wise guy of Curtis's group. He's an upbeat charmer who is always ready with a joke - even though he's one of Curtis's criminals. Cast a charismatic, funny actor with a great singing voice in this role. TJ Not the brightest bulb in the bunch, and the audience is meant to have a few laughs at his expense. Cast a solid comedic actor who has great chemistry onstage with Joey and Pablo. Pablo The strong, silent type who definitely leans into his role as the muscle of the group. He has a few lines and sings some, but most importantly, he should make a great third member of the trio with Joey and TJ. Ernie One of Curtis's thugs and, unfortunately, takes the fall for being a police informant. This is a featured role for a good actor! Feel free to double Ernie as an Altar Boy or the Monsignor O'Hara later in the show if your program is short on male actors - just make sure that the audience won't confuse the characters if they are played by the same person. Cop The first person to talk to Deloris about Ernie's murder. This is a featured role for a performer who may be new to the stage. Eddie Souther The quintessential good guy with a heart of gold. Though Eddie was overlooked by Deloris in high school, he never quite got over his crush on her, which results in a few awkwardly endearing moments throughout the show. Cast an excellent actor, singer, and dancer who can portray this hardworking, sweet, dependable cop. Mother Superior Devoted leader of the convent. Her church and her sisters come before all else - and she's not afraid to voice her opinion. Mother Superior means well and eventually comes around regarding Deloris. Mother Superior is a major role, so look for an excellent singer and actress who can portray this strong, independent woman. Monsignor O'Hara The charming spiritual leader of the Queen of Angels Cathedral. His bottom line is to save their church, and he will do anything to support the bottom line - including forcing Mother Superior to house Deloris. Monsignor O'Hara should have a good stage presence and a sense of comic timing. He does not sing a solo in the show, so cast an actor with charisma who can take over the stage! Mary Patrick A nun in the convent. She is an upbeat, over-the-top, enthusiastic person who is always looking on the bright side. She has a number of solos within songs, so cast a good singer and actor in this fun role. Mary Robert A postulant and the youngest of the abbey's inhabitants. Shy, soft- spoken, and a bit of a wallflower, she enjoys being a nun, but her friendship with Deloris lets her truly find her voice. Cast a powerhouse singer and a great actor in this role. Mary Lazarus One of the older nuns at the convent, and she leads the choir. She is rather deadpan and not particularly welcoming to Deloris at first, though Deloris's love of music eventually wins her over. Cast a great character actor with a sense of comic timing who is comfortable with character singing. Mary Martin-Of-Tours A nun who definitely exists in her own world, so cast a good actor in this role that can make strong character choices. This nun has some wonderful stand-out moments, which include delivering an excellent karate chop, but she does not sing a solo, so cast someone who is a stronger actor than singer for this memorable role. Mary Celeste Mary Celeste and Mary Irene are the convent's cooks. They have a few featured solos, so cast confident singers in these roles. Mary Irene Mary Celeste and Mary Irene are the convent's cooks. They have a few featured solos, so cast confident singers in these roles. Mary Stephen A nun in the convent with a fantastic singing voice. She's supportive of Deloris's music from the start. Cast a great singer. Mary Theresa The oldest nun in the convent. She has a few featured lines and a small solo. This role is a great opportunity for someone new to the stage, so cast a good actor in this role who is comfortable singing in a group. Nuns The Nuns (including Nun 1, Nun 2, and Nun 3) help fill out of the world of the convent. Nun 1, Nun 2, and Nun 3 have featured solos, so be sure to cast actors in these roles that are ready for their moment in the spotlight. Ensemble Roles include: additional Nuns, Altar Boys, Street People, Angry Street Person, and Members of the Congregation

Annie KIDS - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Music by Charles Strouse Lyrics by Martin Charnin Book by Thomas Meehan Based on the Tribune Media Service Comic Strip, Little Orphan Annie Overview / Synopsis The idea of turning Harold Gray's "Little Orphan Annie" into a musical comedy was the inspiration of lyricist-director Martin Charnin, who convinced Charles Strouse and librettist Thomas Meehan to join in creating it. The show, which places Annie, Daddy Warbucks and Annie's mutt, Sandy, in New York City in the midst of the Depression, opened on Broadway on April 21, 1977. As an infant, Annie had been abandoned on the front steps of The New York City Municipal Orphanage with a note from her parents promising to return for her someday. Life in the orphanage had been rough under the strict hand of Miss Hannigan, but Annie's life was about to change. Billionaire Oliver Warbucks invites Annie to spend Christmas with him in his mansion, and together, they each discover new happiness. Warbucks soon decides he wants to adopt Annie, but when he learns about her dream of finding her parents and the secret of the half-locket she has treasured for so long, he sets his own feelings aside and orders an exhaustive search for Annie's parents. Annie went on to win seven Tony awards and became the third longest running musical of the 1970s with 2,377 performances. It also won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. Writing in The World of Musical Comedy, author Stanley Green has said, "...she has unquestionably taken her place as Broadway's most beloved waif of all times." Audio Sampler - HL00102684 $10.00 ShowKit - HL09971633 $545.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 Actor's Scripts Piano/Vocal Score Director's Guide 2 Performance/Accompaniment CDs Choreography DVD Media Disc 30 Family Matters Booklets 30-Minute KIDS Request Individual Components 09971635 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 09971636 - Director's Guide $100.00 09971634 - Actor's Script $10.00 09971637 - Actor's Script 10-pak $75.00 09971638 - Rehearsal/Accompaniment CDs $75.00 09971639 - Choreography DVD $50.00 09971641 - Student Rehearsal CD $10.00 09971642 - Student Rehearsal CD 20 Pak $100.00 09971640 - Media Disc $10.00 00102684 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hear A Sample Maybe [Annie] It's the Hard-Knock Life [Annie, Orphans] Tomorrow [Annie, Sandy] Little Girls [Miss Hannigan] Easy Street [Rooster, Miss Hannigan, Lily] N.Y.C. [Warbucks, Grace, Annie, Star(s)-To-Be, Ensemble] You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile [Tessie, July, Kate, Orphans] Maybe (Reprise) [Annie] Tomorrow (Reprise) [Warbucks, Grace, Roosevelt, Annie, Orphans, Ensemble] The Chase [Jasper, Puppies, Horace, Cruella] Cast of Characters Cast Size: Medium (11 to 20 performers) Cast Type: Children Dance Requirements: Standard Annie Annie is a complex, tough, streetwise urchin who is surprisingly vulnerable when she thinks she might lose what has become most important to her: her newfound "family." Cast an excellent actress who can act motherly, independent, overwhelmed and hopeful. She should be strong vocally and musically and be able to light up the stage in "Tomorrow!" Gender: Female Vocal range top: D5 Vocal range bottom: A3 Molly The Orphans are gritty girls that are neglected and vulnerable, yet basically honest and lovable. Cast girls that can have "mischievous" fun together, as well as "sibling style" fights. Each actress should be able to shape her own specific character, be a good singer and visually expressive. Molly is the littlest at age 6. Gender: Female Vocal range top: B4 Vocal range bottom: A3 Kate The Orphans are gritty girls that are neglected and vulnerable, yet basically honest and lovable. Cast girls that can have "mischievous" fun together, as well as "sibling style" fights. Each actress should be able to shape her own specific character, be a good singer and visually expressive. Kate is the next-to-youngest at age 7. Gender: Female Vocal range top: C5 Vocal range bottom: C4 Tessie The Orphans are gritty girls that are neglected and vulnerable, yet basically honest and lovable. Cast girls that can have "mischievous" fun together, as well as "sibling style" fights. Each actress should be able to shape her own specific character, be a good singer and visually expressive. Tessie is the cry baby at age 11. Age: 11 to 11 Vocal range top: C5 Vocal range bottom: A3 Pepper The Orphans are gritty girls that are neglected and vulnerable, yet basically honest and lovable. Cast girls that can have "mischievous" fun together, as well as "sibling style" fights. Each actress should be able to shape her own specific character, be a good singer and visually expressive. Pepper is the toughest at age 12. Gender: Female Vocal range top: Bb4 Vocal range bottom: C4 July The Orphans are gritty girls that are neglected and vulnerable, yet basically honest and lovable. Cast girls that can have "mischievous" fun together, as well as "sibling style" fights. Each actress should be able to shape her own specific character, be a good singer and visually expressive. July is the quietest at age 13. Gender: Female Vocal range top: D5 Vocal range bottom: C4 Duffy The Orphans are gritty girls that are neglected and vulnerable, yet basically honest and lovable. Cast girls that can have "mischievous" fun together, as well as "sibling style" fights. Each actress should be able to shape her own specific character, be a good singer and visually expressive. Duffy is the oldest at age 13. Gender: Female Vocal range top: D5 Vocal range bottom: C4 Miss Hannigan Miss Hannigan is a definite "has-been." Her distaste for her job should ooze from every line she delivers. Cast a strong actress with excellent comic timing. She must have a strong versatile singing voice and be able to create a character that is larger than life. Gender: Female Vocal range top: D5 Vocal range bottom: G3 Grace Farrell Grace Farrell is Oliver Warbucks's calm, cool and classy secretary. She appears businesslike when dealing with Miss Hannigan and Warbucks, yet maternal toward Annie. Cast an actress that can always appear "in control" and sophisticated. She has a small solo at the beginning of "N.Y.C." This is a great feature part for an actress who is likable, sweet and confident. Gender: Female Vocal range top: C5 Vocal range bottom: D4 Rooster Hannigan Rooster Hannigan and Lily St. Regis are the comic team who claim to be Annie's parents but are revealed to be Miss Hannigan's swindling brother and his sleazy girlfriend in disguise. These characters play off each other constantly. Consider casting performers of contrasting heights. The flashy, self-assured Rooster can even be shorter than his airhead accomplice, Lily. Cast a boy for Rooster that can convincingly pull off the "smooth gambler" persona, and vocally and physically handle "Easy Street." Consider auditioning these roles together to cast the perfect duo. Gender: Male Vocal range top: Bb4 Vocal range bottom: G3 Lily St. Regis Rooster Hannigan and Lily St. Regis are the comic team who claim to be Annie's parents but are revealed to be Miss Hannigan's swindling brother and his sleazy girlfriend in disguise. These characters play off each other constantly. Consider casting performers of contrasting heights. The flashy, self-assured Rooster can even be shorter than his airhead accomplice, Lily. Lily is a perfect role for an actress who is naturally funny, has a good sense of timing and is a strong singer. Consider auditioning these roles together to cast the perfect duo. Gender: Female Vocal range top: Bb4 Vocal range bottom: Bb3 Oliver Warbucks Oliver Warbucks is the daunting millionaire who made his fortune during World War I as an industrialist. This is a challenging role, so cast an actor that can appear middle-aged, self-assured and confident. In the beginning, Warbucks is awkwardly affectionate toward Annie and then finds himself completely charmed by her. Cast an actor who is focused and gently authoritative. His few solos in "N.Y.C." are secondary to the character commitment as an actor. Gender: Male Vocal range top: D5 Vocal range bottom: A3 Sandy Sandy is the stray dog that Annie adopts. Sandy has no lines but has the capability of earning spontaneous applause when he sings "Tomorrow" with Annie! Gender: Any Vocal range top: D5 Vocal range bottom: F4 Drake and the Servants Drake and the Servants are the loyal domestic help of Oliver Warbucks. Your kids will have fun perfecting precision steps, nods and curtsies. This group of performers sings with the ensemble and can be double cast as New Yorkers in "N.Y.C." These roles are ideally suited for performers of any ability. This is another excellent place to expand your cast. Gender: Any Apple Seller The Apple Seller opens Scene 2 speaking to Annie and giving her an apple. With just a few lines, this is a good character part for a young, inexperienced actor. Gender: Any Lt. Ward Lt. Ward is the policeman who questions Annie about Sandy, the stray dog. This is a non-singing role and great for a kid who can play an authoritative adult. This is also a great cameo role for a principal or well-known community member. Gender: Male Bert Healy Bert Healy is the classic announcer on a radio show of the era. This is a non-singing role and is perfect for someone who is naturally funny with a big voice. Gender: Male Bundles Bundles is the laundryman for the orphanage. This is a minor speaking role and is perfect for the actor who can create a likeable character. A great spot for an actor who is not quite ready for a large part. Gender: Male President Franklin D. Roosevelt President Franklin D. Roosevelt is enlisted by Oliver Warbucks to help locate Annie's parents. He will be pushed onstage in a wheelchair and delivers a momentous line about "A New Deal!" This is an excellent spot to cast an actor who is not quite ready for a large part or who doesn't have a strong singing voice. Gender: Male Louis Home Louis Howe is President Roosevelt's trustworthy aide. This is a great role for someone new to performing. Gender: Male Star(s)-To-Be Star(s)-To-Be is a glamorous diva in the number "N.Y.C." Feel free to cast multiple girls in this part and split the singing solos between them. Although this is not a speaking role, cast a girl that can confidently sing and act. Gender: Female Vocal range top: D5 Vocal range bottom: Ab3 Usherette The Usherette ushers Warbucks, Annie and Grace to their seats in the Roxy at the end of "N.Y.C." She has one line and then sings with the ensemble. New Yorkers The New Yorkers are comprised of a wonderfully colorful collection of characters, usually identified by their occupation. It is great fun to have your students explore and develop these characters in the historical context of the 1930s. Some ideas for these roles are: street vendors, homeless people, tourists, taxi drivers, newsboys, pickpockets, street cleaners, mothers and children, additional stars-to-be, and news reporters. Gender: Any

Magic Tree House: Pirates Past Noon KIDS - Broadway Junior | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Broadway Junior What Comes With the Showkit®? How to License a Broadway Junior Musical Order an Audio Sampler Frequently Asked Questions 60-Min.ute Musicals [JR.] 60-Minute Musicals 13 Jr. Alice In Wonderland Jr. (Disney) Aladdin Jr. (Disney) Annie Jr. Beauty and the Beast Jr. (Disney) The Big One-Oh! Jr. Bugsy Malone Jr. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. Dear Edwina Jr. Doctor Dolittle Jr. Dot & The Kangaroo Jr. The Drowsy Chaperone Jr. Elephant & Piggie's "We Are In A Play" Jr. Elf The Musical Jr. Fame Jr. Fiddler on the Roof Jr. Finding Nemo Jr. (Disney) Finian's Rainbow Jr. Flat Stanley Jr. Frozen Jr. (Disney) A Ghost Tale for Mr. Dickens Jr. (Magic Tree House) Godspell Jr. Guys and Dolls Jr. Hairspray Jr. High School Musical Jr. (Disney) Honk! Jr. Into the Woods Jr. James and the Giant Peach Jr. (Roald Dahl) Junie B. Jones Jr. Legally Blonde Jr. The Lion King Jr. (Disney) The Little Mermaid Jr. (Disney) Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr. Mary Poppins Jr. (Disney/Cameron Mackintosh) Matilda Jr. (Roald Dahl) Mean Girls Jr. Moana Jr. (Disney) The Music Man Jr. My Son Pinocchio Jr. (Disney) Newsies Jr. (Disney) Oliver! Jr. Once on This Island Jr. Peter Pan Jr. (Broadway) The Phantom Tollbooth Jr. The Pirates of Penzance Jr. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. Seussical Jr. Shrek Jr. Singin' In The Rain Jr. Sister Act Jr. Something Rotten Jr. Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr. Willy Wonka Jr. (Roald Dahl) Xanadu Jr. 30-Min.ute Musicals [KIDS] 30-Minute Musicals 101 Dalmatians KIDS (Disney) Aladdin KIDS (Disney) Annie KIDS Aristocats KIDS (Disney) Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS (Magic Tree House) Finding Nemo KIDS (Disney) Frozen KIDS (Disney) The Jungle Book KIDS (Disney) The Knight at Dawn KIDS (Magic Tree House) The Lion King KIDS (Disney) The Music Man KIDS Pirates Past Noon KIDS (Magic Tree House) Seussical KIDS Willy Wonka KIDS (Roald Dahl) Winnie the Pooh KIDS (Disney) A Year with Frog and Toad KIDS Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Book by Jenny Laird and Will Osborne Lyrics by Randy Courts and Will Osborne Music by Randy Courts Based on Magic Tree House #4: Pirates Past Noon by Mary Pope Osborne Overview / Synopsis Magic Tree House: Pirates Past Noon KIDS is an adaptation of the fourth of Mary Pope Osborne's award-winning fantasy adventure books from the Magic Tree House book series, which has sold more than 100 million copies and is available in more than a hundred countries around the world. This time around, Jack and Annie's tree house takes them to an exotic island with pirates, where the two discover the power of friendship and the simple pleasures in everyday life. The two siblings return to visit the magic tree house on a dreary, rainy day. They find a book where the sun is shining and the waves are crashing, so they wish to travel to this tropical place. They realize that they are in the eighteenth-century Caribbean, the time of pirates! The siblings meet Captain Bones, a mean old pirate who captures the two and forces them to help him find buried treasure. It's up to Jack and Annie to find their way back to the tree house and make their way home. Magic Tree House: Pirates Past Noon KIDS is a great first pick for new directors, or if you have students who are new to the performing arts. The cast can be expanded to include plenty of pirates and island creatures, and students always enjoy a musical that takes place in a fantasy setting. Audio Sampler - HL00196012 $10.00 ShowKit - HL00196002 $545.00 This ShowKit includes: 30 - Student Books 1 - Director's Guide 1 - Piano/Vocal Score 1 - Accompaniment CD 1 - Choreography DVD 1 - Media Disc 30-Minute KIDS Request Individual Components 00196003 - Director's Guide $100.00 00196004 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00196005 - Student Book $10.00 00196006 - Student Book 10-pak $75.00 00196007 - Performance/Accomp CD pack $75.00 00196008 - Student Rehearsal CD $10.00 00196009 - Student Rehearsal CD 20-pak $100.00 00196010 - Choreography DVD $50.00 00196011 - Media Disc $10.00 00196012 - Audio Sampler $10.00 Hear A Sample Pirates Putting on a Play Spinning to an Island The Tropical Island Song Row, Dogs, Row How Do You Do, I'm Captain Bones (Part 1) How Do You Do, I'm Captain Bones (Part 2) Bones, Bones, Bones Every Pirate Needs a Parrot Reading a Book Gold (Part 1) Gold (Part 2) Spinning Home Treasure Pirates Putting on a Play (Reprise) Bows Jack Jack is a young boy. He is bookish, careful and thoughtful, but he is NOT a nerd! Jack has tremendous curiosity about the world around him and loves to take notes about his observations. Jack tends to be very cautious in new situations, and his adventures in the tree house help him develop his confidence. He has a good (and protective) relationship with his younger sister, Annie, though her more impetuous nature often gets on his nerves. This is a big role and requires a strong singer and actor. Gender: Male Vocal Range: C4-D5 Annie Annie is Jack's younger sister and, in many ways, his opposite in terms of personality. She is a risk-taker who often follows her heart instead of her head. She sometimes teases Jack about his careful attitude toward life and encourages him to be more adventurous. She loves animals of any kind and has a very loving heart. Like Jack, this role requires strong singing and acting. When auditioning, you might mix and match your Jack and Annie hopefuls to see which ones have the best brother-sister chemistry. Gender: Female Vocal Range: C4-E5 Morgan/Polly Morgan is an ageless librarian enchantress. By the end of the play, Jack and Annie learn that the Magic Tree House belongs to Morgan. Morgan magically turns herself into Polly so that she can try to help the kids on this adventure, so for most of the show, Morgan will be costumed as a parrot. Look for an actor who can move easily in a more elaborate costume for most of the show. Although she doesn't speak or sing until the end, this large and important part requires one of your most mature female performers with both strong singing and acting skills. Gender: Female Vocal Range: A3-C5 First Mate The First Mate enjoys being in charge of his crew and must jumpstart the play with a commanding first line. He has solo singing lines and also helps to narrate the story, so cast an actor with a strong speaking and singing voice. This character can be played by a male or female actor. Gender: Both Vocal Range: Bb3-D5 Captain Bones Captain Bones is the epitome of a fearsome, odious pirate. He enjoys being vile and mean. Look for an actor who isn't afraid to really put himself out there - one who has both a physical and vocal swagger. Consider casting your strongest comic performer for this role - the absurd comedic tone of the play is highly dependent on Bones. If possible, it would be fun to cast an actor who is smaller in stature than his minions to highlight the comedy of his bullish ways. Although Bones does sing a solo part on "How Do You Do, I'm Captain Bones (Part 2)," those lines can be spoken, so if you have a kid who is a talented actor but a less-experienced singer, this role would be good for him. Captain Bones can be played by either a girl or a boy as long as the actor has a commanding stage presence and great comedic timing. Gender: Both Vocal Range: B3-C#5 Pinky, Stinky, Blinky and Slinky Pinky, Stinky, Blinky and Slinky are henchmen for Captain Bones. Though these pirates are devoted to Bones, they are not nearly as clever or mean. These large speaking roles all require good comedic timing. These roles are good for kids who will relish being able to dress and talk like a pirate in front of their peers. Look for strong actors who can carry a tune, are good at focusing and taking direction and who are capable of working together as a team. Cast males, females or both. Gender: Both Vocal Range: C4-B4 Jonah Jonah is a cabin boy who wants to help Jack and Annie escape from Bones. In stark contrast to the Pirates, he is kind, soft-spoken and tender-hearted. While being held captive, Jack and Annie teach Jonah how to read. Jonah's solo parts in "Reading a Book" require a strong singer, and the role requires an actor capable of quiet subtlety, so if possible, cast one of your strong performers in this role. If you are short on boys, cast a girl to play a boy. Gender: Both Vocal Range: C4-D5 Billy, Molly, Nathaniel, Wilhelmina, Peter, Pirates Billy, Molly, Nathaniel, Wilhelmina, Peter, and additional Pirates are the often funny and spirited Pirates under the command of Captain Bones. The named Pirates should be the strongest actors and singers of this group. If you don't have enough boys to play Billy and Nathaniel, cast girls who would have fun playing a boy. Casting extra Pirates is a good way to round out the chorus and to utilize performers who are less experienced. Gender: Both Vocal Range: B3-B4 Teeki the Seagull Teeki the Seagull is a jubilant bird with a need to express her joy for life. She is the matriarch of the Island Creatures on this particular Caribbean island. Cast an actor who enjoys the spotlight and who is physically uninhibited - someone who has good vocal and movement skills and isn't afraid to "get into the groove" of the "Tropical Island Song." Gender: Female Vocal Range: Bb3-Eb5 Pedro the Pelican Pedro the Pelican is a prim and proper pelican. Although not a large role, Pedro has a few solo lines. It might be comedic to watch this rather rigid, self-conscious bird get lured into the groove of "The Tropical Island Song" until he or she is the most enthusiastic dancer of them all. Cast an actor who can play shy but who isn't afraid to dance and let loose on stage. Gender: Male Stella the Starfish Stella the Starfish is a sweet, happy starfish who loves to dance. Stella has a few solo lines, so look for an actor who has a strong voice and can lead the other Starfish in a dance. Gender: Female Island Creatures Island Creatures including Pelican #1, Pelican #2, Pelican #3, Lizard #1, Lizard #2, Lizard #3, Corey the Crab, Starfish Partner, Additional Crabs, Lobsters, Starfish and Jellyfish sing "The Tropical Island Song" and "Treasure." Cast as many performers as your stage and program will allow. As long as you have a few strong performers representing each group of creatures, casting extra creatures is a great way to give additional children experience without the pressure of a large role. Feel free to assign character names to match the number of performers you cast. If needed, you can double-cast your more experienced Island Creatures as Pirates as well. Gender: Both

Spamalot - Young @ Part | Hal Leonard Menu LEARN MORE About Young @ Part Showbox/Added Resources Order a Perusal Pack Online License Request 60-Min.ute Musicals [Young@Part] 60-Minute Musicals Addams Family All Shook Up Curtains Monty Python's Spamalot We Will Rock You Wind In The Willows 30-Min.ute Musicals [Younger@Part] 30-Minute Musicals Addams Family All Shook Up How I Became A Pirate Miss Nelson Is Missing Product Information Musical Numbers Cast of Characters Credits Original Book, Music and Lyrics: Eric Idle Music and Lyrics: John Du Prez Overview / Synopsis Lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this middle school adaptation of Monty Python's SPAMALOT retells the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The 2005 Broadway production won three Tony® Awards, including Best Musical, and was followed by two successful West End runs. The outrageous, uproarious, and gloriously entertaining story of King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake will delight casts and audiences as they search for the Holy Grail and "always look on the bright side of life." Print Perusal - HL00237279 $19.95 ShowBox - HL00237275 $675.00 This ShowBox includes: 30 Cast Script/Vocal Books Director's Script 2 Piano/Vocal Scores Guide Vocals CD Performance Tracks CD Logo Pack CD Young @ Part Request Individual Components 00251185 - Director's Script $50.00 00251186 - Cast Script/Vocal Book $10.00 00251187 - Piano/Vocal Score $40.00 00251188 - Guide Vocals CD $50.00 00251189 - Performance Tracks CD $100.00 Hear A Sample Introduction Fisch Schlapping Song King Arthur I Am Not Dead Yet Lady of the Lake Laker Girls The Song That Goes All For One Knights Round Table Find Your Grail Run Away Bright Side of Life Brave Sir Robin Whatever Happened All Alone The Hand of God Finale King Arthur The King of England who sets out on a quest to form the Knights of the Roundtable and find the Holy Grail. Great humor. Good singer. Gender: Male Vocal Range: G3-D5 Patsy King Arthur's horse and servant. Underappreciated but always longing for King Arthur's approval. Good, funny, physical mover with some tap dancing. Gender: Male Vocal Range: B3-D5 Sir Lancelot A Knight of the Roundtable. He is fearless to a bloody fault but through a twist of fate, does discover his 'softer side.' Gender: Male Vocal Range: Ab3-Eb5 Sir Robin A Knight of the Roundtable. Ironically called 'Sir Robin the Brave,' though he couldn't be more cowardly. Joins the Knights for the singing and dancing. Gender: Male Vocal Range: Bb3-C5 Lady of the Lake A Diva. Strong, beautiful, possesses mystical powers. The leading lady of the show. Great singing voice is essential, as she must be able to sing effortlessly in many styles and vocal registers. Gender: Female Vocal Range: E3-G5 Sir Galahad A Knight of the Roundtable. Begins as Dennis, a lower class 'mud gatherer' who becomes Knighted and transforms into the dashing Sir Galahad. Gender: Male Vocal Range: Bb3-D5 Sir Bedevere A Knight of the Roundtable. An inept scholar. No solo singing. Gender: Male Vocal Range: D4-D5 Minstrels Gender: Both Vocal Range: B3-D5 Historians Gender: Both Vocal Range: A3-A4 Ensemble

Kim André Arnesen Arnesen's music is lovely and worth hearing… Sacred and secular, there is much to admire.– American Record Guide Kim André Arnesen Born in 1980, Kim André Arnesen is one of the most frequently performed composers from Norway today. He grew up in Trondheim where he was a chorister in the Nidaros Cathedral Boys’ Choir, later being educated at the Music Conservatory in Trondheim. With an interest in baroque music, contemporary classical music, and popular music, Kim could have taken many roads, but choral music became his greatest passion. As a composer, he had his first performance at the age of 18 with the boys’ choir. Since then he has written music that has been performed and recorded by choirs all over the world. In 2015–16, Kim was Composer-in-residence for the Denver-based choral ensemble Kantorei and Artistic Director Joel Rinsema. The residency concluded with the recording of Kim’s second CD album released in early 2018 on Naxos Records. He continues to enjoy a busy international schedule of commissions. Kim André Arnesen Born in 1980, Kim André Arnesen is one of the most frequently performed composers from Norway today. He grew up in Trondheim where he was a chorister in the Nidaros Cathedral Boys’ Choir, later being educated at the Music Conservatory in Trondheim. With an interest in baroque music, contemporary classical music, and popular music, Kim could have taken many roads, but choral music became his greatest passion. As a composer, he had his first performance at the age of 18 with the boys’ choir. Since then he has written music that has been performed and recorded by choirs all over the world. In 2015–16, Kim was Composer-in-residence for the Denver-based choral ensemble Kantorei and Artistic Director Joel Rinsema. The residency concluded with the recording of Kim’s second CD album released in early 2018 on Naxos Records. He continues to enjoy a busy international schedule of commissions. I denna ljuva sommartid (In this sweet summertime) SSAA (with divisi) a cappella Duration: c5 minutes 48024604 $2.50 More Info Commissioned by Kvindelige Studenters Sangforening, Oslo, Norway, and Marit Tøndel Bodsberg Weyde, conductor Commissioned by Kvindelige Studenters Sangforening, Oslo, Norway, and Marit Tøndel Bodsberg Weyde, conductor I denna ljuva sommartid (In this sweet summertime) is a well-known traditional summer psalm in Sweden. The text is of German origin, written in 1653 by Paul Gerhardt (1607-76) with the title Geh aus, mein Herz, und suche Freud and also called Sommerlied. The Swedish version is sung with different melodies, including one that is part of the Swedish Hymnal Songbook and sung in schools before the summer holidays. In this arrangement, I’ve used a traditional melody from Malung in Sweden and three of the eight verses of the psalm, which describe summer as a gift from God. As a composer, arranging songs that can be regarded as a national treasure in another country is something that is done with great respect. But also, working with another country’s traditional music, music that is not in one’s own blood, can hopefully result in a fresh and new take on the original. Arranger's note Arranger's note I denna ljuva sommartid (In this sweet summertime) is a well-known traditional summer psalm in Sweden. The text is of German origin, written in 1653 by Paul Gerhardt (1607-76) with the title Geh aus, mein Herz, und suche Freud and also called Sommerlied. The Swedish version is sung with different melodies, including one that is part of the Swedish Hymnal Songbook and sung in schools before the summer holidays. In this arrangement, I’ve used a traditional melody from Malung in Sweden and three of the eight verses of the psalm, which describe summer as a gift from God. As a composer, arranging songs that can be regarded as a national treasure in another country is something that is done with great respect. But also, working with another country’s traditional music, music that is not in one’s own blood, can hopefully result in a fresh and new take on the original. Falling into Mercy SATB (with divisi) & optional piano (maximum divisi SSAATTBB) Text by Euan Tait Duration: 4 minutes 48024608 $2.50 More Info Commissioned by the Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy of the Oregon Bach Festival, in honor of the Academy’s 20th Anniversary; and St. Olaf College and Anton Armstrong, Professor of Music and Conductor of the St. Olaf Choir Commissioned by the Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy of the Oregon Bach Festival, in honor of the Academy’s 20th Anniversary; and St. Olaf College and Anton Armstrong, Professor of Music and Conductor of the St. Olaf Choir This work comes from amazement – that the encounter with divine love, our relationship with the sacred, is to be constantly astonished by the endlessness of the depths of love. Love's persistence, again and again, whatever our failures to be people of love, is our reassurance of our precious and limitless value in the eyes of our Creator. And this mercy, this depthless mercy, frees us to become ourselves most fully, uncertain, but tenacious pilgrims. The music should be driven forward with particular attention to phrases and the detailed dynamics. For a piece like this, the various possible dynamic choices are endless and, as long as they substantiate the text and the performance remains fervent, the dynamics may be altered at the discretion of the conductor. As a composer, I always try to give each work its own identity, and this piece is characterized by first inversion chords. It is fascinating how nothing is really changed, and yet everything has changed. If one tries to move the bass to the root note it is a completely different work; the first inversion chords give a feeling of something endless, and from a musical image echoing the text, “to keep falling, endlessly.” Notes from the Poet and Composer Notes from the Poet and Composer This work comes from amazement – that the encounter with divine love, our relationship with the sacred, is to be constantly astonished by the endlessness of the depths of love. Love's persistence, again and again, whatever our failures to be people of love, is our reassurance of our precious and limitless value in the eyes of our Creator. And this mercy, this depthless mercy, frees us to become ourselves most fully, uncertain, but tenacious pilgrims. The music should be driven forward with particular attention to phrases and the detailed dynamics. For a piece like this, the various possible dynamic choices are endless and, as long as they substantiate the text and the performance remains fervent, the dynamics may be altered at the discretion of the conductor. As a composer, I always try to give each work its own identity, and this piece is characterized by first inversion chords. It is fascinating how nothing is really changed, and yet everything has changed. If one tries to move the bass to the root note it is a completely different work; the first inversion chords give a feeling of something endless, and from a musical image echoing the text, “to keep falling, endlessly.” The Gift to Sing SATB (with divisi) & piano (maximum divisi SSAATBB) Text by James Weldon Johnson Duration: 4:30 48024607 $2.50 More Info Commissioned in honor of Dr. H. Morris Stevens Jr., music educator, conductor, church musician and founder of the St. Edward’s University Masterworks Singers Commissioned in honor of Dr. H. Morris Stevens Jr., music educator, conductor, church musician and founder of the St. Edward’s University Masterworks Singers If there is one thing anyone who has sung in a choir (or other context) knows, it is how singing can “turn the gloom to a cheerful day,” as James Weldon Johnson writes in his poem. We know it from our own experience, but it is even scientifically proven. There are many reasons to sing, and one of them is to bring light into our surroundings powered by our very own voices. And if someone does not think of themselves as a singer, I feel quite confident that Johnson’s poem will make them want to sing at the top of their voice! Composer’s note Composer’s note If there is one thing anyone who has sung in a choir (or other context) knows, it is how singing can “turn the gloom to a cheerful day,” as James Weldon Johnson writes in his poem. We know it from our own experience, but it is even scientifically proven. There are many reasons to sing, and one of them is to bring light into our surroundings powered by our very own voices. And if someone does not think of themselves as a singer, I feel quite confident that Johnson’s poem will make them want to sing at the top of their voice! The Holy Spirit Mass Mixed Voices with Organ or Strings and Piano Vocal Score 48024610 $19.95 Release date in the US: May 2019 Composed to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, The Holy Spirit Mass interweaves the familiar Mass texts with English translations of the 9th-century Veni Creator Spiritus (‘Come Creator Spirit’) and Martin Luther’s hymn Come Holy Ghost, God and Lord. This major new choral work encourages unity and reconciliation in the world and celebrates hope for its future. Arnesen’s characteristic rich harmonies and memorable melodic lines combine to create an inspirational and uplifting work suitable for concert performance. This vocal score, which includes accompaniment for organ, can also be used for performing the versions of The Holy Spirit Mass with orchestral accompaniment available on rental from Boosey & Hawkes. Composed to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, The Holy Spirit Mass interweaves the familiar Mass texts with English translations of the 9th-century Veni Creator Spiritus (‘Come Creator Spirit’) and Martin Luther’s hymn Come Holy Ghost, God and Lord. This major new choral work encourages unity and reconciliation in the world and celebrates hope for its future. Arnesen’s characteristic rich harmonies and memorable melodic lines combine to create an inspirational and uplifting work suitable for concert performance. This vocal score, which includes accompaniment for organ, can also be used for performing the versions of The Holy Spirit Mass with orchestral accompaniment available on rental from Boosey & Hawkes. I will light candles this Christmas SATB (with divisi) & piano (maximum divisi SSAATTBB) Text by Howard Thurman Duration: c4 minutes 48024571 $2.95 More Info Commissioned by Celia Ellington through LutheranArts in honor of Gary Aamodt’s 80th birthday, and dedicated to the annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival. Commissioned by Celia Ellington through LutheranArts in honor of Gary Aamodt’s 80th birthday, and dedicated to the annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival. Advent and Christmas are times of excitement and celebration. However, it is difficult not to see the darkness of the world. Where the treetops glisten and behind the toys and goodies it can be cold and unsafe. And it is in darkness that we need light. The candle can light our hope and remind us that we are much more than what is darkest in our lives. Therefore this time of the year can be one of light over darkness. I hope the message in this carol can guide us to become carriers of a light that brings joy, hope, courage, peace, grace, and love, now and when the star dims. “Let your light shine before others.” (The Sermon on the Mount) Composer’s note Composer’s note Advent and Christmas are times of excitement and celebration. However, it is difficult not to see the darkness of the world. Where the treetops glisten and behind the toys and goodies it can be cold and unsafe. And it is in darkness that we need light. The candle can light our hope and remind us that we are much more than what is darkest in our lives. Therefore this time of the year can be one of light over darkness. I hope the message in this carol can guide us to become carriers of a light that brings joy, hope, courage, peace, grace, and love, now and when the star dims. “Let your light shine before others.” (The Sermon on the Mount) My flame the song SATB (with divisi) & piano (maximum divisi SSATBB) Text by Euan Tait Duration: 5 minutes 48024605 $2.95 More Info Commissioned in honor of Dr. H. Morris Stevens Jr., music educator, conductor, church musician and founder of the St. Edward’s University Masterworks Singers Commissioned in honor of Dr. H. Morris Stevens Jr., music educator, conductor, church musician and founder of the St. Edward’s University Masterworks Singers We share a fierce, impassioned singing of the life of love. We sing in the lives we lead, by the way we respond to the cry in the human heart. Our lives unfold the powerful potential of love that lives in each one of us, as friends, parents, siblings, partners, colleagues. In making music, singing together lights an extraordinary process in us: we connect from the depths of our beings with each other, with this shared spiritual flame within us, we connect to those we have lost, to those who have sung the same music, we connect to the eternal singing of that vast eternal chord of being human. In performing this work, you will pass on the flame to others. You become its music, its words: your spirit cries out, here. Composer’s note Composer’s note We share a fierce, impassioned singing of the life of love. We sing in the lives we lead, by the way we respond to the cry in the human heart. Our lives unfold the powerful potential of love that lives in each one of us, as friends, parents, siblings, partners, colleagues. In making music, singing together lights an extraordinary process in us: we connect from the depths of our beings with each other, with this shared spiritual flame within us, we connect to those we have lost, to those who have sung the same music, we connect to the eternal singing of that vast eternal chord of being human. In performing this work, you will pass on the flame to others. You become its music, its words: your spirit cries out, here. Ubi caritas et amor Duration: 4 minutes Release date in the US: March 2019 SATB (divisi) a cappella (maximum divisi SSAATTBB) 48024606 $2.50 More Info SSAA a cappella 48024609 $2.50 More Info Commissioned by the Athens Master Chorale, Athens, Georgia, for Joseph S. Napoli, founder and conductor, in honor of his 50 years of loving devotion to the art of choral music. Commissioned by the Athens Master Chorale, Athens, Georgia, for Joseph S. Napoli, founder and conductor, in honor of his 50 years of loving devotion to the art of choral music. The actual origin of the text Ubi caritas et amor is unknown, but it has been dated to some point between 300 and 1100 AD. The text is typically sung during the Washing of the Feet at the Mass of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday). The word “caritas” has many shades of meaning, and there are some nuances that seem to be lost in its translation. While the word “charity” is mostly used about voluntarily giving, the word “caritas” also means honesty, heartfeltness, dearness and tolerance. In a world with a lot of tension and disunity I wanted to write a piece that sings about the commandments to love one another. As ever, choirs performing this work should aim for a good balance between the voice parts, and the music should always be flowing but never hurried. Composer’s note Composer’s note The actual origin of the text Ubi caritas et amor is unknown, but it has been dated to some point between 300 and 1100 AD. The text is typically sung during the Washing of the Feet at the Mass of the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday). The word “caritas” has many shades of meaning, and there are some nuances that seem to be lost in its translation. While the word “charity” is mostly used about voluntarily giving, the word “caritas” also means honesty, heartfeltness, dearness and tolerance. In a world with a lot of tension and disunity I wanted to write a piece that sings about the commandments to love one another. As ever, choirs performing this work should aim for a good balance between the voice parts, and the music should always be flowing but never hurried.

20th Century French Art Songs | Hal Leonard Hal Leonard Online - French Art Songs 20th CENTURY FRENCH ART SONGS Mélodies française du XXe siècle Edited by Carol Kimball Published by Éditions Durand DF 16250/HL 50565798 High Voice edition DF 16251/HL 50565799 Medium/Low Voice edition Distributed in Europe and Asia by Hal Leonard MGB Distributed in North and South America by Hal Leonard Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Hal Leonard Australia Download & Print Introductory Notes Complete Online Introductory Notes, Unabridged copyright © 2015 Editions Durand An abridged version of editor Carol Kimball’s “Introduction” appears in the High Voice and Medium/Low Voice publications. Her complete length “Introduction” appears below. See the publications for the poetry texts in French and translations in English. GEORGES AURIC CLAUDE DEBUSSY HENRI DUTILLEUX GABRIEL FAURÉ REYNALDO HAHN ARTHUR HONEGGER JACQUES LEGUERNEY OLIVIER MESSIAEN DARIUS MILHAUD FRANCIS POULENC MAURICE RAVEL ALBERT ROUSSEL ERIK SATIE DÉODAT DE SÉVERAC GEORGES AURIC (1899-1983) George Auric was something of a child prodigy, performing a piano recital at the Musicale Indépendante at the age of fourteen. The following year, the Société Nationale de Musique performed several songs he had composed. He studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire with Georges Caussade, and later with Vincent d’Indy and Albert Roussel at the Schola Cantorum de Paris. Before he was twenty, Auric had orchestrated and written incidental music for several stage productions and ballets. He composed a significant amount of avant-garde music during the years between 1910-20. Around 1914, he widened his acquaintances to include members of Les Six, a group of composers informally associated with Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau, and became a part of their group. Auric and Francis Poulenc became fast friends and remained so for life. Music criticism was an important part of Auric’s career; his writing focused on promoting the ideals of Les Six and Cocteau. He was also especially known for his film scores, which are consistently imaginative. He forged a major career in the English movies of the 1940s and ’50s. Among his most well-known scores is the music for the film Moulin Rouge. Other popular film titles with scores by Auric include The Lavender Hill Mob, Roman Holiday, Beauty and the Beast, and Bonjour Tristesse. In 1962 he became the director of the Opéra National de Paris and later, chairman of SACEM, the French Performing Rights Society. Auric continued to write classical chamber music until his death. Le Jeune sanguine (1940) from Trois Poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin poem by Louise de Vilmorin (1902-1969) This mélodie is the second song in Auric’s cycle titled Trois poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin. Vilmorin’s poetry reverberates with sensitivity to affairs of the heart. She was one of Poulenc’s preferred poets; he set her poetry when writing specifically for the female voice, such as in Fiançailles pour rire. A sort of veiled humor is at the heart of this text that describes a young hussy whose lover departs early with the dawn’s first light, leaving her weeping disconsolately. Auric provides a prelude and postlude for formal balance as the miserable young woman mourns her loss. He also inserts several unexpected and amusing measures of a tango as the young man arches his back and leaves the sound of her sobbing. For his three Vilmorin songs, Auric used the style of a chansonette, or more popular song. Printemps (1935) Poem by Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) Auric composed this lilting waltz song for a play by Edouard Bourdet titled La Reine Margot (1935). The celebrated musical theatre actress-singer Yvonne Printemps created the role of Queen Margot of Navarre at Théâtre de la Michodière. Auric and Francis Poulenc collaborated on the incidental music for this play; Poulenc took the second act, Auric the first. Poulenc composed the Suite française and the song “A sa guitare”; Auric’s contribution was “Printemps.” Yvonne Printemps sang both songs in the play. Both composers used texts by Pierre de Ronsard, and the musical style of each is reminiscent of the Renaissance. Ronsard’s original poem had twenty-three stanzas. Auric set only the first three. BACK TO TOP CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918) Claude Debussy wrote expertly for the voice and was acutely responsive to transforming poetic nuance into musical expression. Possibly no other French composer was as attuned to blending poetry and music. His literary taste was highly refined and he maintained a visible and active role in the literary and artistic circles of his time. He chose to set poetry of his contemporaries, notably Verlaine and Mallarmé. Verlaine’s verse with its inherent musical qualities, provided Debussy with poetry for numerous works. For Debussy, poetry as poetry was the paramount determinant of the musical texture. His ability to detect the essence of a poem and perfectly transform it into musical expression makes his mélodies unique in the history of French song. Le promenoir des deux amants (1904, 1910) poems by Tristan l’Hermite (c. 1601-1656) “Auprès de cette grotte sombre,” the first song, made its first appearance with the title “La Grotte,” song two of Trois chansons de France of 1904. In 1910, it was retitled and combined with two other poems by Tristan l’Hermite (“Crois mon conseil, chère Climène” and “Je tremble en voyant ton visage”) to form the miniature cycle Le Promenoir de deux amants, which has been called the finest of all Debussy’s works for voice and piano. It is also the least-often performed. Debussy chose the texts from Les Amours de Tristan, a collection by the seventeenth-century poet Tristan l’Hermite. The poems are set close to a grotto, secluded and silent. The transparent, barely stirring waters mingle with the silence of the cloistered spot, creating a dreamlike atmosphere. Debussy establishes an intimate, tender mood immediately and maintains this fragile mix of sound and color throughout the three mélodies. The interplay of resonance and texture in voice and piano results in an exquisite blend of light and shade, perfectly complementing l’Hermite’s poetic images. Subtly inflected vocal phrases are key to recreating the infinite calm and Pelléas-like atmosphere of the poetry, a perfect fusion of stillness and sensuality. Fêtes galantes II (1904) poems by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) Debussy’s fascination with the work of the French Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine resulted in his setting to music no fewer than seventeen of Verlaine’s texts. He composed two sets of three songs each, both titled Fêtes galantes, the first in 1892, and the second in 1904. Fêtes galantes II, Debussy’s last setting of Verlaine, closely following the composition of his opera Pélleas et Mélisande, is representative of the composer’s mature vocal works. It is marked by sparser textures, freer tonalities and a more concentrated compositional style than the first set; but like the first set, Fêtes galantes II presents three unrelated songs. None of the Watteau-like scenes are found here; rather, these three poems are filled with mystery, and are without sentimentality. The theme of time appears in each of the poems: the first, sentimental youthful remembrances; the second, inexorable fleeting time; and finally in the last song, time never to be reclaimed. “Les Ingénus” recalls the first awakenings of sexual attraction, and deals with the breathless awe with which a group of unsophisticated young men of the mid-nineteenth century view their similarly naïve female companions. The scene unfolds in a highly chromatic texture, skillfully balanced to preserve the delicate, poignant images in Verlaine’s verse. Debussy’s free-floating harmonies are carefully contrived to complement the uncertain emotions and repressed sensations of the youths in the poem. “Le Faune” begins with a prelude; time unravels in an inflexible dance featuring a rhythmic, hypnotic figure in the piano, imaging the traditional reed pipe and “tambourin,” a small drum played with a stick. The old terra-cotta statue in Verlaine’s poem is probably the woodland god Pan, playing a monotonous rhythm that is both sensual and slightly menacing, matching the mood of the two mélancolique pélerins. Mesmerized by the repetitive rhythms of drum and reed flute, the dejected travelers are caught in the whirlpool of passing time, which spins past as they watch helplessly. “Colloque sentimental.” Colloquial (colloque) refers to ordinary speech or conversation. This disturbing poem is the touchstone of one of Debussy’s great mélodies. It is the last poem in Verlaine’s collection titled Fêtes galantes, and provides a chilling climax. It blends themes of despair, death and disillusion. In this extraordinary song, the ghosts of two lovers meet in a wintry park. As they speak of their former love, their words match the setting: glacial and detached from feeling. Throughout the song their wintry words are enhanced by Debussy’s simple and subtle vocal treatment: one voice urgent and persistent, the other stonily indifferent. Debussy’s manipulation of musical texture between voice and piano is masterful. The sparse vocal lines are almost speech-like, and the piano figures mirror the frozen landscape in which this conversation–equally cold–takes place. The song’s kinship to Debussy’s opera Pélleas et Mélisande is unmistakable. The listener becomes one with the poem’s narrator, straining to see and hear the couple’s conversation in the icy cold of the deserted, frozen park. Debussy reaches back to “En sourdine” (the first mélodie of Fêtes galantes I), takes the wistful song of the nightingale, and inserts it into this song at various points. The nightingale’s melody (“voix de nôtre dessespoir, le rossignol chantera”) provides a touching and melancholy association, linking the two sets of Fêtes galantes together symbolically and musically, foreshadowing the disenchantment of love hinted at in “En sourdine” with the lovers’ conversation in “Colloque sentimental,” and unifying the two sets by a subtle musical component. This panel of three mélodies was Debussy’s last setting of the poetry of Paul Verlaine. Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maisons (1915) poem by the composer This is Debussy’s last song, written to his own text, a Christmas carol for children made homeless by World War I. Its intensity comes from its simple sincerity. Debussy composed it on the eve of his first operation for the cancer that would end his life two years later. It was his personal protest against the invasion of northern France by the German armies. When asked for permission to orchestrate the song, Debussy refused, saying, “I want this piece to be sung with the most discreet accompaniment. Not a word of the text must be lost, inspired as it is by the rapacity of our enemies. It is the only way I have to fight the war.” Originally composed in 1915 for piano and voice, Debussy also created a version for children’s chorus, and in 1916, a version for piano and two sopranos. BACK TO TOP HENRI DUTILLEUX (1916-2013) Henri Dutilleux studied at the Paris Conservatory with Maurice Emmanuel. He received the Prix de Rome in 1938 at age twenty-two, and went on to work at the Paris Opéra and the French Radio. France’s musical institutions defined his career: in 1961, he joined the faculty at the école Normale de Musique, teaching composition. In 1970, he taught at the Paris Conservatoire. He destroyed many of his early works, considering them derivative of Ravel, the preeminent composer in France during his youth. His music that had been published avoided demolition. After World War II, Dutilleux concentrated almost exclusively on instrumental and orchestral music, much of which has been widely programmed and recorded. His songs are not well known. In the chronological catalogue of his compositions, beginning in 1929, the Quatre mélodies for mezzo soprano or baritone is only the eleventh entry. It also exists in an orchestral version. The collection is dedicated to the French baritone Charles Panzéra and his wife, pianist Magdeleine Panzéra-Baillot, prominent interpreters of French song in the interwar years. Gabriel Fauré dedicated his last cycle, L’horizon chimérique, to Panzéra. Quatre mélodies (1942) uses poems by four different poets and presents a delightful collection of moods, although it must be admitted that the level of the poetry is not uniformly high: “Féérie au clair de lune” (poem by Raymond Genty), a graceful scherzo of dancing fairies that evokes Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; “Pour une amie perdue” (Edmond Borsent); “Regards sur l’infini” (Anna de Noailles); and “Fantasio” (André Bellessort). The last mélodie is the most successful of the set and is one of two songs from the set (the other being “Pour une amie perdue”) that Dutilleux acknowledged. He wanted to exclude the first and third songs because their poetry was relatively mediocre. Fantasio (1942) from Quatre Mélodies poem by André Bellessort (1866-1942) “Fantasio” (the original title of Bellessort’s poem is “Les funérailles de Fantasio”) is a colorful poem that chronicles the funeral of the titled character, who has expired before the text begins. The poem, set in Venice during Carnival, is full of glittering and compelling imagery that changes quickly, following the pace of the Carnival. Musical textures are skillfully handled and exhibit some of Dutilleux’s developing style. “Pauvre Fantasio,” is heard several times during the text, acting as both a funereal chant that unifies the proceedings and perhaps as well, keeping the mourners’ footsteps marching together. BACK TO TOP GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845-1924) Gabriel Fauré was one of the great composers of French song who, with Duparc and Debussy, perfected the mélodie as a true art song form. He composed about a hundred songs, all original in conception, constantly developing in style, and pointing the way to future works. His songs express a broad range of emotion and a great variety of musical textures, extending the musical parameters of the genre and inspiring new techniques of song compositions. His songs are often divided into three compositional periods for purposes of study and definition. Fauré has been characterized as a skillful watchmaker; with great precision his songs, which overflow with subtle nuances and delicate detail. His approach is in keeping with the French musical aesthetic: elegant and rational, dealing with sentiment rather than literal sensation. He was able to capture the entire poetic mood of each poem he set and to create an aura around it with his musical setting. Dans la fôret de septembre, Op. 85, No. 1 (1902) poem by Catulle Mendès (1841-1909) This touching poem symbolizes the onset of old age. Mendès was among the founders of a literary magazine, La Revue fantaisiste, which published many poems of the Parnassian poets. Fauré’s musical style perfectly suited this style of poetry: elegance of style, richness of rhyme, regularity and symmetry of rhythm. The Parnassians avoided the excessively romantic and aimed for “art-for-art’s sake.” Fauré was nearly sixty years old when he composed this mélodie, and his reaction to this poem is beautifully poignant. The words describe the poet’s reflective walk through a quiet, somber forest, capturing the chill of mortality and the overall mood of the turning point of life. The ancient forest, sensing a kindred spirit, provides the walker with a sign of friendship and understanding. Fauré set this contemplative poem in a rich harmonic musical texture with a vocal line that borders on quasi-recitative-like shapes. The solemn thoughts of old age call forth a melancholy, but it is a subtle melancholy. It is almost hymn-like in the fusion of words, emotions, and musical texture. This mélodie may be considered as marking the threshold to the final period of Fauré’s compositions. Accompagnement, Op. 85, No. 3 (1902) poem by Albert Victor Samain (1858-1900) This mélodie is a beautiful barcarolle–a nighttime scene, silvery and hazy, alluring but unreal. The image of the poet rowing on the lake is reflected in the musical texture. Fauré had a lifelong fascination with water imagery in music; this poem offers a little reel of unfolding pictures of a moonlight journey a dark lake. The words “dans le rêve” tell us that this is all a dream. This is a rarely sung Fauré mélodie that yields great rewards for the performer. Chanson, Op. 94 (1906) poem by Henri di Régnier (1864-1936) This poem has a gentle charm and a calm simplicity. It is the last of Fauré’s madrigals that include delicate love songs such as “Lydia,” and “Clair de lune.” It has a wonderful fluidity that is a perfect foil for the poetic images The text is a simple set of variations on one theme: nothing on earth has any meaning unless the beloved somehow touches it. Fauré’s reaction to the words called forth a musical setting of delicate transparency and limited range. It is not well known; like “Le Don silencieux,” “Chanson” was published as a single song and therefore not widely disseminated. It is an example of exquisitely planned musical economy, and definitely belongs in Fauré’s third period of musical compositions. Le Don silencieux, Op. 92 (1906) poem by Marie Closset (1875-1952), under the pseudonym Jean Dominique Here is another little known Fauré song, a rarity because it was published separately and was never included in any of the Fauré recueils. The poem has a gentle melancholy–the plea of a timid lover, a mixture of hope and imagined disappointment. The words are tender and flowing, but the overall mood is one of unrelieved sadness. This song marks the beginning of Fauré’s third compositional period, which includes the cycles La Chanson d’Eve, Le Jardin clos, Mirages, and L’Horizon chimérique. Writing of this mélodie in a letter to his wife, Fauré said, It does not in the least resemble any of my previous works, nor anything that I am aware of; I am very pleased about this...It translates the words gradually as they unfold themselves; it begins, opens out, and finishes, nothing more, nevertheless it is unified. 1 NOTES: Quoted in Graham Johnson, Gabriel Fauré: The Songs and their Poets (London: Guildhall School of Music and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2009), 291. Quotation from Jean-Michel Nectoux, Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life, trans. Roger Nichols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 304. This is a translation of Fauré’s letter to his wife of 17 August 1906. BACK TO TOP REYNALDO HAHN (1875-1947) Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan by birth, came to Paris with his family at age four and made a brilliant career. In addition to his career as a composer and singer, he was director of the Paris Opéra, music critic for the newspaper Figaro, and conductor of the Salzburg Festival. He was enough of a scholar to edit some of the works of Rameau. He maintained close friendships throughout his life with actress Sarah Bernhardt and writer Marcel Proust. During the Belle époque, French mélodie was at the height of its development. Hahn was a habitué of the most fashionable salons, where he was in demand as a performer. On these occasions, he usually sang and played his own accompaniment, often with a cigarette dangling from his lips. The art of singing was one of his major passions, and he wrote three books on singing (Du chant, Thèmes varies, and L’oreille au guet), as well as a memoir of Sarah Bernhardt. Hahn’s songs are models of French restraint–devoid of overt display, with beautiful melodies in a modest vocal range. They reflect the style of his teacher, Jules Massenet. Hahn composed approximately ninety-five works for solo voice: eighty-four mélodies, five English songs to texts of Robert Louis Stevenson, and six Italian songs in the Venetian dialect. After 1912, Hahn composed in larger forms: opera, operetta, and film music. Perhaps his most famous work is his operetta Ciboulette (1923), which is still performed. À Chloris (1916) poem by Théophile de Viau (1590-1626) “À Chloris” is No. 14 in Deuxième volume de vingt mélodies, the last major publication of Hahn’s songs during his lifetime. In many of his later songs, he turned to a deliberately archaic style. “À Chloris” features an elegant vocal line above a piano texture that features Baroque musical characteristics; it is its own piece, with ornamented melody and chaconne-like bass. Vocal line and piano piece are woven into a musical tapestry that is both declarative and intimate. Poet Théophile de Viau was considered one of the most influential libertin poets during Louis XIII’s reign. The libertins’ verses had a unique charm that is instantly appealing, but somewhat artificial. Despite this, de Viau’s love poetry is not bland, but full of suggestive passion and elegant wit. BACK TO TOP ARTHUR HONEGGER (1892-1955) Arthur Honegger composed over forty mélodies for voice and piano. Taken as a whole, they are diverse and imaginative. For his texts, he favored contemporary poets such as Jean Cocteau, Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Claudel, and Paul Fort. He also chose to set unrelated poems by a single poet, such as his Poesies (Cocteau) and Alcools (Apollinaire). Poetry with strong imagery appealed to the dramatist in his personality. For Honegger, as for most successful mélodie composers, the word provides the starting place. He is quoted as saying: For me, the music a song is always dependent upon the poetic model. It must join so closely with the poetry, that they become inseparable and one can picture the poem in wholly musical terms. This is not to say that the music becomes subservient. It must be so crafted that it can stand on its own merits, playable without the text, logical and complete. 1 Born of Swiss parents in Le Havre, France, Arthur Honegger initially studied for two years at the Zurich Conservatory, but enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire from 1911 to 1918, studying with Charles-Marie Widor and Vincent d’Indy. Some of his more familiar large vocal works include the dramatic psalm Le roi David (King David), composed in 1921 and still in the choral repertoire; and his dramatic oratorio of 1935, Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the stake), with text by Paul Claudel, considered to be one of his finest works. Between the world wars, he composed nine ballets and three vocal stage works, among works in other genres. His total compositional catalog is an impressive list of music: orchestral works, chamber music, concertos, ballets, operas, operettas, and oratorios. Widely known as a train enthusiast, he was passionately interested in locomotives, to which he attributed almost human characteristics. His “mouvement symphonique,” Pacific 231, gained him early acclaim in 1923. Honegger’s musical style is a fascinating mixture of impressionistic effects peppered with penetrating dissonances. He had a fondness for mixing tonalities and using modality. His compositions for the voice display an eclectic focus of coloristic harmonies and architectural clarity. He was a member of Les Six, but unlike most of that group, did not share their overwhelming reaction against German romanticism. Honegger’s musical style is fuller and more serious than his colleagues. He and Darius Milhaud were close friends. Honegger’s generous body of song has proved of enduring interest to contemporary performers. His was a distinctive voice in the vocal music of the twentieth-century French mélodie. Trois Psaumes (1940-41) from the Huguenot Psalter Psaumes XXXIV and CXL translated by Théodore de Bèze (1519-1605) Psaume CXXXVIII translated by Clément Marot (1496-1544) The spirit of Bach shines in the first psaume, “Psalm 34,” in which a chant-like vocal line alternates with a gently moving episodic keyboard part. This call and response continues until the last three vocal phrases, when the vocal line merges with the instrumental texture in a psalm of praise. The second song is “Psalm 140,” “ô Dieu donne-moi la déliverance de cet homme pernicieux” (O God, deliver me from this evil man). Honegger’s biographer, Harry Halbreich, suggests that the “evil man” who was oppressing Europe in those last days of 1940 might be the reason for Honegger’s text choice. This piece was composed before the first and third songs. Its emotional mood peaks with the chorale tune “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” 2 The last song in the set, “Psalm 138,” has the Latin title “Confiteor tibi, Domine” (I thank thee, O Lord) and is a paraphrase by Clément Marot, one of the greatest of the French Renaissance poets. It contains a familiar chorale tune, which is used in canon between voice and piano. NOTES: Arthur Canter and Rachel Joselson, Liner notes, The Songs of Arthur Honegger and Jacques Leguerney. Rachel Joselson, Réne Lecuona , piano. Albany Records, TROY691, 2004. Harry Halbreich, trans. Roger Nichols, Arthur Honegger (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1999), 165. BACK TO TOP JACQUES LEGUERNEY (1906-1997) Most of Jacques Leguerney’s sixty-eight mélodies were composed and published from 1940 to 1964. Many were commissioned and premiered by French baritone Gérard Souzay, his sister, soprano Geneviève Touraine, and pianist Jacqueline Bonneau. Early songs are comparable in mood and style with Ravel or Roussel (who encouraged Leguerney’s composition); later songs have been compared to those of his contemporary, Poulenc. Leguerney writes virtuoso piano parts–often dramatic, and with such an individual sense of harmonic style and color that Pierre Bernac reportedly described them as “mélodies de pianist.” 1 When asked about Leguerney’s songs, Gérard Souzay wrote, “How does one describe this music which is, at the same time, classic and modern? It is pure, but colorfully nuanced; it speaks to the heart as well as the mind–at times calm at times witty–wise, yet sensual...” 2 Many of Leguerney’s songs deal with themes of love and nature, expressing a huge range of emotions from deeply felt meditation to wild, ribald humor. Leguerney stopped composing in 1964, and his songs became neglected. The quality of Leguerney’s text setting, lyrical beauty, and harmonic innovations all call for his songs to be better known and more widely performed. Jacques Leguerney was drawn to the work of Renaissance poets, notably Ronsard. There are eight collections titled Poèmes de la Pléaide, representing settings of sixteenth and seventeenth-century French poetry and totaling thirty-two songs. Additionally, there are cycles and other collections [for a complete listing of Leguerney’s songs, see Dibbern, Kimball, and Choukroun, Interpreting the Songs of Jacques Leguerney]. 3 They may be thought of as the last in the great mainstream of twentieth-century French song. La Caverne d’écho (1954) from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Volume 7 poem by Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant (1594-1661) Dedication: Josiane and Jean Cier. First performance: Bernard Kruysen, baritone; Jean-Charles Richard, pianist. 29 May 1965, Radio France Culture. Marc-Antoine Girard, sieur de Saint-Amant, wrote poetry of great descriptive power, and his use of language set him apart from the other seventeenth-century poets. He was also an adept musician and skillful lute player, writing verses that often describe musical sounds linked to visual images. The poem takes place in a dark cave, home of the nymph, Echo; it is a charmed place, absolutely still and peaceful. The poet’s lute resounds inside the cavern as he tries to soothe the inconsolable Echo, who mourns for her lover Narcissus. Leguerney creates the grotto’s mysterious resonance with bitonality. Piano figures illustrate the strumming of the lute. The text contains many sounds with the consonant “r.” The rolling quality of this speech sonority re-creates the cavern’s resonance. The closing measures of the mélodie produce a striking effect as the singer’s voice echoes eerily in the cavern, blending with the piano’s resonance and creating a remarkably realistic echo. À son page (1944) from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Volume 2 poem by Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) Dedicated to Gérard Souzay. First performance: Gérard Souzay, baritone; Jacqueline Robin (Bonneau). 3 May 1945, Salle Gaveau, Paris. This is a lusty scene with four characters: a nobleman tipsy from drink, his page, and two women, Jeanne and Barbe. Carpe diem is the theme here. The singer philosophizes on this idea while enjoying his wine and the tender companionship of the two beautiful women. Leguerney evokes the crackling staccato of a stylized harpsichord with rhythmic accents in the piano. The text is brilliantly set with jagged vocal lines and driving rhythms that illustrate the singer’s intoxication. It ends with Leguerney’s repetition of the last poetic line and the addition of nonsense syllables which fit beautifully into the imagery and mood of Ronsard’s colorful characters. Je me lamente (1943) from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Volume 1 poem by Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) Dedicated to Geneviève Touraine. First performance: Paul Derenne, tenor; Jeanne Blancard, pianist. 29 March 1944, Salle de l’Ecole Normale de Musique, Paris. This is one of Leguerney’s most beautiful songs, setting Pierre de Ronsard’s text from his collection of love poems for Marie Dupin, a country girl from a small village in southern France. She was half his age and probably represented the youth he constantly pursued. It has been suggested that the Marie in question was probably Marie de Clèves, passionately adored by Henri III. 4 Leguerney called this mélodie a constant crescendo from beginning to end. 5 Ronsard’s anguish is captured with a texture of stark chords, crowned by a regal and sustained vocal line. As the song progresses, the poet’s anguish is embodied in a more expansive texture, bidding Marie a happy resting place near God or in the Elysian fields. NOTES: Liner notes by Mary Dibbern. Mélodies sur poèmes de la Renaissance (Jacques Leguerney).Harmonia Mundi France. LP recording HMC 1171. Letter to the author. Quoted in Mary Dibbern, Carol Kimball, and Patrick Choukroun. Interpreting the Songs of Jacques Leguerney (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2001), 3. Ibid., 289-295. Ibid., 69. See note 20. Ibid., 70. BACK TO TOP OLIVIER MESSIAEN (1908-1992) Olivier Messiaen was born in 1908 in Avignon, France, into a literary family. He grew up around words and absorbed their shapes, colors and sounds naturally. His father, Pierre Messiaen, was a well-known translator of Shakespeare, and his mother, Cécile Sauvage, was a poet. As a youngster, before beginning to compose music, he had an especially perceptive ear attuned to the unique prosody of the French language. Early in his compositional career, he published a book titled Technique de mon langage musical (1944). About his musical setting of words, Jane Manning observes: ...the syllables themselves create a glittering mosaic of sonorities and subtle resonances, in addition to their actual meaning (many of the poems do not translate at all satisfactorily). The composer’s awareness of the minutiae of verbal enunciations and articulations is miraculous. Each vocal sound can be precisely placed as intended, all dynamics are scrupulously plotted, and the performer’s involvement and intimate connection to the music is enhanced by the sensual nature of words projection... 1 He often used stained glass to explain his music. When viewed from a distance, the myriad details blend into a single entity, whose purpose is to dazzle the listener. Understanding is not necessary, feeling is the prime requisite. The music of Olivier Messiaen is a skillfully designed and unique language, with meaning and form kept separate. Its meaning is unchangeable, harkening back to Gregorian chant, culminating in instruments that are able to prolong sound (organ, strings, or the ondes Martenot). Messiaen’s musical language is defined by its rhythms and tone colors. His uncanny instinct for associating sound with color produced works unique in their concept of the combination of sounds. He said that when he heard or read music, his mind’s eye saw colors that move with the music; he sensed these colors, and at times he precisely indicated their arrangements in his scores. His fascination with birdsong was lifelong; he referred to himself as an ornithologist and tracked birds and their songs all over the world. He considered their resonances as songs and not merely sounds. He notated these on manuscript paper and they found their way into his music. Trois mélodies (1930) poems by Olivier Messiaen, Cécile Sauvage (1883-1927) This little cycle of songs is Messiaen’s first recognized work for voice and piano. The songs are modest in length and not typical of Messiaen’s later style, but show influences of late Fauré and Duparc in the overall musical texture. There is only one song in his vocal compositions in which Messiaen set the poetry of another poet. It is found in this cycle, which uses the text of his mother, the poet Cécile Sauvage, who died three years before the composition of this work. The three movements form a warm and delicate little triptych. Two of Messiaen’s own poems stand on either side of the poem by Cécile Sauvage, throwing that charming little poem into high relief. “Pourquoi?” introduces a litany of the pleasures of nature: birdsong, the unfolding seasons, and water images. The poet becomes emotional, asking why all these bring him no joy. “La Sourire,” the shortest song of the set, is a beautiful microcosm of intimate and spiritual understanding between two people. It is a delicate example of musical economy and word setting in a quasi-recitative style. The last song, “La fiancée perdue,” offers fleeting hints of Messiaen’s cycle to come, Poèmes pour Mi–most specifically, the final song. Here, the poet prays for divine blessing on the soul of the “fiancée” in the title. The fervent incantation illuminates and affirms man’s connection to a higher authority. Examining the poetic content of the three texts, we are struck by the images that underlie the words: the emotional outburst “pourquoi,” (why?), perhaps questioning the death of Cécile, followed by Cécile’s tender affirmation of love, and finally, the prayer asking for Divine grace and the blessing of the soul of the departed. NOTES: Jane Manning, “The Songs and Song Cycles,” in The Messiaen Companion, ed. Peter Hill (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1995), 107. BACK TO TOP DARIUS MILHAUD (1892-1974) Darius Milhaud was probably the most prolific composer of the group known as Les Six (Francis Poulenc, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Germaine Tailleferre, Georges Auric, and Milhaud). The group was unified by friendship rather than a single musical style. Championed by influential writer Jean Cocteau and composer Erik Satie, Les Six often presented their works at the same concerts and met with great regularity–often at Milhaud’s house–to make music and exchange ideas. Louis Durey observed that it was the wide diversity in their personalities and musical styles that gave the group its rich depth and permitted its development. Embodied in the credo of their musical thought was relative sparseness of texture and clarity. Turn-of-the-century France offered popular entertainments that drew the French to an environment of merry-go-rounds, shooting galleries, outdoor concerts, circuses, and a jumble of excitement. Milhaud was fascinated by Parisian street life, and could hear the sounds of the Montmartre fair from his apartment. Often on their group outings, Les Six went together to the Cirque de Médrano to see the Fratellinis, a famous family of clowns of that day. Milhaud observed that their acts were worthy of the Commedia dell’arte. 1 Trois Poèmes de Jean Cocteau, Op. 59 (1920) poems by Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) Trois poèmes de Jean Cocteau is like lyric fragments. The small-range vocal lines have a sparse lyricism–one of emotional mood rather than overt melody. The little mélodies are skillful studies in brevity. These match Cocteau’s rather enigmatic poems that exemplify the style termed dépouillé (stripped to the essentials), his aesthetic creed. Milhaud dedicated the songs to Satie. The three miniatures are a colorful kaleidoscope of the circus and the outdoor fairs that entranced the French during this period. “Fumée” describes the equestrienne of the Cirque Médrano atop a horse, jumping through hoops, captured in Toulouse-Lautrec’s familiar painting titled “L’écuyère au Cirque Fernando (1888); “Fête de Bordeaux” is a description of the merry-go-round at the Bordeaux fair; and “Fête de Montmartre” evokes the nighttime boats and sailors, possibly having to do with a game involving camouflaged ships found at the Montmartre fair. Milhaud infuses stylistic and melodic elements of folk songs and children’s tunes into the tiny pieces, tying the innate excitement of these popular destinations to simple, childlike reactions. NOTES: Laurence Davies, The Gallic Muse (New York: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1967), 164. BACK TO TOP FRANCIS POULENC (1899-1963) Francis Poulenc’s 150 mélodies form the largest body of songs to be added to French vocal literature in the twentieth century. Poulenc’s flair for the dramatic, combined with his superb skill in mixing poetry and music, produced songs that singers find immensely gratifying, not only for their musical value, but for their heightened sense of drama. Poulenc’s mélodies reflect concern and feeling for declamation, inflection, breathing, and above all, show extraordinary warmth of feeling for the human voice. He was fond of saying, “J’aime la voix humaine!” The sophistication of Poulenc’s songs spring from their poetic inspirations. Poulenc was quite knowledgeable about poetry, and chose his texts carefully. His gift of divining the inner life of the texts he set produced songs that do more than merely illustrate the poems. His gift for melody is at the very heart of all his songs and seems to assert itself naturally in shaping the color, weight, and meaning of the texts he set. Ce doux petit visage (1938) poem by Paul éluard (1895-1952) Paul Eluard was one of Poulenc’s three main poets. This is a beautiful introduction to Eluard’s poetry, lyrical and passionately intense. The simplicity of Poulenc’s setting allows the poem to shine. It is one of Poulenc’s tiny gems, and he admitted his partiality to the short song. Eluard’s skill at evoking nostalgia and melancholy are seen here, linked to lost youth. The mélodie is dedicated to the memory of Raymonde Linossier, Poulenc’s most intimate childhood friend, who influenced his literary taste and musical tendencies. He said: “I have a great liking for this short song. Raymonde Linossier was my best advisor for the music of my youth. How many times, during the years since her death, I would have liked to have had her opinion on this or the other of my works.” 1 La Grenouillère (1938) poem by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) “La Grenouillère” is an outstanding example of Poulenc’s romantic lyricism. This is a text by Guillaume Apollinaire describing the Ile de Croissy, an island in the Seine on the outskirts of Paris, frequented by artists and their models, and celebrated in paintings by Monet, Manet, and Renoir. “The Froggery” was a restaurant on the island. The overall images of happy days that cannot be relived can be seen in Pierre Auguste Renoir’s paintings Les Déjeuner des canotiers (The Boatman’s Luncheon), or La Grenouillère. In this lament for boating parties on the Seine, vocal phrases are sustained and languid, floating over a slowly rocking piano accompaniment. The lazy piano figures mirror the empty tethered boats rocking on the water, bumping against each other, and give expression to the sweet melancholy of the poet’s words. Montparnasse (1945) poem by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) Apollinaire’s poem is dated 1912. Poulenc writes in his journal of songs that it took him four years to complete “Montparnasse,” almost phrase by phrase, and that he had no regrets about the length of time it took because “it is one of my best songs.” 2 It is a sentimental and heartfelt tribute to Paris. Both Apollinaire and Poulenc loved the city and it played a continuing role in their work. “Montparnasse” is about the idyllic artistic existence lived at the edge of Paris. Poulenc wrote in his diary: “Let us imagine this Montparnasse all at once discovered by Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Apollinaire.” 3 The mélodie has a carefree nonchalance about it; it is not sad, but thoughtful– a beautiful blend of poetic and musical lyricism. Poulenc’s vocal and harmonic textures are full of surprising harmonic details that bind this song–which he composed in fragments–together into a touching and expressive picture of Paris in the early years of the twentieth century. Bleuet (1939) poem by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) Guillaume Apollinaire was one of Poulenc’s preferred poets. This is a wartime poem that Apollinaire penned in 1917 in Paris in convalescence after a head injury; both Apollinaire and Poulenc served in World War II. There are several word plays at work here. “Bleuet” was the nickname for French soldiers in World War I, because their uniforms were blue, like the color of a little cornflower, which is a “bleuet.” Also, “Un bleu” was the term used for a raw recruit. “Bleuet” is one of Poulenc’s most moving songs– agonizing in its emotional content yet noble in its message. It is a quiet and private moment in which a twenty-year-old boy who does not yet know all that life can be, is characterized–and addressed–by the poet in a sweetly serious speech. Poulenc wrote that for him, the key to the poem were the words, “It is five o’clock and you would know how to die.” 4 This song is simple, intimate, and poignant. Les Chemins de l’amour (1940) poem by Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) Poulenc composed this valse chantée as incidental music for Léocadia, a play by Jean Anouilh. Within the play, the song was described as a pseudo Viennese waltz, and functioned as a leitmotiv in the plot. Sung by Yvonne Printemps, one of France’s most celebrated musical theatre stars, “Les Chemins de l’amour” became a popular success. It embodies the relaxed elegance of a self-styled Viennese waltz style, encased in one of Poulenc’s haunting melodies. Banalités (1940) poems by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) Banalités is not a cycle, but a group of five songs. The poems have no connection with each other; however, their order provides a well-constructed recital group. They may be performed separately. The work is one of Poulenc’s most popular vocal works, and deservedly so. Poulenc chose contrasting poems, placing them so that the collection begins briskly and ends with lyrical gravity. “Chanson d’Orkenise” is Poulenc’s title for the poem contained in the strange mixture of prose and poetry that Apollinaire called Onirocritique. Orkenise is a road in Autun leading to the Roman gate of the same name. The musical setting has the feeling of a popular folk song. The narrator sings of a tramp leaving the city and a carter who is entering it - one leaving his heart there, one bringing his heart to be married. There is a word in the poem with a double meaning: “grise” can be translated as “gray” or “tipsy.” The merry quality of the song opens the set with gaiety, but both Apollinaire and Poulenc offer a little food for thought. “Hôtel” is a poem that immediately represented for Poulenc a hotel room in Montparnassse, where the idle poet wants only to bask in the sun’s warmth and smoke. Pierre Bernac referred to it as “the laziest song ever written.” 5 The piano figures are fashioned of Poulenc’s luxuriant chromatic harmonies, stacked as if to cushion the lethargy of the singer. “Fagnes de Wallonie” is set in the gloomy, desolate uplands of the Ardennes with a terrain of vast heaths, twisted trees, and peat bogs, swept by winds of considerable force. Its gloomy setting complements the melancholy mood of the poet. Poulenc’s spiky musical setting is a whirlwind that sweeps from beginning to end in a turbulent texture that demands precise articulation from singer and pianist. Sandwiched between Songs 3 and 5 is a tiny bonbon, “Voyage à Paris.” It resembles a little commercial jingle about Paris–“which one day love must have created”–an invitation to the pleasures of that beautiful city, away from “the dreary countryside.” Poulenc sprinkles his quicksilver setting–a valse-musette–with indications of “amiable” and “avec charme.” The composer referred to it as having “deliciously stupid lines...Anything that concerns Paris I approach with tears in my eyes and my head full of music.” 6 The cycle concludes with “Sanglots”, one of Apollinaire’s finest poems about the universality of lost love, a theme that Poulenc matches with exquisite modulations in a setting that embodies the essence of the words. The vocal lines are eloquently lyrical. The poem is difficult to understand because of the juxtaposition of the main narrative and the interior “asides,” that in effect form a poem within a poem. 7 The song has an elegant serenity that culminates in a stunning climactic point at the words: “Est mort d’amour ou c’est tout comme/ Est mort d’amour et le voici.” The ending lines of the song sustain the profoundly calm mood, bringing Banalités to its close. La Courte Paille (1960) poems by Maurice Carême (1899-1978) The last song cycle Poulenc composed was La Courte paille, on seven poems of Belgian poet Maurice Carême. Poulenc composed the songs for soprano Denise Duval, creator of leading roles in his three operas, hoping that she would sing them to her young son. Poulenc considered the mélodies very poetic and whimsical; unfortunately, Duval disliked the music and never did sing the cycle. Poulenc asked Carême to provide an overall title for the work and requested permission to change the titles of several selected poems: the original title of “Quelle aventure!” is “Une puce et l’éléphant”; “Le Reine de cœur” is “Vitres de lune”; “Le carafon” is “La carafe et le carafon.” For the cycle’s title, Carême chose La Courte Paille (The Short Straw), referring to drawing lots by the method of a short straw. Poulenc was delighted, saying the title symbolized his little musical game exactly. He also wrote in his diary, “They must be sung tenderly; that is the surest way to touch the heart of a child.” 8 The cycle is full of child-like innocence, whimsy and imagination, with a few shadowy undertones. The first song, “Le Sommeil,” is a beautiful lullaby to a restless child who cannot go to sleep, tossing and turning in his small bed. He seems ill, crying and perspiring, but hopefully will finally surrender to slumber. In “Quelle aventure!” the child describes an absurd happening: he saw a flea driving a carriage with a small elephant in it. The story grows more bizarre but the rhythmic pace never wavers, careening to the end of the song when the child wonders how on earth he’ll ever be able to persuade “Mama” that it really happened. The verses are witty, yet the shrieks of “Mon Dieu!” are laced with a feeling of childish terror. “La Reine du cœur” is a beautiful, languid melody that paints a picture of the mysterious Queen of Hearts, beckoning to visitors from her frosty castle, where she reigns over a court of lovers, including the young dead. In “Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu...,” the child is chided “on all sides” about studying. The title of the song presents the French vowels, and the text contains words that make their plural with an “x” (“pou, chou, genou, hibou”). The formidable cat of the poem’s opening lines is none other than that tricky feline Puss-in-Boots! The entire song is a little tongue-twister, an exercise in diction and accuracy. “Les anges musiciens” are none other than the school children staying home on Thursday, the half-day school holiday in France in Poulenc’s time, practicing Mozart on their harps, just like good little angel musicians should do. “Le carafon” is a crazy little story of a carafe that longs for a baby carafe (carafon) just like the giraffe at the zoo, who has a girafon. This is a ridiculous rhyming game like those that children love to play. The text is full of whimsical characters: the carafe, a giraffe, a sorcerer astride a phonograph, Merlin, and finally, a carafon. “Lune d’Avril” is another lullaby, very slow and otherworldly, which serves as an epilogue. Bound together in a musical texture that features a syncopated pedal point, it is filled with enchanted images the child wishes to dream about: a land of joy, light, and flowers where all guns are silent. The ending leaves the listener suspended in a mood of unfinished magic. La Courte Paille is the last vocal music Poulenc composed. NOTES: Quoted in Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc: The Man and his Songs (New York: W.W. Norton Co., 1977), 125. Francis Poulenc, Journal de mes mélodies, trans. Winifred Radford (London: Victor Gollancz, 1985), 75. Ibid., 75. Ibid., 57. Bernac, 72. Poulenc, 67. The English translation of “Sanglots” has parentheses that delineate the “asides” so that both “poems” may be seen. These may be found in Pierre Bernac’s books Francis Poulenc: The Man and his Songs, page 75, or The Interpretation of French Song, pages 284-85 Poulenc, 109. BACK TO TOP MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937) The songs of Maurice Ravel represent a transition between the mature mélodies of Debussy and the vocal literature that followed, notably the songs of Les Six. Debussy dominated the French musical scene from the turn of the century until his death in 1918. It was Ravel who was regarded as the leading musical spokesman for France following World War I. He was a skillful craftsman and his songs have a sense of evenness of rhythmic structure and flow that call for scrupulous execution. The fusion of music and text into a logical whole was of utmost importance to him. He composed elegant and subtle mélodies, using classical phrase structure. His melodic phrases often tend toward modality. His songs range from those with a folk-like style to more to those that are more speech-like, and those that encompass a melodic romanticism. He was precise in his thought and his scoring, and scrupulous in his musical execution. His music encompassed some of the fascinating influences of the post-Wagnerian era. Ravel’s musical contributions were of utmost importance to this exciting and new era in French cultural history. He made notable contributions to musical literature for the piano, the French art song, opera, chamber music, orchestral literature, and the ballet. Sur l’herbe (1907) poem by Paul Verlaine (1833-1896) This mélodie is Ravel’s only setting of Verlaine. It has often been suggested that this poem was probably inspired by Watteau’s painting L’île enchantée. There is also a reference to a famous eighteenth-century dancer, Marie-Anne Cuppi, known as (La) Camargo, who was immortalized on canvas by the painter Nicolas Lancret. The scene is an outside gathering, elegant and artificial. A number of people are there, chief among them, a licentious abbé, slightly tipsy from a bit too much Cyprian wine. He exchanges a few disconnected gallantries with the ladies–innocent conversations on the surface, but sensuous in undertone. The conversation is disconnected; we do not know exactly who is speaking. Ravel shapes very flexible vocal phrases, in keeping with the abbé’s intoxicated state, underscored with graceful piano figures that evoke an eighteenth-century dance. In a letter to Jean-Aubrey, Ravel commented on “Sur l’herbe”: “In this piece, as in the Histoires naturelles, the impression must be given that one is almost not singing. A bit of preciosity is found there which is indicated moreover by the text and the music.” 1 Noël des jouets (1905) poem by the composer This is the only solo song for which Ravel wrote the text. It describes a Christmas manger scene, replete with the Virgin and Christ-child, animals, and angels. It embodies Ravel’s delight with tiny mechanical toys and figures, and his fascination with the unspoiled world of child-like experience. His genius for text painting is displayed in the delightful mélodie. The mechanical toys come to life in the piano figures. Ravel’s charming text creates the images around and over the crèche, with not a word wasted. Ravel commented that the music is “clear and plain, like the mechanical toys of the poem.” 2 This little song foreshadows other Ravel settings of make-believe, beginning with the song cycle Histoires naturelles and culminating with his opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges. The music of menacing dog Belzébuth foreshadows the music of the Beast in the Mother Goose Suite (Ma Mère lOye). Rêves (1927) poem by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947) The poetry of Léon-Paul Fargue has been described as reflecting the union of dream and memory. This mélodie has a tender lyricism within a sparse musical texture. The text is fashioned of a series of miniature images that pass by rather quickly, unrelated, like the images found in dreams. For all their differences, they have a simplicity about them that seems timeless, existing together, as the poet says, “in a vague countryside.” When the dreamer finally awakens, the little fleeting pictures “die quietly.” The piano postlude perpetuates the dream state, creating an ethereal little microcosm that continues to draw the dreamer to it. Ronsard à son âme (1924) poem by Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) In his Abrégé de l’art poétique français (1565) Pierre de Ronsard advocated the union of poetry and music, and Renaissance composers frequently set his poems. 3 In this strikingly simple mélodie, Ronsard speaks to his soul, calling it by a series of diminutives: little soul, dainty little one, sweet little one. Ravel uses a series of parallel fifths in the piano figures to invoke a Renaissance mood. This is Ronsard’s last poem, and Ravel’s last adaptation of Renaissance poetry. Ravel’s setting recalls the elegance of his early mélodie, “D’Anne qui me jecta de la neige,” to a poem of Clément Marot. Manteau de fleurs (1903) poem by Paul Barthélemy Jeulin (1863-1936) The poem notes everything in the garden that is pink–all the flowers that will become a beautiful cloak to complement the beauty of the lady of the poem. Ravel usually had very sophisticated taste in choosing texts; this particular poem is an unusual choice. It is a simple text, somewhat banal, but Ravel’s shimmering musical texture imparts a dramatic character for each flower in the poem. The overall piano texture suggests orchestral colors. The last section of the mélodie changes course slightly, with the piano harmonies creating a slightly wistful mood. Clearly, Ravel lavished a beautiful musical setting on a rather ordinary set of words. Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (1932-33) [Medium/Low Voice edition only] poems by Paul Morand (1888-1976) This miniature cycle was Ravel’s last vocal work. His musical portrait of the noble Spanish knight, Don Quixote, is embodied in three mélodies, all based on characteristic Spanish or Basque dance rhythms: (1) the guajira, alternating 6/8 and 3/4 meter; (2) the zorzica, a Basque dance in quintuple meter; and (3) the jota, a lively triple-metered Spanish dance. “Chanson Romanesque” presents the chivalrous idealist Don Quixote, confidently promising to rearrange everything in nature to his lady Dulcinea’s liking in order to win her favor. Dulcinea is in reality a poor farm girl, but the Don’s illusion will not be shaken. He remains authoritative and focused in his quest for her love. “Chanson épique” is Quixote’s reverent prayer to Saint Michael and Saint George, beseeching them to bless his sword and his Lady. Ravel creates a beautifully sustained and prayerful vocal line over a simple accompaniment. “Chanson à boire” is a exuberant drinking song. Although the Don’s tippling has made him overly boisterous, he never oversteps the bounds of his noble bearing. His robust laughter is heard in the piano figures and even a hiccup intrudes between “lorsque j’ai” and “lorsque j’ai bu.” NOTES: Maurice Ravel, in a letter to Jean-Aubrey written in September, 1907. Quoted in Arbie Orenstein, Ravel: Man and Musician (New York: Dover Publications, 1991), 165-66. Quoted in Orenstein, 161. Orenstein, 192. BACK TO TOP ALBERT ROUSSEL (1869-1937) In 1894 Albert Roussel left a highly successful career as a naval officer to pursue music. After completing his studies, he became professor of counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. Satie and Varèse were among his students. Roussel was one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. He composed almost forty mélodies as well as chamber music, ballets, and operas. His style is eclectic but highly individual. Early works show the influence of Vincent d’Indy, works dating from 1910 to 1920 exhibit influences of Debussy and Ravel, but he turned to neoclassicism in his later compositions. His love for the sea was almost a spiritual attraction and continued to influence his music throughout his career. He had a fascination for distant places; his extended tour of Southeast Asia in 1909 had a tremendous influence on his composition. “Sarabande” and “Cœur en peril” are mélodies to texts of René Chalupt, a close friend. They are found in op. 20 and 50, respectively. Roussel’s overall musical catalogue is not extensive, but its quality is of an extremely high level, and his vocal writing in particular contains some mélodies of great delicacy and style, squarely in the French tradition. For Roussel, the word held primacy in his mélodies, being both transformed by its musical setting and merging with it to create a perfect union. Commenting on the quality of Roussel’s songs, composer Charles Koechlin is quoted as saying: “The sense of austerity pervading them, stemming simply from the composer’s natural reserve, heightens their expressiveness and further embellishes them; in language and content they are absolutely personal. This collection of songs is one which will last because its essence is undying sensitivity.” 1 Sarabande (1919) from Deux mélodies, Op. 20, No. 2 poem by René Chalupt This is surely one of Roussel’s most delicate and magical creations. His writing for the piano is particularly outstanding, placing Chalupt’s poem in an overall texture of elegance and veiled sensuality. There is an Oriental delicacy in Roussel’s musical evocation of the fluttering doves, feathers drifting into a pool, and the gentle drift of chestnut blossoms onto bare flesh. Cœur en péril (1933-34) from Deux mélodies, Op. 50, No. 1 poem by René Chalupt This mélodie is much different in mood–witty and flirtatious. It is the narrative of a young man eager to convince his ladylove of his fidelity. Vocal phrases are tuneful, with a spirited piano texture of Iberian flavor. NOTES: Liner notes, Dom Angelico Surchamp, trans. Elisabeth Carroll, Roussel Mélodies, Colette Alliot-Lugaz, Mady Mesplé, Kurt Ollmann, José Van Dam; Dalton Baldwin, Patrick Gallois. EMI Digital. CDS 7492712, 1987 BACK TO TOP ERIK SATIE (1866-1925) Erik Satie wrote very few songs and most of them date from late in his life. The eccentric father figure of the French avant-garde of the twentieth century had a wildly independent spirit that found its way into his musical compositions. Throughout his life, he kept a great deal of childlike inquisitiveness and innocence. He was a curious personality of unconventional habits whose sense of the absurd and whimsy permeated both his life and his music. Quintessential Satie compositions are laconic and witty. It was Satie who named Les Nouveaux Jeunes, soon known as Les Six, and influenced the early development of the group. La Statue de bronze (1916) from Trois Mélodies poem by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947) This is Satie’s first setting of the poetry of Léon-Paul Fargue, the “Bohemian poet of Paris.” Satie used Fargue’s witty verses again for Ludions. The scene is a garden game–the jeu de tonneau. A bronze frog, perched atop a cabinet with numbered chambers, grows impatient of being the target of the game where metal disks are tossed into her mouth. She dreams of being freed from her pedestal and being able to use her wide-open mouth to utter “LE MOT.” 1 She wants to be free to join the other frogs gathered near the rust-colored washhouse “blowing musical bubbles from the soapy moonlight.” But the game continues, the disks rattle through her mouth into numbered compartments and at night, insects sleep in her mouth. This mélodie can be linked musically to “La Grenouille américaine,” found in Ludions. Both songs share piano figures derived from the café-concert chanson. Ludions (1923) poems by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947) Ludions is the last of Satie’s purely vocal works, composed two years before his death, and is perhaps his finest set of songs. It epitomizes his lifelong quest for musical simplicity and his irreverence for the intricate compositional techniques and overactive emotions of the Impressionists. Ludions is translated as “bottle imps” (a ludion is a little figure suspended in a hollow ball, which descends or rises in a vase filled with water when one presses down on the elastic membrane covering the mouth of the vase). The cycle is a kaleidoscopic set of musical miniatures, riddled with puns and illogical phrases. Fargue’s nonsensical verse complements Satie’s musical aesthetic, and the two friends’ personalities closely matched one another. All the mélodies in Ludions are short, like tiny cameos. They are colorful, saucy, fantastic, and defy translation. “Air du rat,” “La Grenouille américaine,” and “Chanson du chat” are right out of the music hall, and Satie uses with a mock-serious “tongue-in-cheek” treatment for “Spleen” and “Air du poète.” Je te veux (1902) poem by Henry Pacory (1873-?) The valse chantée, or sung waltz was a favorite of the café concerts, for which Satie composed a number of works. Café concerts were a form of Parisian popular entertainment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The all-musical programs were held outside; French popular singers presented repertoire that catered to lower and middle-class audiences who came to talk, eat, drink, and observe the long informal programs, for which there was no admission charge. “Je te veux” was composed for Paulette Darty, dubbed “the Queen of the slow waltz.” It was one of her signature musical presentations for the caf’conc (café concerts), and one that Darty remained associated with throughout her career. A statuesque blonde with an ample figure, Darty was a commanding performer who kept the most boisterous of the Saturday night audiences enthralled. Lyricist Henry Pacory’s rather explicit poem was watered down at Satie’s request before the song was published. La Diva de l’Empire (1904) poem by Charles Bessat, named Numa Blès (1871-1917) The “Diva de l’Empire,” 2 one of Satie’s café-concert songs, was another work written for and performed by Paulette Darty. It was composed for a Bonnaud-Blès music-hall revue called Dévidons la Bobine (Let’s Unwind the Bobbin) that toured several seaside resort towns. The British “diva” is a femme fatale performer who enchants all who see her. The song is a syncopated cakewalk describing her seductive beauty as she struts her stuff “showing the wiggling of her legs and some pretty frilly underwear.” Interspersed at points along the way with English words: Greenaway, baby, little girl, etc. The piano provides a jaunty ragtime rhythm throughout that melds perfectly with the suggestive text. NOTES: ”Le mot” has a double meaning. It was the title of a broadsheet published by Jean Cocteau between 1914-15 and is short for “le mot de Cambronne,” a polite way of saying “merde.” Cambronne was a famous French general who replied “Merde!” when asked to surrender. In Steven Moore Whiting, Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert Hall. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 43. Empire refers to the Empire Theatre of Varieties, Leicester Square, London. BACK TO TOP DÉODAT DE SÉVERAC (1872-1921) Déodat de Séverac, of aristocratic lineage, was born in the Languedoc region of southwest France in Saint-Félix-Caraman (now Saint-Félix Lauragais), near Toulouse. After studies in Paris with Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum, he returned home and remained there. He was a contemporary of Fauré, Debussy and Ravel, but was considered a petit maître in their company, possibly because of his return to Languedoc at the completion of his musical studies. Séverac composed piano and orchestral music, operas and songs. The culture of his native Languedoc figured prominently in his music, which is highly descriptive. He often wrote parts for regional folk music in his scores. Many considered him provincial and unsophisticated, but his music displays his skill in integrating folk elements–and often, regional folk instruments–of his native Languedoc into his works. He often referred to himself as “the peasant musician.” Influences of Debussy, Mussorgsky, and Bizet may be found in his mélodies. Although his music is rather conservative in style, Séverac fused folk elements with the musical styles of the day in a unique and individual manner. Ma poupée chérie (1914) poem by the composer Composed in 1914 (and published in 1916) for his daughter Magali and dedicated to her, this little cradlesong is probably de Séverac’s best loved and most performed mélodie. Séverac’s fresh musical setting contains just the right combination of simplicity and delightful childlike honesty. Despite the subject matter, the composer’s heartfelt poem avoids an overly cloying atmosphere. BACK TO TOP OTHER SOURCES CONSULTED: Jane Bathori, On the Interpretation of the Mélodies of Claude Debussy, transl. and with an introduction by Linda Laurent (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1998). Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc: The Man and his Songs, transl. by Winifred Radford (New York: W.W. Norton, 1977). Pierre Bernac, The Interpretation of French Song, transl. by Winifred Radford(New York: W.W. Norton, 1978). Elaine Brody, Paris: The Musical Kaleidoscope 1870-1925 (New York: George Braziller, 1987). Mary Dibbern, Carol Kimball, and Patrick Choukroun, Interpreting the Songs of Jacques Leguerney (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2001) Alan M. Gillmor, Erik Satie (New York: W.W. Norton Co., 1992). James Harding, The Ox on the Roof: Scenes from musical life in Paris in the Twenties (New York: Da Capo Press, 1986). Peter Hill, ed., The Messiaen Companion (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1995). Graham Johnson, Gabriel Fauré: The Songs and their Poets (London: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 2009) Graham Johnson and Richard Stokes, A French Song Companion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). Carol Kimball, Song: A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp., 2005). Carol Kimball and Richard Walters, eds., The French Song Anthology (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp., 2001). Timothy LeVan, Masters of the French Art Song (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1991). Barbara Meister, Nineteenth-Century French Song (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1980). Wilfrid Mellers, Francis Poulenc (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993). Arbie Orenstein, Ravel: Man and Musician (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975). Nancy Perloff, Art and the Everyday: Popular Entertainment in the Circle of Erik Satie(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) Caroline Potter, Henri Dutilleux: His Life and Works (Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co., 1997). Francis Poulenc, Moi et mes amis: Confidences recueilles par Stéphane Audel (Paris: La Palatine, 1963). Francis Poulenc, Diary of my Songs [Journal de mes mélodies] transl. by Winifred Radford (London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1985) Marie-Claire Rohinsky, ed., The Singer’s Debussy (New York: Pelion Press, 1987) Roger Shattuck, The Banquet Years (New York: Vintage Books, 1968). 20TH CENTURY FRENCH ART SONGS Mélodies française du XXe siècle Edited by Carol Kimball Published by Éditions Durand DF 16250/HL 50565798 High Voice edition DF 16251/HL 50565799 Medium/Low Voice edition Distributed in Europe and Asia by Hal Leonard MGB Distributed in North and South America by Hal Leonard Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Hal Leonard Australia Download & Print Introductory Notes Complete Online Introductory Notes, Unabridged copyright © 2015 Editions Durand An abridged version of editor Carol Kimball’s “Introduction” appears in the High Voice and Medium/Low Voice publications. Her complete length “Introduction” appears below. See the publications for the poetry texts in French and translations in English. GEORGES AURIC CLAUDE DEBUSSY HENRI DUTILLEUX GABRIEL FAURÉ REYNALDO HAHN ARTHUR HONEGGER JACQUES LEGUERNEY OLIVIER MESSIAEN DARIUS MILHAUD FRANCIS POULENC MAURICE RAVEL ALBERT ROUSSEL ERIK SATIE DÉODAT DE SÉVERAC GEORGES AURIC (1899-1983) George Auric was something of a child prodigy, performing a piano recital at the Musicale Indépendante at the age of fourteen. The following year, the Société Nationale de Musique performed several songs he had composed. He studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire with Georges Caussade, and later with Vincent d’Indy and Albert Roussel at the Schola Cantorum de Paris. Before he was twenty, Auric had orchestrated and written incidental music for several stage productions and ballets. He composed a significant amount of avant-garde music during the years between 1910-20. Around 1914, he widened his acquaintances to include members of Les Six, a group of composers informally associated with Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau, and became a part of their group. Auric and Francis Poulenc became fast friends and remained so for life. Music criticism was an important part of Auric’s career; his writing focused on promoting the ideals of Les Six and Cocteau. He was also especially known for his film scores, which are consistently imaginative. He forged a major career in the English movies of the 1940s and ’50s. Among his most well-known scores is the music for the film Moulin Rouge. Other popular film titles with scores by Auric include The Lavender Hill Mob, Roman Holiday, Beauty and the Beast, and Bonjour Tristesse. In 1962 he became the director of the Opéra National de Paris and later, chairman of SACEM, the French Performing Rights Society. Auric continued to write classical chamber music until his death. Le Jeune sanguine (1940) from Trois Poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin poem by Louise de Vilmorin (1902-1969) This mélodie is the second song in Auric’s cycle titled Trois poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin. Vilmorin’s poetry reverberates with sensitivity to affairs of the heart. She was one of Poulenc’s preferred poets; he set her poetry when writing specifically for the female voice, such as in Fiançailles pour rire. A sort of veiled humor is at the heart of this text that describes a young hussy whose lover departs early with the dawn’s first light, leaving her weeping disconsolately. Auric provides a prelude and postlude for formal balance as the miserable young woman mourns her loss. He also inserts several unexpected and amusing measures of a tango as the young man arches his back and leaves the sound of her sobbing. For his three Vilmorin songs, Auric used the style of a chansonette, or more popular song. Printemps (1935) Poem by Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) Auric composed this lilting waltz song for a play by Edouard Bourdet titled La Reine Margot (1935). The celebrated musical theatre actress-singer Yvonne Printemps created the role of Queen Margot of Navarre at Théâtre de la Michodière. Auric and Francis Poulenc collaborated on the incidental music for this play; Poulenc took the second act, Auric the first. Poulenc composed the Suite française and the song “A sa guitare”; Auric’s contribution was “Printemps.” Yvonne Printemps sang both songs in the play. Both composers used texts by Pierre de Ronsard, and the musical style of each is reminiscent of the Renaissance. Ronsard’s original poem had twenty-three stanzas. Auric set only the first three. BACK TO TOP CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918) Claude Debussy wrote expertly for the voice and was acutely responsive to transforming poetic nuance into musical expression. Possibly no other French composer was as attuned to blending poetry and music. His literary taste was highly refined and he maintained a visible and active role in the literary and artistic circles of his time. He chose to set poetry of his contemporaries, notably Verlaine and Mallarmé. Verlaine’s verse with its inherent musical qualities, provided Debussy with poetry for numerous works. For Debussy, poetry as poetry was the paramount determinant of the musical texture. His ability to detect the essence of a poem and perfectly transform it into musical expression makes his mélodies unique in the history of French song. Le promenoir des deux amants (1904, 1910) poems by Tristan l’Hermite (c. 1601-1656) “Auprès de cette grotte sombre,” the first song, made its first appearance with the title “La Grotte,” song two of Trois chansons de France of 1904. In 1910, it was retitled and combined with two other poems by Tristan l’Hermite (“Crois mon conseil, chère Climène” and “Je tremble en voyant ton visage”) to form the miniature cycle Le Promenoir de deux amants, which has been called the finest of all Debussy’s works for voice and piano. It is also the least-often performed. Debussy chose the texts from Les Amours de Tristan, a collection by the seventeenth-century poet Tristan l’Hermite. The poems are set close to a grotto, secluded and silent. The transparent, barely stirring waters mingle with the silence of the cloistered spot, creating a dreamlike atmosphere. Debussy establishes an intimate, tender mood immediately and maintains this fragile mix of sound and color throughout the three mélodies. The interplay of resonance and texture in voice and piano results in an exquisite blend of light and shade, perfectly complementing l’Hermite’s poetic images. Subtly inflected vocal phrases are key to recreating the infinite calm and Pelléas-like atmosphere of the poetry, a perfect fusion of stillness and sensuality. Fêtes galantes II (1904) poems by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) Debussy’s fascination with the work of the French Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine resulted in his setting to music no fewer than seventeen of Verlaine’s texts. He composed two sets of three songs each, both titled Fêtes galantes, the first in 1892, and the second in 1904. Fêtes galantes II, Debussy’s last setting of Verlaine, closely following the composition of his opera Pélleas et Mélisande, is representative of the composer’s mature vocal works. It is marked by sparser textures, freer tonalities and a more concentrated compositional style than the first set; but like the first set, Fêtes galantes II presents three unrelated songs. None of the Watteau-like scenes are found here; rather, these three poems are filled with mystery, and are without sentimentality. The theme of time appears in each of the poems: the first, sentimental youthful remembrances; the second, inexorable fleeting time; and finally in the last song, time never to be reclaimed. “Les Ingénus” recalls the first awakenings of sexual attraction, and deals with the breathless awe with which a group of unsophisticated young men of the mid-nineteenth century view their similarly naïve female companions. The scene unfolds in a highly chromatic texture, skillfully balanced to preserve the delicate, poignant images in Verlaine’s verse. Debussy’s free-floating harmonies are carefully contrived to complement the uncertain emotions and repressed sensations of the youths in the poem. “Le Faune” begins with a prelude; time unravels in an inflexible dance featuring a rhythmic, hypnotic figure in the piano, imaging the traditional reed pipe and “tambourin,” a small drum played with a stick. The old terra-cotta statue in Verlaine’s poem is probably the woodland god Pan, playing a monotonous rhythm that is both sensual and slightly menacing, matching the mood of the two mélancolique pélerins. Mesmerized by the repetitive rhythms of drum and reed flute, the dejected travelers are caught in the whirlpool of passing time, which spins past as they watch helplessly. “Colloque sentimental.” Colloquial (colloque) refers to ordinary speech or conversation. This disturbing poem is the touchstone of one of Debussy’s great mélodies. It is the last poem in Verlaine’s collection titled Fêtes galantes, and provides a chilling climax. It blends themes of despair, death and disillusion. In this extraordinary song, the ghosts of two lovers meet in a wintry park. As they speak of their former love, their words match the setting: glacial and detached from feeling. Throughout the song their wintry words are enhanced by Debussy’s simple and subtle vocal treatment: one voice urgent and persistent, the other stonily indifferent. Debussy’s manipulation of musical texture between voice and piano is masterful. The sparse vocal lines are almost speech-like, and the piano figures mirror the frozen landscape in which this conversation–equally cold–takes place. The song’s kinship to Debussy’s opera Pélleas et Mélisande is unmistakable. The listener becomes one with the poem’s narrator, straining to see and hear the couple’s conversation in the icy cold of the deserted, frozen park. Debussy reaches back to “En sourdine” (the first mélodie of Fêtes galantes I), takes the wistful song of the nightingale, and inserts it into this song at various points. The nightingale’s melody (“voix de nôtre dessespoir, le rossignol chantera”) provides a touching and melancholy association, linking the two sets of Fêtes galantes together symbolically and musically, foreshadowing the disenchantment of love hinted at in “En sourdine” with the lovers’ conversation in “Colloque sentimental,” and unifying the two sets by a subtle musical component. This panel of three mélodies was Debussy’s last setting of the poetry of Paul Verlaine. Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maisons (1915) poem by the composer This is Debussy’s last song, written to his own text, a Christmas carol for children made homeless by World War I. Its intensity comes from its simple sincerity. Debussy composed it on the eve of his first operation for the cancer that would end his life two years later. It was his personal protest against the invasion of northern France by the German armies. When asked for permission to orchestrate the song, Debussy refused, saying, “I want this piece to be sung with the most discreet accompaniment. Not a word of the text must be lost, inspired as it is by the rapacity of our enemies. It is the only way I have to fight the war.” Originally composed in 1915 for piano and voice, Debussy also created a version for children’s chorus, and in 1916, a version for piano and two sopranos. BACK TO TOP HENRI DUTILLEUX (1916-2013) Henri Dutilleux studied at the Paris Conservatory with Maurice Emmanuel. He received the Prix de Rome in 1938 at age twenty-two, and went on to work at the Paris Opéra and the French Radio. France’s musical institutions defined his career: in 1961, he joined the faculty at the école Normale de Musique, teaching composition. In 1970, he taught at the Paris Conservatoire. He destroyed many of his early works, considering them derivative of Ravel, the preeminent composer in France during his youth. His music that had been published avoided demolition. After World War II, Dutilleux concentrated almost exclusively on instrumental and orchestral music, much of which has been widely programmed and recorded. His songs are not well known. In the chronological catalogue of his compositions, beginning in 1929, the Quatre mélodies for mezzo soprano or baritone is only the eleventh entry. It also exists in an orchestral version. The collection is dedicated to the French baritone Charles Panzéra and his wife, pianist Magdeleine Panzéra-Baillot, prominent interpreters of French song in the interwar years. Gabriel Fauré dedicated his last cycle, L’horizon chimérique, to Panzéra. Quatre mélodies (1942) uses poems by four different poets and presents a delightful collection of moods, although it must be admitted that the level of the poetry is not uniformly high: “Féérie au clair de lune” (poem by Raymond Genty), a graceful scherzo of dancing fairies that evokes Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; “Pour une amie perdue” (Edmond Borsent); “Regards sur l’infini” (Anna de Noailles); and “Fantasio” (André Bellessort). The last mélodie is the most successful of the set and is one of two songs from the set (the other being “Pour une amie perdue”) that Dutilleux acknowledged. He wanted to exclude the first and third songs because their poetry was relatively mediocre. Fantasio (1942) from Quatre Mélodies poem by André Bellessort (1866-1942) “Fantasio” (the original title of Bellessort’s poem is “Les funérailles de Fantasio”) is a colorful poem that chronicles the funeral of the titled character, who has expired before the text begins. The poem, set in Venice during Carnival, is full of glittering and compelling imagery that changes quickly, following the pace of the Carnival. Musical textures are skillfully handled and exhibit some of Dutilleux’s developing style. “Pauvre Fantasio,” is heard several times during the text, acting as both a funereal chant that unifies the proceedings and perhaps as well, keeping the mourners’ footsteps marching together. BACK TO TOP GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845-1924) Gabriel Fauré was one of the great composers of French song who, with Duparc and Debussy, perfected the mélodie as a true art song form. He composed about a hundred songs, all original in conception, constantly developing in style, and pointing the way to future works. His songs express a broad range of emotion and a great variety of musical textures, extending the musical parameters of the genre and inspiring new techniques of song compositions. His songs are often divided into three compositional periods for purposes of study and definition. Fauré has been characterized as a skillful watchmaker; with great precision his songs, which overflow with subtle nuances and delicate detail. His approach is in keeping with the French musical aesthetic: elegant and rational, dealing with sentiment rather than literal sensation. He was able to capture the entire poetic mood of each poem he set and to create an aura around it with his musical setting. Dans la fôret de septembre, Op. 85, No. 1 (1902) poem by Catulle Mendès (1841-1909) This touching poem symbolizes the onset of old age. Mendès was among the founders of a literary magazine, La Revue fantaisiste, which published many poems of the Parnassian poets. Fauré’s musical style perfectly suited this style of poetry: elegance of style, richness of rhyme, regularity and symmetry of rhythm. The Parnassians avoided the excessively romantic and aimed for “art-for-art’s sake.” Fauré was nearly sixty years old when he composed this mélodie, and his reaction to this poem is beautifully poignant. The words describe the poet’s reflective walk through a quiet, somber forest, capturing the chill of mortality and the overall mood of the turning point of life. The ancient forest, sensing a kindred spirit, provides the walker with a sign of friendship and understanding. Fauré set this contemplative poem in a rich harmonic musical texture with a vocal line that borders on quasi-recitative-like shapes. The solemn thoughts of old age call forth a melancholy, but it is a subtle melancholy. It is almost hymn-like in the fusion of words, emotions, and musical texture. This mélodie may be considered as marking the threshold to the final period of Fauré’s compositions. Accompagnement, Op. 85, No. 3 (1902) poem by Albert Victor Samain (1858-1900) This mélodie is a beautiful barcarolle–a nighttime scene, silvery and hazy, alluring but unreal. The image of the poet rowing on the lake is reflected in the musical texture. Fauré had a lifelong fascination with water imagery in music; this poem offers a little reel of unfolding pictures of a moonlight journey a dark lake. The words “dans le rêve” tell us that this is all a dream. This is a rarely sung Fauré mélodie that yields great rewards for the performer. Chanson, Op. 94 (1906) poem by Henri di Régnier (1864-1936) This poem has a gentle charm and a calm simplicity. It is the last of Fauré’s madrigals that include delicate love songs such as “Lydia,” and “Clair de lune.” It has a wonderful fluidity that is a perfect foil for the poetic images The text is a simple set of variations on one theme: nothing on earth has any meaning unless the beloved somehow touches it. Fauré’s reaction to the words called forth a musical setting of delicate transparency and limited range. It is not well known; like “Le Don silencieux,” “Chanson” was published as a single song and therefore not widely disseminated. It is an example of exquisitely planned musical economy, and definitely belongs in Fauré’s third period of musical compositions. Le Don silencieux, Op. 92 (1906) poem by Marie Closset (1875-1952), under the pseudonym Jean Dominique Here is another little known Fauré song, a rarity because it was published separately and was never included in any of the Fauré recueils. The poem has a gentle melancholy–the plea of a timid lover, a mixture of hope and imagined disappointment. The words are tender and flowing, but the overall mood is one of unrelieved sadness. This song marks the beginning of Fauré’s third compositional period, which includes the cycles La Chanson d’Eve, Le Jardin clos, Mirages, and L’Horizon chimérique. Writing of this mélodie in a letter to his wife, Fauré said, It does not in the least resemble any of my previous works, nor anything that I am aware of; I am very pleased about this...It translates the words gradually as they unfold themselves; it begins, opens out, and finishes, nothing more, nevertheless it is unified. 1 NOTES: Quoted in Graham Johnson, Gabriel Fauré: The Songs and their Poets (London: Guildhall School of Music and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2009), 291. Quotation from Jean-Michel Nectoux, Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life, trans. Roger Nichols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 304. This is a translation of Fauré’s letter to his wife of 17 August 1906. BACK TO TOP REYNALDO HAHN (1875-1947) Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan by birth, came to Paris with his family at age four and made a brilliant career. In addition to his career as a composer and singer, he was director of the Paris Opéra, music critic for the newspaper Figaro, and conductor of the Salzburg Festival. He was enough of a scholar to edit some of the works of Rameau. He maintained close friendships throughout his life with actress Sarah Bernhardt and writer Marcel Proust. During the Belle époque, French mélodie was at the height of its development. Hahn was a habitué of the most fashionable salons, where he was in demand as a performer. On these occasions, he usually sang and played his own accompaniment, often with a cigarette dangling from his lips. The art of singing was one of his major passions, and he wrote three books on singing (Du chant, Thèmes varies, and L’oreille au guet), as well as a memoir of Sarah Bernhardt. Hahn’s songs are models of French restraint–devoid of overt display, with beautiful melodies in a modest vocal range. They reflect the style of his teacher, Jules Massenet. Hahn composed approximately ninety-five works for solo voice: eighty-four mélodies, five English songs to texts of Robert Louis Stevenson, and six Italian songs in the Venetian dialect. After 1912, Hahn composed in larger forms: opera, operetta, and film music. Perhaps his most famous work is his operetta Ciboulette (1923), which is still performed. À Chloris (1916) poem by Théophile de Viau (1590-1626) “À Chloris” is No. 14 in Deuxième volume de vingt mélodies, the last major publication of Hahn’s songs during his lifetime. In many of his later songs, he turned to a deliberately archaic style. “À Chloris” features an elegant vocal line above a piano texture that features Baroque musical characteristics; it is its own piece, with ornamented melody and chaconne-like bass. Vocal line and piano piece are woven into a musical tapestry that is both declarative and intimate. Poet Théophile de Viau was considered one of the most influential libertin poets during Louis XIII’s reign. The libertins’ verses had a unique charm that is instantly appealing, but somewhat artificial. Despite this, de Viau’s love poetry is not bland, but full of suggestive passion and elegant wit. BACK TO TOP ARTHUR HONEGGER (1892-1955) Arthur Honegger composed over forty mélodies for voice and piano. Taken as a whole, they are diverse and imaginative. For his texts, he favored contemporary poets such as Jean Cocteau, Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Claudel, and Paul Fort. He also chose to set unrelated poems by a single poet, such as his Poesies (Cocteau) and Alcools (Apollinaire). Poetry with strong imagery appealed to the dramatist in his personality. For Honegger, as for most successful mélodie composers, the word provides the starting place. He is quoted as saying: For me, the music a song is always dependent upon the poetic model. It must join so closely with the poetry, that they become inseparable and one can picture the poem in wholly musical terms. This is not to say that the music becomes subservient. It must be so crafted that it can stand on its own merits, playable without the text, logical and complete. 1 Born of Swiss parents in Le Havre, France, Arthur Honegger initially studied for two years at the Zurich Conservatory, but enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire from 1911 to 1918, studying with Charles-Marie Widor and Vincent d’Indy. Some of his more familiar large vocal works include the dramatic psalm Le roi David (King David), composed in 1921 and still in the choral repertoire; and his dramatic oratorio of 1935, Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the stake), with text by Paul Claudel, considered to be one of his finest works. Between the world wars, he composed nine ballets and three vocal stage works, among works in other genres. His total compositional catalog is an impressive list of music: orchestral works, chamber music, concertos, ballets, operas, operettas, and oratorios. Widely known as a train enthusiast, he was passionately interested in locomotives, to which he attributed almost human characteristics. His “mouvement symphonique,” Pacific 231, gained him early acclaim in 1923. Honegger’s musical style is a fascinating mixture of impressionistic effects peppered with penetrating dissonances. He had a fondness for mixing tonalities and using modality. His compositions for the voice display an eclectic focus of coloristic harmonies and architectural clarity. He was a member of Les Six, but unlike most of that group, did not share their overwhelming reaction against German romanticism. Honegger’s musical style is fuller and more serious than his colleagues. He and Darius Milhaud were close friends. Honegger’s generous body of song has proved of enduring interest to contemporary performers. His was a distinctive voice in the vocal music of the twentieth-century French mélodie. Trois Psaumes (1940-41) from the Huguenot Psalter Psaumes XXXIV and CXL translated by Théodore de Bèze (1519-1605) Psaume CXXXVIII translated by Clément Marot (1496-1544) The spirit of Bach shines in the first psaume, “Psalm 34,” in which a chant-like vocal line alternates with a gently moving episodic keyboard part. This call and response continues until the last three vocal phrases, when the vocal line merges with the instrumental texture in a psalm of praise. The second song is “Psalm 140,” “ô Dieu donne-moi la déliverance de cet homme pernicieux” (O God, deliver me from this evil man). Honegger’s biographer, Harry Halbreich, suggests that the “evil man” who was oppressing Europe in those last days of 1940 might be the reason for Honegger’s text choice. This piece was composed before the first and third songs. Its emotional mood peaks with the chorale tune “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” 2 The last song in the set, “Psalm 138,” has the Latin title “Confiteor tibi, Domine” (I thank thee, O Lord) and is a paraphrase by Clément Marot, one of the greatest of the French Renaissance poets. It contains a familiar chorale tune, which is used in canon between voice and piano. NOTES: Arthur Canter and Rachel Joselson, Liner notes, The Songs of Arthur Honegger and Jacques Leguerney. Rachel Joselson, Réne Lecuona , piano. Albany Records, TROY691, 2004. Harry Halbreich, trans. Roger Nichols, Arthur Honegger (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1999), 165. BACK TO TOP JACQUES LEGUERNEY (1906-1997) Most of Jacques Leguerney’s sixty-eight mélodies were composed and published from 1940 to 1964. Many were commissioned and premiered by French baritone Gérard Souzay, his sister, soprano Geneviève Touraine, and pianist Jacqueline Bonneau. Early songs are comparable in mood and style with Ravel or Roussel (who encouraged Leguerney’s composition); later songs have been compared to those of his contemporary, Poulenc. Leguerney writes virtuoso piano parts–often dramatic, and with such an individual sense of harmonic style and color that Pierre Bernac reportedly described them as “mélodies de pianist.” 1 When asked about Leguerney’s songs, Gérard Souzay wrote, “How does one describe this music which is, at the same time, classic and modern? It is pure, but colorfully nuanced; it speaks to the heart as well as the mind–at times calm at times witty–wise, yet sensual...” 2 Many of Leguerney’s songs deal with themes of love and nature, expressing a huge range of emotions from deeply felt meditation to wild, ribald humor. Leguerney stopped composing in 1964, and his songs became neglected. The quality of Leguerney’s text setting, lyrical beauty, and harmonic innovations all call for his songs to be better known and more widely performed. Jacques Leguerney was drawn to the work of Renaissance poets, notably Ronsard. There are eight collections titled Poèmes de la Pléaide, representing settings of sixteenth and seventeenth-century French poetry and totaling thirty-two songs. Additionally, there are cycles and other collections [for a complete listing of Leguerney’s songs, see Dibbern, Kimball, and Choukroun, Interpreting the Songs of Jacques Leguerney]. 3 They may be thought of as the last in the great mainstream of twentieth-century French song. La Caverne d’écho (1954) from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Volume 7 poem by Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant (1594-1661) Dedication: Josiane and Jean Cier. First performance: Bernard Kruysen, baritone; Jean-Charles Richard, pianist. 29 May 1965, Radio France Culture. Marc-Antoine Girard, sieur de Saint-Amant, wrote poetry of great descriptive power, and his use of language set him apart from the other seventeenth-century poets. He was also an adept musician and skillful lute player, writing verses that often describe musical sounds linked to visual images. The poem takes place in a dark cave, home of the nymph, Echo; it is a charmed place, absolutely still and peaceful. The poet’s lute resounds inside the cavern as he tries to soothe the inconsolable Echo, who mourns for her lover Narcissus. Leguerney creates the grotto’s mysterious resonance with bitonality. Piano figures illustrate the strumming of the lute. The text contains many sounds with the consonant “r.” The rolling quality of this speech sonority re-creates the cavern’s resonance. The closing measures of the mélodie produce a striking effect as the singer’s voice echoes eerily in the cavern, blending with the piano’s resonance and creating a remarkably realistic echo. À son page (1944) from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Volume 2 poem by Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) Dedicated to Gérard Souzay. First performance: Gérard Souzay, baritone; Jacqueline Robin (Bonneau). 3 May 1945, Salle Gaveau, Paris. This is a lusty scene with four characters: a nobleman tipsy from drink, his page, and two women, Jeanne and Barbe. Carpe diem is the theme here. The singer philosophizes on this idea while enjoying his wine and the tender companionship of the two beautiful women. Leguerney evokes the crackling staccato of a stylized harpsichord with rhythmic accents in the piano. The text is brilliantly set with jagged vocal lines and driving rhythms that illustrate the singer’s intoxication. It ends with Leguerney’s repetition of the last poetic line and the addition of nonsense syllables which fit beautifully into the imagery and mood of Ronsard’s colorful characters. Je me lamente (1943) from Poèmes de la Pléiade, Volume 1 poem by Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) Dedicated to Geneviève Touraine. First performance: Paul Derenne, tenor; Jeanne Blancard, pianist. 29 March 1944, Salle de l’Ecole Normale de Musique, Paris. This is one of Leguerney’s most beautiful songs, setting Pierre de Ronsard’s text from his collection of love poems for Marie Dupin, a country girl from a small village in southern France. She was half his age and probably represented the youth he constantly pursued. It has been suggested that the Marie in question was probably Marie de Clèves, passionately adored by Henri III. 4 Leguerney called this mélodie a constant crescendo from beginning to end. 5 Ronsard’s anguish is captured with a texture of stark chords, crowned by a regal and sustained vocal line. As the song progresses, the poet’s anguish is embodied in a more expansive texture, bidding Marie a happy resting place near God or in the Elysian fields. NOTES: Liner notes by Mary Dibbern. Mélodies sur poèmes de la Renaissance (Jacques Leguerney).Harmonia Mundi France. LP recording HMC 1171. Letter to the author. Quoted in Mary Dibbern, Carol Kimball, and Patrick Choukroun. Interpreting the Songs of Jacques Leguerney (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2001), 3. Ibid., 289-295. Ibid., 69. See note 20. Ibid., 70. BACK TO TOP OLIVIER MESSIAEN (1908-1992) Olivier Messiaen was born in 1908 in Avignon, France, into a literary family. He grew up around words and absorbed their shapes, colors and sounds naturally. His father, Pierre Messiaen, was a well-known translator of Shakespeare, and his mother, Cécile Sauvage, was a poet. As a youngster, before beginning to compose music, he had an especially perceptive ear attuned to the unique prosody of the French language. Early in his compositional career, he published a book titled Technique de mon langage musical (1944). About his musical setting of words, Jane Manning observes: ...the syllables themselves create a glittering mosaic of sonorities and subtle resonances, in addition to their actual meaning (many of the poems do not translate at all satisfactorily). The composer’s awareness of the minutiae of verbal enunciations and articulations is miraculous. Each vocal sound can be precisely placed as intended, all dynamics are scrupulously plotted, and the performer’s involvement and intimate connection to the music is enhanced by the sensual nature of words projection... 1 He often used stained glass to explain his music. When viewed from a distance, the myriad details blend into a single entity, whose purpose is to dazzle the listener. Understanding is not necessary, feeling is the prime requisite. The music of Olivier Messiaen is a skillfully designed and unique language, with meaning and form kept separate. Its meaning is unchangeable, harkening back to Gregorian chant, culminating in instruments that are able to prolong sound (organ, strings, or the ondes Martenot). Messiaen’s musical language is defined by its rhythms and tone colors. His uncanny instinct for associating sound with color produced works unique in their concept of the combination of sounds. He said that when he heard or read music, his mind’s eye saw colors that move with the music; he sensed these colors, and at times he precisely indicated their arrangements in his scores. His fascination with birdsong was lifelong; he referred to himself as an ornithologist and tracked birds and their songs all over the world. He considered their resonances as songs and not merely sounds. He notated these on manuscript paper and they found their way into his music. Trois mélodies (1930) poems by Olivier Messiaen, Cécile Sauvage (1883-1927) This little cycle of songs is Messiaen’s first recognized work for voice and piano. The songs are modest in length and not typical of Messiaen’s later style, but show influences of late Fauré and Duparc in the overall musical texture. There is only one song in his vocal compositions in which Messiaen set the poetry of another poet. It is found in this cycle, which uses the text of his mother, the poet Cécile Sauvage, who died three years before the composition of this work. The three movements form a warm and delicate little triptych. Two of Messiaen’s own poems stand on either side of the poem by Cécile Sauvage, throwing that charming little poem into high relief. “Pourquoi?” introduces a litany of the pleasures of nature: birdsong, the unfolding seasons, and water images. The poet becomes emotional, asking why all these bring him no joy. “La Sourire,” the shortest song of the set, is a beautiful microcosm of intimate and spiritual understanding between two people. It is a delicate example of musical economy and word setting in a quasi-recitative style. The last song, “La fiancée perdue,” offers fleeting hints of Messiaen’s cycle to come, Poèmes pour Mi–most specifically, the final song. Here, the poet prays for divine blessing on the soul of the “fiancée” in the title. The fervent incantation illuminates and affirms man’s connection to a higher authority. Examining the poetic content of the three texts, we are struck by the images that underlie the words: the emotional outburst “pourquoi,” (why?), perhaps questioning the death of Cécile, followed by Cécile’s tender affirmation of love, and finally, the prayer asking for Divine grace and the blessing of the soul of the departed. NOTES: Jane Manning, “The Songs and Song Cycles,” in The Messiaen Companion, ed. Peter Hill (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1995), 107. BACK TO TOP DARIUS MILHAUD (1892-1974) Darius Milhaud was probably the most prolific composer of the group known as Les Six (Francis Poulenc, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Germaine Tailleferre, Georges Auric, and Milhaud). The group was unified by friendship rather than a single musical style. Championed by influential writer Jean Cocteau and composer Erik Satie, Les Six often presented their works at the same concerts and met with great regularity–often at Milhaud’s house–to make music and exchange ideas. Louis Durey observed that it was the wide diversity in their personalities and musical styles that gave the group its rich depth and permitted its development. Embodied in the credo of their musical thought was relative sparseness of texture and clarity. Turn-of-the-century France offered popular entertainments that drew the French to an environment of merry-go-rounds, shooting galleries, outdoor concerts, circuses, and a jumble of excitement. Milhaud was fascinated by Parisian street life, and could hear the sounds of the Montmartre fair from his apartment. Often on their group outings, Les Six went together to the Cirque de Médrano to see the Fratellinis, a famous family of clowns of that day. Milhaud observed that their acts were worthy of the Commedia dell’arte. 1 Trois Poèmes de Jean Cocteau, Op. 59 (1920) poems by Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) Trois poèmes de Jean Cocteau is like lyric fragments. The small-range vocal lines have a sparse lyricism–one of emotional mood rather than overt melody. The little mélodies are skillful studies in brevity. These match Cocteau’s rather enigmatic poems that exemplify the style termed dépouillé (stripped to the essentials), his aesthetic creed. Milhaud dedicated the songs to Satie. The three miniatures are a colorful kaleidoscope of the circus and the outdoor fairs that entranced the French during this period. “Fumée” describes the equestrienne of the Cirque Médrano atop a horse, jumping through hoops, captured in Toulouse-Lautrec’s familiar painting titled “L’écuyère au Cirque Fernando (1888); “Fête de Bordeaux” is a description of the merry-go-round at the Bordeaux fair; and “Fête de Montmartre” evokes the nighttime boats and sailors, possibly having to do with a game involving camouflaged ships found at the Montmartre fair. Milhaud infuses stylistic and melodic elements of folk songs and children’s tunes into the tiny pieces, tying the innate excitement of these popular destinations to simple, childlike reactions. NOTES: Laurence Davies, The Gallic Muse (New York: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1967), 164. BACK TO TOP FRANCIS POULENC (1899-1963) Francis Poulenc’s 150 mélodies form the largest body of songs to be added to French vocal literature in the twentieth century. Poulenc’s flair for the dramatic, combined with his superb skill in mixing poetry and music, produced songs that singers find immensely gratifying, not only for their musical value, but for their heightened sense of drama. Poulenc’s mélodies reflect concern and feeling for declamation, inflection, breathing, and above all, show extraordinary warmth of feeling for the human voice. He was fond of saying, “J’aime la voix humaine!” The sophistication of Poulenc’s songs spring from their poetic inspirations. Poulenc was quite knowledgeable about poetry, and chose his texts carefully. His gift of divining the inner life of the texts he set produced songs that do more than merely illustrate the poems. His gift for melody is at the very heart of all his songs and seems to assert itself naturally in shaping the color, weight, and meaning of the texts he set. Ce doux petit visage (1938) poem by Paul éluard (1895-1952) Paul Eluard was one of Poulenc’s three main poets. This is a beautiful introduction to Eluard’s poetry, lyrical and passionately intense. The simplicity of Poulenc’s setting allows the poem to shine. It is one of Poulenc’s tiny gems, and he admitted his partiality to the short song. Eluard’s skill at evoking nostalgia and melancholy are seen here, linked to lost youth. The mélodie is dedicated to the memory of Raymonde Linossier, Poulenc’s most intimate childhood friend, who influenced his literary taste and musical tendencies. He said: “I have a great liking for this short song. Raymonde Linossier was my best advisor for the music of my youth. How many times, during the years since her death, I would have liked to have had her opinion on this or the other of my works.” 1 La Grenouillère (1938) poem by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) “La Grenouillère” is an outstanding example of Poulenc’s romantic lyricism. This is a text by Guillaume Apollinaire describing the Ile de Croissy, an island in the Seine on the outskirts of Paris, frequented by artists and their models, and celebrated in paintings by Monet, Manet, and Renoir. “The Froggery” was a restaurant on the island. The overall images of happy days that cannot be relived can be seen in Pierre Auguste Renoir’s paintings Les Déjeuner des canotiers (The Boatman’s Luncheon), or La Grenouillère. In this lament for boating parties on the Seine, vocal phrases are sustained and languid, floating over a slowly rocking piano accompaniment. The lazy piano figures mirror the empty tethered boats rocking on the water, bumping against each other, and give expression to the sweet melancholy of the poet’s words. Montparnasse (1945) poem by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) Apollinaire’s poem is dated 1912. Poulenc writes in his journal of songs that it took him four years to complete “Montparnasse,” almost phrase by phrase, and that he had no regrets about the length of time it took because “it is one of my best songs.” 2 It is a sentimental and heartfelt tribute to Paris. Both Apollinaire and Poulenc loved the city and it played a continuing role in their work. “Montparnasse” is about the idyllic artistic existence lived at the edge of Paris. Poulenc wrote in his diary: “Let us imagine this Montparnasse all at once discovered by Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Apollinaire.” 3 The mélodie has a carefree nonchalance about it; it is not sad, but thoughtful– a beautiful blend of poetic and musical lyricism. Poulenc’s vocal and harmonic textures are full of surprising harmonic details that bind this song–which he composed in fragments–together into a touching and expressive picture of Paris in the early years of the twentieth century. Bleuet (1939) poem by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) Guillaume Apollinaire was one of Poulenc’s preferred poets. This is a wartime poem that Apollinaire penned in 1917 in Paris in convalescence after a head injury; both Apollinaire and Poulenc served in World War II. There are several word plays at work here. “Bleuet” was the nickname for French soldiers in World War I, because their uniforms were blue, like the color of a little cornflower, which is a “bleuet.” Also, “Un bleu” was the term used for a raw recruit. “Bleuet” is one of Poulenc’s most moving songs– agonizing in its emotional content yet noble in its message. It is a quiet and private moment in which a twenty-year-old boy who does not yet know all that life can be, is characterized–and addressed–by the poet in a sweetly serious speech. Poulenc wrote that for him, the key to the poem were the words, “It is five o’clock and you would know how to die.” 4 This song is simple, intimate, and poignant. Les Chemins de l’amour (1940) poem by Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) Poulenc composed this valse chantée as incidental music for Léocadia, a play by Jean Anouilh. Within the play, the song was described as a pseudo Viennese waltz, and functioned as a leitmotiv in the plot. Sung by Yvonne Printemps, one of France’s most celebrated musical theatre stars, “Les Chemins de l’amour” became a popular success. It embodies the relaxed elegance of a self-styled Viennese waltz style, encased in one of Poulenc’s haunting melodies. Banalités (1940) poems by Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) Banalités is not a cycle, but a group of five songs. The poems have no connection with each other; however, their order provides a well-constructed recital group. They may be performed separately. The work is one of Poulenc’s most popular vocal works, and deservedly so. Poulenc chose contrasting poems, placing them so that the collection begins briskly and ends with lyrical gravity. “Chanson d’Orkenise” is Poulenc’s title for the poem contained in the strange mixture of prose and poetry that Apollinaire called Onirocritique. Orkenise is a road in Autun leading to the Roman gate of the same name. The musical setting has the feeling of a popular folk song. The narrator sings of a tramp leaving the city and a carter who is entering it - one leaving his heart there, one bringing his heart to be married. There is a word in the poem with a double meaning: “grise” can be translated as “gray” or “tipsy.” The merry quality of the song opens the set with gaiety, but both Apollinaire and Poulenc offer a little food for thought. “Hôtel” is a poem that immediately represented for Poulenc a hotel room in Montparnassse, where the idle poet wants only to bask in the sun’s warmth and smoke. Pierre Bernac referred to it as “the laziest song ever written.” 5 The piano figures are fashioned of Poulenc’s luxuriant chromatic harmonies, stacked as if to cushion the lethargy of the singer. “Fagnes de Wallonie” is set in the gloomy, desolate uplands of the Ardennes with a terrain of vast heaths, twisted trees, and peat bogs, swept by winds of considerable force. Its gloomy setting complements the melancholy mood of the poet. Poulenc’s spiky musical setting is a whirlwind that sweeps from beginning to end in a turbulent texture that demands precise articulation from singer and pianist. Sandwiched between Songs 3 and 5 is a tiny bonbon, “Voyage à Paris.” It resembles a little commercial jingle about Paris–“which one day love must have created”–an invitation to the pleasures of that beautiful city, away from “the dreary countryside.” Poulenc sprinkles his quicksilver setting–a valse-musette–with indications of “amiable” and “avec charme.” The composer referred to it as having “deliciously stupid lines...Anything that concerns Paris I approach with tears in my eyes and my head full of music.” 6 The cycle concludes with “Sanglots”, one of Apollinaire’s finest poems about the universality of lost love, a theme that Poulenc matches with exquisite modulations in a setting that embodies the essence of the words. The vocal lines are eloquently lyrical. The poem is difficult to understand because of the juxtaposition of the main narrative and the interior “asides,” that in effect form a poem within a poem. 7 The song has an elegant serenity that culminates in a stunning climactic point at the words: “Est mort d’amour ou c’est tout comme/ Est mort d’amour et le voici.” The ending lines of the song sustain the profoundly calm mood, bringing Banalités to its close. La Courte Paille (1960) poems by Maurice Carême (1899-1978) The last song cycle Poulenc composed was La Courte paille, on seven poems of Belgian poet Maurice Carême. Poulenc composed the songs for soprano Denise Duval, creator of leading roles in his three operas, hoping that she would sing them to her young son. Poulenc considered the mélodies very poetic and whimsical; unfortunately, Duval disliked the music and never did sing the cycle. Poulenc asked Carême to provide an overall title for the work and requested permission to change the titles of several selected poems: the original title of “Quelle aventure!” is “Une puce et l’éléphant”; “Le Reine de cœur” is “Vitres de lune”; “Le carafon” is “La carafe et le carafon.” For the cycle’s title, Carême chose La Courte Paille (The Short Straw), referring to drawing lots by the method of a short straw. Poulenc was delighted, saying the title symbolized his little musical game exactly. He also wrote in his diary, “They must be sung tenderly; that is the surest way to touch the heart of a child.” 8 The cycle is full of child-like innocence, whimsy and imagination, with a few shadowy undertones. The first song, “Le Sommeil,” is a beautiful lullaby to a restless child who cannot go to sleep, tossing and turning in his small bed. He seems ill, crying and perspiring, but hopefully will finally surrender to slumber. In “Quelle aventure!” the child describes an absurd happening: he saw a flea driving a carriage with a small elephant in it. The story grows more bizarre but the rhythmic pace never wavers, careening to the end of the song when the child wonders how on earth he’ll ever be able to persuade “Mama” that it really happened. The verses are witty, yet the shrieks of “Mon Dieu!” are laced with a feeling of childish terror. “La Reine du cœur” is a beautiful, languid melody that paints a picture of the mysterious Queen of Hearts, beckoning to visitors from her frosty castle, where she reigns over a court of lovers, including the young dead. In “Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu...,” the child is chided “on all sides” about studying. The title of the song presents the French vowels, and the text contains words that make their plural with an “x” (“pou, chou, genou, hibou”). The formidable cat of the poem’s opening lines is none other than that tricky feline Puss-in-Boots! The entire song is a little tongue-twister, an exercise in diction and accuracy. “Les anges musiciens” are none other than the school children staying home on Thursday, the half-day school holiday in France in Poulenc’s time, practicing Mozart on their harps, just like good little angel musicians should do. “Le carafon” is a crazy little story of a carafe that longs for a baby carafe (carafon) just like the giraffe at the zoo, who has a girafon. This is a ridiculous rhyming game like those that children love to play. The text is full of whimsical characters: the carafe, a giraffe, a sorcerer astride a phonograph, Merlin, and finally, a carafon. “Lune d’Avril” is another lullaby, very slow and otherworldly, which serves as an epilogue. Bound together in a musical texture that features a syncopated pedal point, it is filled with enchanted images the child wishes to dream about: a land of joy, light, and flowers where all guns are silent. The ending leaves the listener suspended in a mood of unfinished magic. La Courte Paille is the last vocal music Poulenc composed. NOTES: Quoted in Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc: The Man and his Songs (New York: W.W. Norton Co., 1977), 125. Francis Poulenc, Journal de mes mélodies, trans. Winifred Radford (London: Victor Gollancz, 1985), 75. Ibid., 75. Ibid., 57. Bernac, 72. Poulenc, 67. The English translation of “Sanglots” has parentheses that delineate the “asides” so that both “poems” may be seen. These may be found in Pierre Bernac’s books Francis Poulenc: The Man and his Songs, page 75, or The Interpretation of French Song, pages 284-85 Poulenc, 109. BACK TO TOP MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937) The songs of Maurice Ravel represent a transition between the mature mélodies of Debussy and the vocal literature that followed, notably the songs of Les Six. Debussy dominated the French musical scene from the turn of the century until his death in 1918. It was Ravel who was regarded as the leading musical spokesman for France following World War I. He was a skillful craftsman and his songs have a sense of evenness of rhythmic structure and flow that call for scrupulous execution. The fusion of music and text into a logical whole was of utmost importance to him. He composed elegant and subtle mélodies, using classical phrase structure. His melodic phrases often tend toward modality. His songs range from those with a folk-like style to more to those that are more speech-like, and those that encompass a melodic romanticism. He was precise in his thought and his scoring, and scrupulous in his musical execution. His music encompassed some of the fascinating influences of the post-Wagnerian era. Ravel’s musical contributions were of utmost importance to this exciting and new era in French cultural history. He made notable contributions to musical literature for the piano, the French art song, opera, chamber music, orchestral literature, and the ballet. Sur l’herbe (1907) poem by Paul Verlaine (1833-1896) This mélodie is Ravel’s only setting of Verlaine. It has often been suggested that this poem was probably inspired by Watteau’s painting L’île enchantée. There is also a reference to a famous eighteenth-century dancer, Marie-Anne Cuppi, known as (La) Camargo, who was immortalized on canvas by the painter Nicolas Lancret. The scene is an outside gathering, elegant and artificial. A number of people are there, chief among them, a licentious abbé, slightly tipsy from a bit too much Cyprian wine. He exchanges a few disconnected gallantries with the ladies–innocent conversations on the surface, but sensuous in undertone. The conversation is disconnected; we do not know exactly who is speaking. Ravel shapes very flexible vocal phrases, in keeping with the abbé’s intoxicated state, underscored with graceful piano figures that evoke an eighteenth-century dance. In a letter to Jean-Aubrey, Ravel commented on “Sur l’herbe”: “In this piece, as in the Histoires naturelles, the impression must be given that one is almost not singing. A bit of preciosity is found there which is indicated moreover by the text and the music.” 1 Noël des jouets (1905) poem by the composer This is the only solo song for which Ravel wrote the text. It describes a Christmas manger scene, replete with the Virgin and Christ-child, animals, and angels. It embodies Ravel’s delight with tiny mechanical toys and figures, and his fascination with the unspoiled world of child-like experience. His genius for text painting is displayed in the delightful mélodie. The mechanical toys come to life in the piano figures. Ravel’s charming text creates the images around and over the crèche, with not a word wasted. Ravel commented that the music is “clear and plain, like the mechanical toys of the poem.” 2 This little song foreshadows other Ravel settings of make-believe, beginning with the song cycle Histoires naturelles and culminating with his opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges. The music of menacing dog Belzébuth foreshadows the music of the Beast in the Mother Goose Suite (Ma Mère lOye). Rêves (1927) poem by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947) The poetry of Léon-Paul Fargue has been described as reflecting the union of dream and memory. This mélodie has a tender lyricism within a sparse musical texture. The text is fashioned of a series of miniature images that pass by rather quickly, unrelated, like the images found in dreams. For all their differences, they have a simplicity about them that seems timeless, existing together, as the poet says, “in a vague countryside.” When the dreamer finally awakens, the little fleeting pictures “die quietly.” The piano postlude perpetuates the dream state, creating an ethereal little microcosm that continues to draw the dreamer to it. Ronsard à son âme (1924) poem by Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585) In his Abrégé de l’art poétique français (1565) Pierre de Ronsard advocated the union of poetry and music, and Renaissance composers frequently set his poems. 3 In this strikingly simple mélodie, Ronsard speaks to his soul, calling it by a series of diminutives: little soul, dainty little one, sweet little one. Ravel uses a series of parallel fifths in the piano figures to invoke a Renaissance mood. This is Ronsard’s last poem, and Ravel’s last adaptation of Renaissance poetry. Ravel’s setting recalls the elegance of his early mélodie, “D’Anne qui me jecta de la neige,” to a poem of Clément Marot. Manteau de fleurs (1903) poem by Paul Barthélemy Jeulin (1863-1936) The poem notes everything in the garden that is pink–all the flowers that will become a beautiful cloak to complement the beauty of the lady of the poem. Ravel usually had very sophisticated taste in choosing texts; this particular poem is an unusual choice. It is a simple text, somewhat banal, but Ravel’s shimmering musical texture imparts a dramatic character for each flower in the poem. The overall piano texture suggests orchestral colors. The last section of the mélodie changes course slightly, with the piano harmonies creating a slightly wistful mood. Clearly, Ravel lavished a beautiful musical setting on a rather ordinary set of words. Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (1932-33) [Medium/Low Voice edition only] poems by Paul Morand (1888-1976) This miniature cycle was Ravel’s last vocal work. His musical portrait of the noble Spanish knight, Don Quixote, is embodied in three mélodies, all based on characteristic Spanish or Basque dance rhythms: (1) the guajira, alternating 6/8 and 3/4 meter; (2) the zorzica, a Basque dance in quintuple meter; and (3) the jota, a lively triple-metered Spanish dance. “Chanson Romanesque” presents the chivalrous idealist Don Quixote, confidently promising to rearrange everything in nature to his lady Dulcinea’s liking in order to win her favor. Dulcinea is in reality a poor farm girl, but the Don’s illusion will not be shaken. He remains authoritative and focused in his quest for her love. “Chanson épique” is Quixote’s reverent prayer to Saint Michael and Saint George, beseeching them to bless his sword and his Lady. Ravel creates a beautifully sustained and prayerful vocal line over a simple accompaniment. “Chanson à boire” is a exuberant drinking song. Although the Don’s tippling has made him overly boisterous, he never oversteps the bounds of his noble bearing. His robust laughter is heard in the piano figures and even a hiccup intrudes between “lorsque j’ai” and “lorsque j’ai bu.” NOTES: Maurice Ravel, in a letter to Jean-Aubrey written in September, 1907. Quoted in Arbie Orenstein, Ravel: Man and Musician (New York: Dover Publications, 1991), 165-66. Quoted in Orenstein, 161. Orenstein, 192. BACK TO TOP ALBERT ROUSSEL (1869-1937) In 1894 Albert Roussel left a highly successful career as a naval officer to pursue music. After completing his studies, he became professor of counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. Satie and Varèse were among his students. Roussel was one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. He composed almost forty mélodies as well as chamber music, ballets, and operas. His style is eclectic but highly individual. Early works show the influence of Vincent d’Indy, works dating from 1910 to 1920 exhibit influences of Debussy and Ravel, but he turned to neoclassicism in his later compositions. His love for the sea was almost a spiritual attraction and continued to influence his music throughout his career. He had a fascination for distant places; his extended tour of Southeast Asia in 1909 had a tremendous influence on his composition. “Sarabande” and “Cœur en peril” are mélodies to texts of René Chalupt, a close friend. They are found in op. 20 and 50, respectively. Roussel’s overall musical catalogue is not extensive, but its quality is of an extremely high level, and his vocal writing in particular contains some mélodies of great delicacy and style, squarely in the French tradition. For Roussel, the word held primacy in his mélodies, being both transformed by its musical setting and merging with it to create a perfect union. Commenting on the quality of Roussel’s songs, composer Charles Koechlin is quoted as saying: “The sense of austerity pervading them, stemming simply from the composer’s natural reserve, heightens their expressiveness and further embellishes them; in language and content they are absolutely personal. This collection of songs is one which will last because its essence is undying sensitivity.” 1 Sarabande (1919) from Deux mélodies, Op. 20, No. 2 poem by René Chalupt This is surely one of Roussel’s most delicate and magical creations. His writing for the piano is particularly outstanding, placing Chalupt’s poem in an overall texture of elegance and veiled sensuality. There is an Oriental delicacy in Roussel’s musical evocation of the fluttering doves, feathers drifting into a pool, and the gentle drift of chestnut blossoms onto bare flesh. Cœur en péril (1933-34) from Deux mélodies, Op. 50, No. 1 poem by René Chalupt This mélodie is much different in mood–witty and flirtatious. It is the narrative of a young man eager to convince his ladylove of his fidelity. Vocal phrases are tuneful, with a spirited piano texture of Iberian flavor. NOTES: Liner notes, Dom Angelico Surchamp, trans. Elisabeth Carroll, Roussel Mélodies, Colette Alliot-Lugaz, Mady Mesplé, Kurt Ollmann, José Van Dam; Dalton Baldwin, Patrick Gallois. EMI Digital. CDS 7492712, 1987 BACK TO TOP ERIK SATIE (1866-1925) Erik Satie wrote very few songs and most of them date from late in his life. The eccentric father figure of the French avant-garde of the twentieth century had a wildly independent spirit that found its way into his musical compositions. Throughout his life, he kept a great deal of childlike inquisitiveness and innocence. He was a curious personality of unconventional habits whose sense of the absurd and whimsy permeated both his life and his music. Quintessential Satie compositions are laconic and witty. It was Satie who named Les Nouveaux Jeunes, soon known as Les Six, and influenced the early development of the group. La Statue de bronze (1916) from Trois Mélodies poem by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947) This is Satie’s first setting of the poetry of Léon-Paul Fargue, the “Bohemian poet of Paris.” Satie used Fargue’s witty verses again for Ludions. The scene is a garden game–the jeu de tonneau. A bronze frog, perched atop a cabinet with numbered chambers, grows impatient of being the target of the game where metal disks are tossed into her mouth. She dreams of being freed from her pedestal and being able to use her wide-open mouth to utter “LE MOT.” 1 She wants to be free to join the other frogs gathered near the rust-colored washhouse “blowing musical bubbles from the soapy moonlight.” But the game continues, the disks rattle through her mouth into numbered compartments and at night, insects sleep in her mouth. This mélodie can be linked musically to “La Grenouille américaine,” found in Ludions. Both songs share piano figures derived from the café-concert chanson. Ludions (1923) poems by Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947) Ludions is the last of Satie’s purely vocal works, composed two years before his death, and is perhaps his finest set of songs. It epitomizes his lifelong quest for musical simplicity and his irreverence for the intricate compositional techniques and overactive emotions of the Impressionists. Ludions is translated as “bottle imps” (a ludion is a little figure suspended in a hollow ball, which descends or rises in a vase filled with water when one presses down on the elastic membrane covering the mouth of the vase). The cycle is a kaleidoscopic set of musical miniatures, riddled with puns and illogical phrases. Fargue’s nonsensical verse complements Satie’s musical aesthetic, and the two friends’ personalities closely matched one another. All the mélodies in Ludions are short, like tiny cameos. They are colorful, saucy, fantastic, and defy translation. “Air du rat,” “La Grenouille américaine,” and “Chanson du chat” are right out of the music hall, and Satie uses with a mock-serious “tongue-in-cheek” treatment for “Spleen” and “Air du poète.” Je te veux (1902) poem by Henry Pacory (1873-?) The valse chantée, or sung waltz was a favorite of the café concerts, for which Satie composed a number of works. Café concerts were a form of Parisian popular entertainment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The all-musical programs were held outside; French popular singers presented repertoire that catered to lower and middle-class audiences who came to talk, eat, drink, and observe the long informal programs, for which there was no admission charge. “Je te veux” was composed for Paulette Darty, dubbed “the Queen of the slow waltz.” It was one of her signature musical presentations for the caf’conc (café concerts), and one that Darty remained associated with throughout her career. A statuesque blonde with an ample figure, Darty was a commanding performer who kept the most boisterous of the Saturday night audiences enthralled. Lyricist Henry Pacory’s rather explicit poem was watered down at Satie’s request before the song was published. La Diva de l’Empire (1904) poem by Charles Bessat, named Numa Blès (1871-1917) The “Diva de l’Empire,” 2 one of Satie’s café-concert songs, was another work written for and performed by Paulette Darty. It was composed for a Bonnaud-Blès music-hall revue called Dévidons la Bobine (Let’s Unwind the Bobbin) that toured several seaside resort towns. The British “diva” is a femme fatale performer who enchants all who see her. The song is a syncopated cakewalk describing her seductive beauty as she struts her stuff “showing the wiggling of her legs and some pretty frilly underwear.” Interspersed at points along the way with English words: Greenaway, baby, little girl, etc. The piano provides a jaunty ragtime rhythm throughout that melds perfectly with the suggestive text. NOTES: ”Le mot” has a double meaning. It was the title of a broadsheet published by Jean Cocteau between 1914-15 and is short for “le mot de Cambronne,” a polite way of saying “merde.” Cambronne was a famous French general who replied “Merde!” when asked to surrender. In Steven Moore Whiting, Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert Hall. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 43. Empire refers to the Empire Theatre of Varieties, Leicester Square, London. BACK TO TOP DÉODAT DE SÉVERAC (1872-1921) Déodat de Séverac, of aristocratic lineage, was born in the Languedoc region of southwest France in Saint-Félix-Caraman (now Saint-Félix Lauragais), near Toulouse. After studies in Paris with Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum, he returned home and remained there. He was a contemporary of Fauré, Debussy and Ravel, but was considered a petit maître in their company, possibly because of his return to Languedoc at the completion of his musical studies. Séverac composed piano and orchestral music, operas and songs. The culture of his native Languedoc figured prominently in his music, which is highly descriptive. He often wrote parts for regional folk music in his scores. Many considered him provincial and unsophisticated, but his music displays his skill in integrating folk elements–and often, regional folk instruments–of his native Languedoc into his works. He often referred to himself as “the peasant musician.” Influences of Debussy, Mussorgsky, and Bizet may be found in his mélodies. Although his music is rather conservative in style, Séverac fused folk elements with the musical styles of the day in a unique and individual manner. Ma poupée chérie (1914) poem by the composer Composed in 1914 (and published in 1916) for his daughter Magali and dedicated to her, this little cradlesong is probably de Séverac’s best loved and most performed mélodie. Séverac’s fresh musical setting contains just the right combination of simplicity and delightful childlike honesty. Despite the subject matter, the composer’s heartfelt poem avoids an overly cloying atmosphere. BACK TO TOP OTHER SOURCES CONSULTED: Jane Bathori, On the Interpretation of the Mélodies of Claude Debussy, transl. and with an introduction by Linda Laurent (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1998). Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc: The Man and his Songs, transl. by Winifred Radford (New York: W.W. Norton, 1977). Pierre Bernac, The Interpretation of French Song, transl. by Winifred Radford(New York: W.W. Norton, 1978). Elaine Brody, Paris: The Musical Kaleidoscope 1870-1925 (New York: George Braziller, 1987). Mary Dibbern, Carol Kimball, and Patrick Choukroun, Interpreting the Songs of Jacques Leguerney (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2001) Alan M. Gillmor, Erik Satie (New York: W.W. Norton Co., 1992). James Harding, The Ox on the Roof: Scenes from musical life in Paris in the Twenties (New York: Da Capo Press, 1986). Peter Hill, ed., The Messiaen Companion (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1995). Graham Johnson, Gabriel Fauré: The Songs and their Poets (London: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 2009) Graham Johnson and Richard Stokes, A French Song Companion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). Carol Kimball, Song: A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp., 2005). Carol Kimball and Richard Walters, eds., The French Song Anthology (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp., 2001). Timothy LeVan, Masters of the French Art Song (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1991). Barbara Meister, Nineteenth-Century French Song (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1980). Wilfrid Mellers, Francis Poulenc (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993). Arbie Orenstein, Ravel: Man and Musician (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975). Nancy Perloff, Art and the Everyday: Popular Entertainment in the Circle of Erik Satie(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) Caroline Potter, Henri Dutilleux: His Life and Works (Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co., 1997). Francis Poulenc, Moi et mes amis: Confidences recueilles par Stéphane Audel (Paris: La Palatine, 1963). Francis Poulenc, Diary of my Songs [Journal de mes mélodies] transl. by Winifred Radford (London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1985) Marie-Claire Rohinsky, ed., The Singer’s Debussy (New York: Pelion Press, 1987) Roger Shattuck, The Banquet Years (New York: Vintage Books, 1968).