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Title
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Reflexive songs in the American musical, 1898 to 1947.
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Identifier
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AAI3213167
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identifier
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3213167
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Creator
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Garber, Michael G.
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Contributor
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Adviser: David Savran
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Date
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2006
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater | Cinema | Music
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Abstract
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In reflexive songs, the lyrics mention music, singing, dancing, or entertainment. I supply a history of reflexive songs in the American musical, 1898 through 1947. I offer this chronicle as a methodological model, drawing inspiration from cinema studies and musicology for the selection of a body of material and its stylistic analysis. The corpus balances the diverse but overlapping criteria of previous scholars: quality; prevalence and typicality; and prominence. I survey 2,367 songs and find 46% are reflexive songs. One hundred and forty-seven lyricists are represented, including: complete lyrics of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Ira Gershwin; hit songs; and the scores for seventy sample productions, obscure and famous, studied in-depth. I cover Broadway musical theatre and Hollywood movie musicals, ranging through operetta, musical comedy, and revue, and focus a chapter on analyses of three shows: He Came from Milwaukee (1910), King of Jazz (1930), and On the Town (1944), by Comden, Green, and Bernstein.;Reflexive songs constitute a metadramatic device that is central to the American musical. The songs depict music, song, dance, and entertainment as one. Self-referential lyrics define music as abstract, incorporeal, and internal---and also as physical, affecting the body and making listeners dance. They construct response, inviting and depicting participation, promising a way to "lose the blues." The songwriters create an implied community through nostalgia, parody, irony, and a widespread net of cultural references, from highbrow to lowbrow.;I use the seminal discussion of reflexivity in musicals by Jane Feuer as a springboard, extending it conceptually and chronologically. I unfold the important hermeneutic potential of reflexive songs, one that is not simple and self-apparent, but rather depends on subtle and complex layers of allusiveness. Their meaning exists within a history of conventions---techniques, tropes, topics, and themes that build a tradition of intertextual connotations. This chronicle throws new light on the work of analysts of the American musical, modifying---sometimes negating---previous interpretations of specific texts and the genre as a whole. I reveal irony and related reversals of convention as basic components of the musical. Reflexive songs act as keys, unlocking meaning in American musicals.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
