Processes of Synthesis in the Historical Development of the Musical: From the 1910s to the 1960s
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Abstract
The article presents a formulation of the issue of a “universal” definition of the musical as a genre related to musical theater. The author marks out the inseparable connection of the essential features of the musical with its historical evolution, in which a crucial role is played by diverse synthesizing processes. According to the researcher’s opinion, this kind of trait of the musical is traced out on the level of formation of plot and genre development, musical styles and stylistic components, going back as far back as the 1920s. The competition with other varieties of light-genre theater (operettas, revues, vaudevilles, minstrel theater, etc.), as well as with musical cinematography, was conducive for the musical to perceive and incorporate various innovations in an accelerated way. As indicative examples of interpretation of synthesizing processes, the author interprets the musicals of Jerome Kern (“The Floating Theater”), George Gershwin (“I Sing of You”), Richard Rodgers (“On Your Toes”), Leonard Bernstein (“West-Side Story”), Lionel Bart (“Oliver”), Anthony Newley (“Stop the World, I Want to Get Off”), as well as “Carmen Jones” by R.R. Bennett. The musical has successfully overcome the boundaries of ethno-cultural limitedness by engaging in productive cooperation with traditions of theater and musical performance of the Old World. As the result of this relevant interaction in the historical perspective a gradual change of artistic priorities began to take shape – the Europeanization of the musical presented itself as a powerful stimulus towards the discovery of new perspective directions in this sphere of musical theater. Characterization of the historical development of the genre by decades makes it possible to reveal the specific features and the directedness of the synthesizing tendencies up until the 1970s and the 1980s – the culminating moment in the “biography” of the musical, which had established itself in the leading positions in the sphere of musical theater.
Keywords: the history of the musical, musical theater of light genre, American musical, English musical
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