Musical Magic

A few interesting updates from the world of Charles Strouse:

1. A upcoming movie version of Annie may star the hair-flipping Willow Smith in the title role. Believe it or not, here's a link to the ARTICLE. Jay-Z and Will Smith are also involved (with rumors circulating about Beyonce)! I wonder if all the songs would end up sounding like this: Jay-Z "Hard Knock Life"?

2. Annie is coming back to Broadway! Auditions will soon begin for the 2012 revival, and hundreds of parents are sending their little girls to Annie boot camps in preparation (ARTICLE). (If you know a little girl who wants to fly all the way to New York for auditions, send her over! It's an open call.)

3. Charles Strouse, age 83, is working on a new Civil War-themed musical. He has about half the music currently written and orchestrated/recorded.

4. Preparations are underway for a Strouse revue along the lines of Sondheim's Side by Side. Several of the songs are outtakes from musicals like Annie, and some have never before been performed. One, in fact, Charles just wrote this morning! (83 years old, and he's still tackling a million projects, living in the heart of the theater district, and songwriting every day. The man amazes me!)

Surprisingly, this composer who is best known for "Put on a Happy Face" and "The Sun'll Come Out" has actually written a good chunk of numbers tinged with melancholy and regret. (Far from being a machine of commercial production, he writes very personal pieces, most of which reflect his current state of mind. He has an entire closet full of drafts and scores--a musical record of his life.)

This new musical revue will end on a positive note, though. There's a whole team at work making sure of that! I'm one of those team members right now, although at the moment, I feel like I'm doing more observing than actual helping. (Later, I'll be accompanying for rehearsals and doing some transcriptions.) Still, observing the process of preparation has been fascinating. Today, for example, the writer and music director spent over an hour discussing the song line-up and the overall flow of the show. Nothing is ever set in stone; it's all up for revision and tweaking until, hopefully, it reaches the point where it suddenly transforms into Broadway MAGIC. (One thing I'm learning is that magic isn't really magic; it's the final pay-off of years of work. That said, there does seem to be a magical "x" factor that makes some shows succeed while others flop.)

I'm also transcribing several of the classical scores that Charles wrote during his time at the Eastman School of Music, with Aaron Copland, and in France with Nadia Boulanger. They're quite good--very motivic and neo-classical (Stravinsky-esque)--and I'm enjoying the chance to study his original manuscripts.

By the way, I know I haven't written much about what I'm actually doing as an intern. :-) I tend to record impressions and experiences while leaving out the actual details of the job. Well, here's what my daily schedule looks like:

10:25 AM: Walk into the Strouses' building, chat briefly with the doorman about the weather (HOT and HUMID), step into the elevator, and ascend 19 floors.

10:30 AM: Enter the apartment through the side door, say hi to Jewel (Charles' secretary) and Annetta (his housekeeper, complete with a black-and-white uniform). Sit down at my desk in the room with the electric piano and set up my computer as Annetta brings me a glass of cold ice-water.

10:35 AM - 2:30 PM: Transcribe scores. Send the completed files to Jewel (as pdf's, xml's, mp3's, and Sibelius files; we've got to have all our bases covered!).

I also interviewed for an internship with a performing arts academy today. The woman who interviewed me (the director of the program) was as effusive and as artsy as, in my mind, a New York artist should be. She wore a long, flow-y dress, no make-up, and she exuded new-agey openness. When she moved, she danced. When she spoke, she gushed. She asked me to play the piano and sing for her (I played the piece I wrote for Charles Strouse!) and questioned me about my teaching philosophy. By the end of the interview, she told me that the internship was in the bag. Unfortunately, it's a full-time internship, and it only pays $100/week. As a poor student who is already working one unpaid internship, I just don't think I could do that. When I explained my situation to the director, she looked disappointed, but she told me that she'd still like to send several piano students my way. She also asked if I'll be back in New York once I finish my schooling in Boston. It sounds like they might have a more permanent position in mind. . .

For now, though, I'm still on the job hunt.

On a different note (music's on the brain!), I got to see Deborah Voigt perform "Erwartung" with the NY Phil tonight. The piece was written by Schoenburg during the period of time when his wife had left him to pursue an affair with a family friend and artist, Richard Gerstl. Sadly, when Schoenburg's wife reconciled with her husband and left the artist, Gerstl burned all his paintings and, in one last act of twisted creativity, stabbed and hung himself in front of his studio mirror. A little gruesome? So was "Erwartung." The early 1900's was an interesting period in music history.

The philharmonic also played Shostakovich's first symphony--a much happier piece written when the composer was only 19! Here's what his mother wrote about the premiere: "All went more than brilliantly--a splendid orchestra and magnificent execution. At the end, when our handsome young composer appeared, looking almost like a little boy, the enthusiasm turned into one long thunderous ovation." The piece received a thunderous ovation at Avery Fischer Hall tonight too. People clapped enthusiastically (particularly the girls sitting next to me; I had to plug my ears because her clapping sounded like a bullwhip!), and a few even hooted. It was one of those wonderful moments when magic is made and the audience responds, not out of duty, but with genuine excitement and sincere appreciation.

I guess that's one thing that Charles Strouse and Shostakovich have in common: The ability to connect with an audience and create musical magic!