By Brian Hathaway
Yes! “Dacci un Dramma!”, or in English “Give us drama!” is the topic of my latest post. I was drawn to this phrase because the current season of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay is all about drama, especially the way we create it through our voices in collaboration with The Florida Orchestra. To make it more interesting, this season is unique in that through four concerts, we take a “grand tour” of the history of creating drama with the voice through several musical genres that go back five hundred years. Let us take this tour in chronological order, even though the concerts this season do not necessarily follow that order.
Genre #1: Opera. Opera was the first musical form that combined voices and instruments to create drama as entertainment. The first opera, “Dafne” was composed by Jacopo Peri in Italy in 1597, although it is now largely lost. The earliest opera still performed is Claudio Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” composed in 1607. The opera genre was exported to Germany in 1627 and later to England and France in the mid 1600’s. As an art form, the opera has been widely performed up until the current time, although the mid to late 19th century is widely recognized as the “golden age of opera”, dominated by Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi.
Giuseppe Verdi started composing his Requiem in June 1873, shortly following the death of famed Italian writer and humorist Allessandro Manzoni, whom Verdi met in 1868. Manzoni’s death was the impetus for Verdi to write a complete Requiem, expanding upon the “Libera me” that he wrote in Rossini’s memory following his death in 1868. Verdi’s Requiem is not normally regarded as a liturgical Requiem and is primarily performed as a theater piece, and the music is infused with the same level of drama we would encounter in his operas such as “Aida” (1872) or “Othello” (1887). For me as a singer, I love dramatic moments such as the pounding of the bass drum in the “Dies Irae”, the unison opening of the “Sanctus” or the power of the opening phrase in the “Rex Tremendae”. The Verdi Requiem will be performed with The Florida Orchestra on the weekend of April 20-22.
Genre #2: Musical Theatre. Musical theatre grew out of the comic operettas of the 1800’s by composers such as Jacques Offenbach in Paris and Johann Strauss Jr. in Vienna. From 1871 to 1896, William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan collaborated on numerous comic operettas such as “The Pirates of Penzance” and “The Mikado” that poked fun at English society and became internationally famous. In America composers such as George M. Cohan and Victor Herbert gave musical theatre a distinctively American flavor. Throughout the first four decades of the 20th Century composers such as Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart and Irving Berlin popularized the musical theatre genre. Songs from musicals have become part of The Great American Songbook and an integral part of American culture.
In the 1940’s Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma” was the first fully integrated musical, incorporating song and dance to develop the characters and the plot. The three decades of the 1940’s through 1960’s were marked by the worldwide popularity of the genre spurred on by the availability of original cast recordings and film versions of the musical. There are so many dramatic moments arising from musical theatre that they are almost too numerous to mention. Personal favorites of mine are the title song from “Oklahoma,” “I Am a Pirate King” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance,” and “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” from Rodgers and Hammersteins’s “State Fair.”
Concertgoers will be able to hear many of their favorites in the “Celebrate Broadway” concert series with The Master Chorale and The Florida Orchestra during the weekend of April 27-29th.
In the 1940’s Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma” was the first fully integrated musical, incorporating song and dance to develop the characters and the plot. The three decades of the 1940’s through 1960’s were marked by the worldwide popularity of the genre spurred on by the availability of original cast recordings and film versions of the musical. There are so many dramatic moments arising from musical theatre that they are almost too numerous to mention. Personal favorites of mine are the title song from “Oklahoma,” “I Am a Pirate King” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance,” and “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” from Rodgers and Hammersteins’s “State Fair.”
Concertgoers will be able to hear many of their favorites in the “Celebrate Broadway” concert series with The Master Chorale and The Florida Orchestra during the weekend of April 27-29th.
Genre #3: The Film/TV Score. As musical theatre became a dominant force in bringing live music to the masses, the advent of films allowed even more people to experience the way music can combine with the moving picture to add drama and meaning to a story. The development of talking pictures starting with “The Jazz Singer” in 1927 added the component of sound to movies. This film incorporated a musical play where singer Al Jolson played a cantor’s son who ran away from home to become a famous jazz singer. The film is recognized as one of the 100 most influential films of all time.
| Since then, music has combined with voice to add drama to the movie-going experience. Many successful pairings were film versions of musicals, such as “Oklahoma” or “My Fair Lady.” But voices were used in other film genres too, such as Ennio Morricone’s score for “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.” During February, the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay singers joined forces with The Florida Orchestra to present “The Music of Star Trek and Star Wars.” I am a huge science fiction fan and was able to enjoy this concert as an audience member. The concert opened with the Star Trek original series theme, taking me back to my high school and college days when the series was in its heyday. In hearing this music exclusive of the TV or movie images, it was easier to concentrate on the beauty of the music and the voices stood out even more, bringing an ethereal feeling to the theme. Likewise, the addition of voices to the “Star Trek: Into Darkness” film score added to the drama of a conflict between Kirk and the super-being, Khan. |   |
| In the “Star Wars” segment of the concert, the vastness of space and the drama of human conflict were brought to life by composer John Williams, one of the greats among movie score composers. In the “Battle of the Heroes” segment, voices combined with the instrumental score to add drama to the climactic battle between Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi and added a heightened level of finality to Anakin’s descent into the dark side. Like adding spice to food, the addition of voices made the drama of these moments even more palpable, creating lasting impressions that make me want to return to the theater to see the film again. | |
Genre #4: The Video Game. Since the advent of electronic gaming in the late 1970’s, their complexity of the stories and images has been increasingly coupled with the development of music scores that are now equal to and in some cases exceeding the level of artistic expression in film scores. We are now light years beyond the “beeps” and “boops” we heard when playing “Pong” or the simple 8-bit compositions we heard when playing “Donkey Kong” almost 40 years ago.
Video game score composition now attracts some of the best composers who have embraced this avenue of artistic expression. These include Koji Kondo (Legend of Zelda), Jeremy Soule (The Elder Scrolls) and Michael Giacchino (Medal of Honor). Michael Giacchino also composed music scores for J.J. Abrams, producer of the current generation of Star Trek movies. Nobuo Uematsu, composer of the Final Fantasy music scores has been composing them for more than two decades, and concerts of his music play to sell-out crowds around the world.
Video game score composition now attracts some of the best composers who have embraced this avenue of artistic expression. These include Koji Kondo (Legend of Zelda), Jeremy Soule (The Elder Scrolls) and Michael Giacchino (Medal of Honor). Michael Giacchino also composed music scores for J.J. Abrams, producer of the current generation of Star Trek movies. Nobuo Uematsu, composer of the Final Fantasy music scores has been composing them for more than two decades, and concerts of his music play to sell-out crowds around the world.
| Such was the case on January 26th and 28th, when guest conductor Arnie Roth directed the Florida Orchestra and the Master Chorale Ensemble Singers in the “Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy” concert series. In an interview, Nobuo Uematsu noted that his scores “are the closest thing to large-scale evocative symphonic works from films.” Hearkening back to the opera genre, Uematsu creates leitmotifs for his characters. For example, the Chocobo theme has been present in all the Final Fantasy scores since December 1987. | |
Arnie Roth, after directing the Final Fantasy Concerts here, noted that if he knew ahead of time how skilled the singers were, he would have programmed even more choral music into the concerts. What a tribute to my Master Chorale colleagues!
In conclusion, do you remember what we were discussing 1,300 words ago? Looking back at the operatic roots of combining the human voice with instruments, we can see a kind of musical karma. I think if Richard Wagner were alive today, he would enjoy an animated conversation regarding leitmotifs with Nobuo Uematsu. What is seen through these very broad brush-stroke discussions of musical history is the unmistakable impact the human voice can have on listeners. The current Master Chorale Season still offers opportunities to experience live music that you will find enjoyable and memorable. As a singer, it is a joy to be a part of the creative process that takes place when we prepare and present great music for our Tampa Bay community.
Dacci un Dramma!
Dacci un Dramma!
We are deeply grateful for grant awards from the following organizations, which help make our programs possible.
  |   |  With the support of the Arts Council of Hillsborough County and the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts. |
