So; Youre the New Musical Director! is aimed at the person who has music training but little or no experience with musical theatre; the high school choral director with a degree in music education; or the actor participating in community theatre productions. It details the duties involved in directing a broadway musical; including overseeing singer and orchestra rehearsals and conducting the musical itself. The chapters follow the actual progression of a musical from a discussion of the production teams responsibilities to the final bow. Filled with photos; illustrations; and examples; So; Youre the New Musical Director! is a comprehensive guide that no one involved in musical theatre should be without.
#3801042 in eBooks 2013-03-25 2013-03-25File Name: B00C1RMT5O
Review
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful. Good But No CDBy frankp93The licensing issues were probably insurmountable; but its a shame they couldnt include at least a CD of brief excerpts to go along with the scores detailed here. Im a longtime fan of Schifrin and have many; though not all; of the referenced film and TV works. Unless youre fluent in orchestral score reading or extremely patient; the book will be tough going. Particularly frustrating is the inclusion of a full-length symphonic concert work it would have been terrific to have a recording of.Schifrins prose is very readable and interesting: he goes fairly deep into compositional techniques; including his use of Fibonacci series. Schifrin is rumored to have studied the Schillinger System in the 50s; although such numerical techniques were (and continue to be) used by many writers past and present.This is not a textbook in the sense of presenting guided exercises: think of it more as a master class in which a seasoned pro takes you into his workshop.15 of 15 people found the following review helpful. Not bad but not well thought-outBy Stellita LoukasI bought this book with the utmost enthusiasm to find out more about film and TV scoring devices.When a thick book arrived I was more than overjoyed!!However; half of the book is devoted to a score for which there is ABSOLUTELY NO recording available. I can live with not having an accompanying CD for the recordings one can easily find on iTunes but devoting half a book to a score that has no recording commercially available seems rather pointless to me. While I am a composer myself and I can read a score; it is a whole different matter when you can listen and follow along.I have enormous respect for the author and his brilliant music and work as a film and TV composer but the book definitely left me wanting for more.8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. glad he wrote thisBy Jesse SowaIf youre new to this sort of thing; youll want to start with Henry Mancini; Nelson Riddle; or Don Sebeskys orchestration books first. Any one of those will give you a good survey of the various instruments; their ranges; along with examples of how theyre arranged in groups.This particular book is most similar to Mancinis other book on the Thorn Birds score. You get a lot of content about how to write to convey certain moods; lots of anecdotes that relate what its like to work on a picture; with a deadline; producers; directors; etc. To me; this is mildly interesting; but I mainly bought this book to see how he voiced his horns and strings. This book is unique in relation to others mentioned because Lalo spent more time in the funk/soul idiom; so you get to see how those type of parts are arranged.You do get a complete (or nearly) transcription of a piece from "Mission Impossible" and two pieces from "Bullit" (along with other snippets that span his long career). After you study these; you should have a pretty solid idea about how Lalo approached things and what voicings he favors for different situations. Ultimately; I got what I came for; and Im very appreciative that he wrote this book.As others have said; the final ~100 pages of the book are his fantasie for film score. It is unaccompanied by any analysis; so feels like an attempt to pad out the length of the book. Might be an interesting study; but hard to be curious about something none of us have ever listened to before.