Finding Neverland

Based on the feature film, Finding Neverland (http://findingneverlandthemusical.com/) tells the story of J. M. Barrie and his writing of the play Peter Pan. The thrust of the musical is about the power of the imagination. The songs are infectious and highly memorable (and there is even a King Arthur reference).

CFP Music for New Frontiers: Re-Locating the Sounds of the Western (1/10/15)

An interesting idea for a collection:

Call for Abstracts: Music for New Frontiers: Re-Locating the Sounds of the Western (collection)/abstracts due 2015-1-10
Publication Date: 2015-01-10
Date Submitted: 2014-07-08
Announcement ID: 214937

Call for Abstracts: Music for New Frontiers: Re-Locating the Sounds of the Western (collection)

We all know the sound of the “classic” movie Western, and what it signifies: a sense of the bravura and heroics associated with the genre illustrated through clean-cut good guys and shifty-eyed bad guys, a rustic landscape, showdowns and brawls. In a 2014 television commercial for Nissan, two men display their car keys with a knowing look: who will win this horserace? In another, two women don cowboy hats to compete for a pair of fashionable shoes on display between them. Similarly, a commercial for the weedkiller “Roundup,” features narration in a rhythmic patter reminiscent of the song “Ringo,” while a chorus of men sing in the background and we hear a single crack of a whip, evoking the classic scores of Dmitri Tiomkin. All of these commercials feature a stylized music that we recognize from classic Westerns: open chords, simple harmonies, long melodies reminiscent of folk tunes, and the changes to those sounds brought about by the “Spaghetti” Westerns of the 1960s: percussion mimicking the sounds of the mythological American West with its jingling spurs, bird calls, and galloping hooves. Advertising companies know that we will respond positively (whether male or female) to the music that transports us to another time (and place?) when we stood up to competition, whether another person or a weed.

Westerns, and their scores, full of iconic motifs, timbres, and harmonies, have always helped us to interpret our past and our present, deal with political and social issues, and delineate the moral behavior of the various bad guys and good guys of the periods depicted. Whether in print, on the stage, or on the screen, the genre is unique and thus inspires a particularly unique soundtrack. This soundtrack changed when the Western was transplanted to Italy, but music for the Western by both American and non-American composers has endured and has been interpreted to new environments for a variety of reasons.

So what happens when that soundtrack is transposed to other settings? Recent films, anime, television shows, stage productions, and video games, including Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 Django Unchained, 2013’s The Lone Ranger, anime’s GunXSword, the 2012 Doctor Who episode “A Town Called Mercy,” and the recent Half-Life spinoff Fistful of Frags have embraced the Western aesthetic in their settings, costuming, plots, and music. While some of these productions use the American “old west” as audiences know it from Gunsmoke and High Noon, more of them explore locations and scenarios far from these traditional renderings. Even Bruce Springsteen has used the main title theme from The Magnificent Seven as his intro music at live shows, positioning him as essentially American.


This collection seeks to locate and relocate the Western and its soundtrack in recent media. Possible topics include music and the intersections of works that both reference the traditional Western and stand apart from it:

• Westerns set outside of the United States, including Japan, Australia, and Osterns from the Soviet bloc
• Space or Supernatural Westerns
• Anime
• Video games
• TV shows and series in non-Western settings
• Operas (aside from “La Fanciulla del West”)
• Popular musics, including sampling and mashups
• Sports
• Commercials
• Radio programs
• Shakespeare and classical literature
• Stage productions, including both plays and musicals
• Other non-Western literature

…In other words, places where you wouldn’t normally expect to hear “Western” music, but where it is used nonetheless as a recognizable musical signifier.


Please submit abstracts of 500 words by January 10, 2015 in .doc(x), .rtf. or .odt form to both Mariana Whitmer (samed@pitt.edu) and Kendra Preston Leonard (kendraprestonleonard@gmail.com). For accepted abstracts, full essays of 5,000-8,000 words will be due September 1, 2015.

Mariana Whitmer (samed@pitt.edu) and Kendra Preston Leonard (kendraprestonleonard@gmail.com)
Email: kendraprestonleonard@gmail.com

Love Never Dies on Home Video

Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical Love Never Dies, the 2010 sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, is now available for home viewing. The film (released in 2012) is a re-staged and somewhat re-imagined version of the original London production (see  Wikipedia for details) and was produced in Australia in 2011; both the DVD and Blu-Ray versions include a special feature on the making of the play/film.

Love Never Dies offers an interesting look into the futures of the key characters from Phantom but has received mixed responses from fans. A number of clips from the musical numbers are featured at the show's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/phantomloveneverdies, though (oddly enough) the film's trailer (below) is devoid of music beyond an instrumental theme.

CFP Essays on Rock and Religion (9/15/14)

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Essays on Rock and Religion
full name / name of organization:
Robert P. McParland, PhD., Alex DiBlasi, M.A.
contact email:
mcparlandr@felician.edu; alexcharlesdiblasi@gmail.com
Call for Proposals: Saints, Sinners, and Seekers: A Collection of Essays on Rock and Religion

PROPOSAL DEADLINE: September 15, 2014

The aim of this book is to explore the relationship between religion/spirituality and rock music. Much has been written on the history of religious music itself, but not much exists on the role religion and spirituality have played in popular song. Music itself has long been considered a spiritual and even meditative practice; this book seeks to investigate rock music as an expression of religious inquiry, religious devotion, and even as a religious experience itself. From the rise of the American Evangelical movement to the widespread introduction of Eastern philosophies in the West, the past century has seen a radical change in the religious makeup of Western culture. Rock artists across the world have incorporated both new and old religious beliefs into their work, and it is our aim to take a similarly ecumenical approach with the essays in this book, covering a wide range of philosophies and belief systems. Scholars from a variety of backgrounds – music, religious studies, cultural studies, anthropology – are encouraged to submit for this volume.

Contributors are encouraged to consider addressing any number of the following in their submissions:

• Comparative Religion/World Religions
• The appearance of religion or spirituality in the work of major rock artists and their spiritual journeys – conversion, life changes, etc.
• Wonder and a sense of the Divine
• Seeking transcendence
• Relationships between music/rock music and religion (i.e., the “God Rock” movement of the 1970’s, the Hare Krishna movement, etc.)
• Heavy Metal and organized religion
• Seeking and spiritual exploration
• Millenialism, Apocalypticism
• The Quiet, Meditation, Contemplation and Music
• Mythology
• Mystery
• Salvation
• Values of Respect, Diversity, Charity, Love, Compassion, Hope, Faith, Justice, Wisdom, Kindness, Care
• Parables
• Community
• Prayer
• Prophecy
• The Afterlife (Heaven and Hell, Reincarnation)
• Celebration
• Ecstasy
• Rock and Ritual
• Charism
• Rock drawing upon black Gospel spirituals
• Psalms
• Peace/Shanti/Shalom
• Rock Music and Religious Dialogue
• Theodicy (that is, explaining suffering under a good God)
• Soul
• Karma
• Musical Pilgrimages (Liverpool, Memphis/Graceland, Haight-Ashbury)
• The Divine/Holy Spirit/Great Spirit
• Angels/Angelic visions
• Atonement
• Haggadah: religious storytelling
• Songs that quote religious scripture (the Bible, the Tao, Bhagavad Gita, Koran, etc.)
• Lamentations (songs for a broken world, modern chants of misery like those in the Hebrew Bible)
• Miracles

A few parameters:

• The plan is for this book to principally address the relationship between rock and religion. We ask that subjects be explicitly tied to rock music.
• It is the aim of both editors to include essays addressing all major world religions.
• As such, we also ask that potential contributors write as objectively as possible, avoiding dogmatic statements, agendas, or arguments with specific religious paths.

Essays can run anywhere from 3,500 to 5,000 words. Contributors should use MLA format. Avoid using quotes from song lyrics. Figures, photos, and illustrations are not recommended unless you can provide a high-resolution image for which the rights have also been cleared.

Please submit a 200-word abstract as a Word file (either .doc or .docx) by September 15, 2014, along with a current CV.

Any further questions, please feel free to contact either of the editors of this book:

Robert P. McParland, PhD.
Felician College
mcparlandr@felician.edu

Alex C. DiBlasi, MA
Independent Scholar
alexcharlesdiblasi@gmail.com


By web submission at 06/01/2014 - 19:56

Saving Mr. Banks

Here's a much more interesting looking film also due out from Disney. It explores the origins of the studio's Mary Poppins.

 

Disney Home Video Up and Coming Trailers

Catching up (still):

Ghost: The Musical

Not sure if I've posted on this before:

Modern Legends (and Making Legends) on Broadway

This season on Broadway:


A fresh look at Peter Pan:


Bonnie and Clyde, the musical!


A modern legend in the making?