Composers that can't read sheet music
Composers that can't read sheet music
#1Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:42pm
I remember hearing that the guy who wrote Oliver! couldn't read music and simply sang the music to someone and they would transfer it to sheet music. Is there any other broadway shows with composers like that?
EDIT: wickedfan you reminded me that it was Lionel Bart who couldn't read music. I must have gotten Annie and Oliver! mixed up. Two musicals about orphans, it's an easy mistake.
Updated On: 7/22/09 at 05:42 PM
#2re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:46pmNo. All other Broadway writers went to Juliard in composition, actually. Most studied with John Corigliano.
-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#2re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:47pmWilliam Finn is one, isn't he? I always wondered if that's why all his music is so robotic and bland.
#3re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:47pm
Mel Brooks might count. But then, it's debatable whether he *truly* counts as a composer or not. I'll leave that particular can of worms to everyone else. XD
#4re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:47pmClaude-Michele Schonberg.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#5re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:48pmI think Lionel Bart couldn't read music.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
#6re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:49pmI believe reading that Jerry Herman doesn't read music.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#7re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:49pm
Claude-Michele Schonberg
Really?
Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE
#8re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:51pmDolly Parton does not read or write music. I believe she said she plays by ear and someone else transposes. I also remember in the documentary "Show Business" that the one dude who wrote Avenue Q said he doesn't read or write music and Lopez had to actually write the music down.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#9re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:55pmYeah, Claude-Michel Schönberg talked about that in his downstage center interview.
#10re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 5:56pm
Lionel Bart, the composer of "Oliver!" could not read or annotate music. He would hum the tune he conceived in his head to a pianist arranger who would then translate it and write it out as music annotation.
Irving Berlin could not read music very well and also used collaborators to get his wonderful songs in musical form on paper.
My Avatar is the amazing young singer, James Anest
geniuswithADD
Chorus Member Joined: 7/4/09
#11re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 6:17pmJohn Bucchino can't read music. He plays on a keyboard and the computer writes it down.
Going to NYC for the 1st (real) time! Seeing Next to Normal, Wicked, and Jersey Boys. If anyone has a suggestion for rush Wednesday matinee (something not mainstream) please PM me! :D
Tag
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/19/05
#12re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 6:20pmBarbra Streisand can't read music.
#13re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 6:29pm
wtffffff
I always assumed every established singer and at the very least every composer could read music. It almost seems pathetic.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#14re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 6:31pm
Irving Berlin and Harvey Schmidt. Both learned to play by ear, and had copyists write down what they played.
Berlin could only play piano in the key of F sharp (or G flat). When he bewcmae rich, he had a cusom made piano with a lever that allowed him to change keys by moving the keyboard to the left or right.
#15re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 6:52pmI know a lot of people at least choose not to transcribe it straight away. If you look at music by JRB and Duncan Sheik from early in the writing/rehearsal process. It's just a melody line with chords (lead sheet).
A little known fact is that in the original screenplay, Pan's Labyrinth was Pan's FLAByrinth. Hmmmmmmm...glad they changed it.
#16re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 7:01pm
I always assumed every established singer and at the very least every composer could read music. It almost seems pathetic.
OT: but it's certainly not uncommon. You can add Paul McCartney to that list. I'd also bet that historically the vast majority of popular singers didn't learn their songs by reading sheet music until printing presses were able to churn out popular music widely and cheaply.
#17re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 7:03pm
"I remember hearing that the guy who wrote Annie couldn't read music and simply sang the music to someone and they would transfer it to sheet music. Is there any other broadway shows with composers like that?"
Wrong. Charles Strouse is a very skilled musician.
#19re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 8:43pmI am assuming the person that mentioned Sondheim was kidding. Sondheim not only can read music but is also very knowledgeable about music theory.
"It does what a musical is supposed to do; it takes you to another world. And it gives you a little tune to carry in your head. Something to take you away from the dreary horrors of the real world. A little something for when you're feeling blue. You know?"
#20re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 8:59pmOh, the internet.
-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
#21re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 9:07pmI heard a story that Sondheim didn't know how to read/notate music, and hired ALW to do it for him. But Sondheim found his melodies weren't hummable, so he had to learn to read/write music himself.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 7/22/09 at 09:07 PM
#22re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 9:11pmAs mentioned, Irving Berlin. Probably the most influential American song composer of the 20th century, writing "hit songs" for over fifty years. Fifty. Couldn't read music.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#23re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 9:13pm
These are lies! They all studied with John Corgiliano! Eric Whitacre is the future!!! 
-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
#24re: Composers that can't read sheet music
Posted: 7/22/09 at 9:14pm
Jerry Herman doesn't read music.
Also, composers are "who"s, not "that"s. Composers *who* can't read sheet music.
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