2.2.1 The Arrangement tells the story 

This performance by young Judy Garland represents forms of exceptional interdisciplinarity on two levels: first in the combination of repertoire and second through the combination of disciplines that are common in a music-theatre performance. This performance is featured in a mainstream movie called „Everybody Sing" from 1938 starring young Judy Garland as a pupil in a girls school. The choir is singing Mendelssohn’s „Frühlingslied" and when the teacher is leaving the classroom, Garland starts to improvise over the chord structures, leading into the song „Swing Mr Mendelssohn“. Throughout the arrangement the chromatic motive of the original melody written by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy reappears. When I saw how natural the transition and combination of different musical vocabulary in a mainstream movie of the 1938 was performed, I couldn’t help but feel encouraged in exploring these connections and how the singer carries and communicates these connections while acting, while singing and dancing - in short while telling a story.

The storyline of this scene is very clear, the girls choir is supposed to behave, learn and sing the way they were instructed and the moment the teacher leaves the classroom Judy Garland breaks these structures by dancing and changing the "original" to a song resembling idioms from jazz, to be more specific swing aesthetics.

The arrangement is written by Bronislaw Kaper, a Polish film and music-theatre composer, and by Walter Jurmann, a Viennese-born composer, who specialized in Film scores and is responsible for the popular song of the 1920s "Veronika, der Lenz ist da". If they wrote the lyrics to "Frühlingslied" is not quite clear.

When transcribing the arrangement it became obvious of how much they were sticking to Mendelssohns's "Frühlingslied", especially when the choir sings the unisono part including the clapping on second and fourth beat , they are repeating the first two bars of "Frühlingslied". In the transition part from the classical part to the "break free" moment of Judy, Kaper und Jurmann quoted a line from a hit at the very beginning to introduce where this is musically going.  "Honeysuckle rose" (1928) by Fats Waller.

When the teacher comes back into the room and Judy has to leave the classroom, the choir progresses back to the "original" - when the troublemaker leaves the scene, not only the choir behaves differently again but also the music.

Garland performs the story of “breaking rules” through her interpretation of the music as well as through the scene, the acting, the movements, the gestures, the way of performing it. While this story is at the same time mirrored in the way the piece of music was re-arranged. To break the rules is performed through the re-interpreting and re-arranging of Mendelssohn's piano piece, as well as through Garland singing this interpretation and through way of performing it. It is all connected through the same storyline and is performed through the interpretation of the arrangement and through the way of performing the arrangement.

In this case the arrangement, the interpretation of the arrangement and the way of performing the arrangement all tells the same story. The story is told threefold.

2.2.3. Twisted music by Wardell Gray & lyrics by Annie Ross

a re-interpretation of a musical narrative

The musical narrative performed through the language and vocabulary of the jazz tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray, who wrote Twisted when he was 28 and recorded it with his Quartett in 1949. In the tradition of Jazz Vocalese Annie Ross wrote lyrics on top of the theme and melody of this blues. She is re-interpreting Wardell’s solo by telling a story on top of it. A musical narrative and a story is weaved into one song. She is repeating the theme and solo of Twisted by Wardell and inspired by the title of the blues, she wrote lyrics about an analyst telling her, that she is crazy. She on the other hand, is convinced that she is a genius with two heads. With performing it she interprets not only the musical narrative by Wardell Gray but at the same time performs it in a different context altering it with another story on top. Two stories that exist in one song. Repetition and alteration.

2.2.2 Sinatra's monologue between the songs

The Tea Break - Frank Sinatra's Monologue live from "At the Sands". 

The so-called Tea break-Monologue is taken from the live album "Sinatra at the Sands" recorded 1966 in Las Vegas. It is accompagnied by the Count Basie Big Band, arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. The Album consists of 22 songs and Sinatra's Monologue is listed in the tracklist as if it would be a song. It lasts approximately 12 min in which he shares personal anecdotes from his years starting up to anecdotes about his collegues, jokes about his collegues until he leads back to the song "You make me feel so young". One could say it is a mixture between a Stand-Up Comedy Set and telling personal stories. He is taking his time, building up to his punchlines and leading away from and back to the music.

He almost says nothing between the songs and then takes approximately 12 -16min mid way through his set for his monologue called The Tea Break. 

He chose where and when to take space to perform talking and makes a distinction between performing music and performing talking. Through his monologue he sets these boundaries very clearly but at the same time his monologue is listed as a song on the album. His talking is equal to his singing, his monologue is embedded in songs. Sung words turn to spoken words and back. When he sings, he tells stories, when he speaks he tells stories. The difference to me lies in the way he is reacting to the audience, he directly addressing them. He shifts into a concersation mode, reacts to the laughs, sounds, movements of the audience. 

The Stand-Up comedian and actor Wayne Federman decribes the American genre of the “talking performer” we call Stand-Up Comedian as a conversation where only one person is talking. The “talking performer” enters into a relationship with the audience by having a conversation with them, reacting to them. The role of the entertainer and singer that Sinatra is representing is connected with this role on stage.  As part of the Rat Pack*, where the singers were actors, dancers, comedians all at once and each of them had to play their role and perform their role in and - outside of the songs. I think the Tea Break is an inspiring example of how to perform talking on stage. I found another version of the Tea Break, that is a bit longer but I noticed that he uses the same structure and a few of the same jokes and anecdotes, which makes it clear that he prepared the material, he knew what worked. He chose his words carefully and the way he performed them like he chose his songs and the way he performed them.

2.2.5.Charlie Chaplin’s - way of performing becomes language

It is the first time Charlie Chaplin’s voice as the tramp is audible. This scene is taken from his movie Modern Times. We see him rehearsing backstage for the song that he is about to perform in front the audience in a restaurant. He keeps forgetting his lyrics, to help him his co-star writes the lyrics on his cuffs. For a second we can read just the beginning of the story he is about to sing and perform. Chaplin’s every move, every gesture is already telling and preparing us to what is about to happen. He is constantly interpreting movements, gestures and human behavior. The moment he walks out, and presents himself to the audience he loses his cuffs and with them the lyrics. When he starts to sing, he sings in gibberish and we as the audience follow the story through his way of performing it. The words itself don’t make sense yet we still attach meaning to every sound, every movement and gesture and find the story within. He is using words as sounds and leaves us with the interpretation. His way of performing becomes language.

2.2.4. Jerry Lewis - two interpretations - one performance

Without using a single word or playing music Jerry Lewis is interpreting the way of performing it. The pantomime scene is taken from the movie Errand Boy from 1961 to Count Basie’s Blues in Hoss Flat from the album Chairman of the board. Lewis is lip-syncing to an instrumental piece by the Count Basie Big Band. With the setting of the scene and the behavior he is performing the song although he is not playing the music. He enters, as the errand boy, into an empty office space, taking a seat in the big leather chair that suggests a position of power. He is impersonating a person in charge, re-enacting behavior of someone being the boss (Chairman of the board), talking down to employees while smoking a cigar, clearly being annoyed and frustrated with his invisible co-workers. From the moment we see him entering the room, we, as the audience, follow his story and the way he performing and interpreting way of performing the music has an impact of how we hear and connect the music. We experience The Blues in Hoss Flat from the errand boys’ point of view. Lewis is “only” interpreting the way of performing this piece of music. The interpretation of the piece of music and the interpretation of the performance of the piece of music is in this case not connected and yet it creates one performance of a piece of music.

ways of performing 

In the following performance analysis' and because I'm coming from a background as a jazz interpreter I will explore interpretations of different ways of performing music connected to American music and entertainment history. I will take a closer look at performances of artists like Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin, Jerry Lewis and Annie Ross.

transcribed excerpt of the Tea Break - Sinatra's Monologue

“Nothin’ to it folks! Good evening, salute! (laughs)

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Jilly’s west!

Where do you lead me to eat and if I rhyme that, this will be a barn in the morning. I hope that you’re having an enjoyable stay here in Las Vegas and I also hope that you have been fortunate. I do wish that for you, I can’t say the same for Mister Basie and myself because we’re running to a streak of baaaaad luck (audience laughs) – Sunday we went up to the Grand Canyon and it was closed. (pauses – audience laughs and claps) And last year we invested a bundle of money in a pumpkin farm and then they called off Halloween. And when I told that to Saphire she said: You’re hangin’ around with that bum again that’s what’s the matter with you.

Uuuhhhh Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to explain or at least beg your forgiveness for any inconveniences about the hotel because of the rebuilding that’s going on, some of the carpet is not complete, ah little pipes leaking here and there but that’s the way it goes when you rebuild and every hotel has had to do that. But ahm, it’s very expensive, obviously you know, to build a day, per square foot it’s like 25 bucks - 30 bucks per square foot, consequently this whole change-over we had was about 11 and 12 million dollars. We got three million from the local bank and eight million from the cocktail waitresses who worked over that side. Now…to get back to the building and at the moment there ain’t no place else to go. They’ve developed some marvelous décor in the suits up there.

The one for Dean, he decorated it himself, is just gutter to gutter, there is no furniture, just straight across the room, he likes it that way folks. You see, Mr. Martin falls on the street a lot.

You’re not too sure, so don’t get mixed up in it folks The question most asked of me is, “Does Dean Martin really drink?” Well, I can attest to that fact, he’s a drunk. He is an absolutely, unqualified drunk. And if we ever develop an Olympic drinking team, he is gonna be the coach. (audience laughs) with Toots Shor, Jackie Gleason involved and me bringing up the rear end. I would say roughly that Dean Martin has been stoned more often than United States embassys.

(laughing, clapping, whistling, Sinatra pauses for a bit) I’m not too sure, if you applauded for Dean or if we should stone some more embassys. I don’t know about about this group here, you know. I tell you one thing about Dean Martin. When you go to his home in Beverly Hills for an evening’s fun, ah, he hosts real steadfast a rule: there’s no drinking after dinner. Of course you don’t eat til 3:30 am but there’s no drinking after dinner. How the hell can you drink when you’re laying flat on your back. Then his mother in law Peggy picks you up and rolls you into the dining room. They also have a big dog, who does that. And ahm, Dean is very wonderful about his family, particularly everybody makes jokes about his mother, not Dean. He loves his mother. He gave her for Christmas a two-story bed room house and the sheriff keeps closing it down every Saturday. He walks up and closes it down. This guy just ain’t broadminded, that’s all! (laughing) And I picked the cast myself!zooo

And ah also, ah, when we finish the first phase of the…. now the second phase is doing this Copa Room here, largest stage, more capacity. And Mr. Entrada to show you the class of the thinking of this hotel. They’re closing golden boy to bring Sammy Davis in here for four solid weeks, just to clean! I saw Sammys first television show. I’d like to make one comment on the show. There’s a lot I can make but I would like to make one comment. Sammy Davies wrote a book called Yes I can and when I saw that show I said, “No you can’t!” 

Now I guess that you folks have heard or read or been told somewhere that recently I became 50 years old and I’m hear to tell you right now: it’s a dirty communist lie, direct from Hanoi. My body may be 50 but I’m 28. I would further liked to say that I’d be 22 if I hadn’t spent all those years drinking with Joe E. Lewis, who nearly recked me. Remember the words of Joe E. Lewis who said, “a friend in need is a pest”. And you think about that when you go to bed and they break you up later on. And if you do think about that when you go to bed, you shouldn’t be allowed to go to bed.

However folk, I’m a Sagittarian. I was born in December 12^th 1915 and I was born a very skinny kid, little kid, skinny, so skinny my eyes were singlefile. Between those and my belly button my old man thought I was a clarinet. You see Charlie a clarinet you put your fingers on the holes like this, you see.