JOURNAL OF THE

SOCIETY FOR

AMERICAN

MUSICVOLUME 11 NUMBER 2 MAY 2017

available at httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000013Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232906 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use

Journal of the Society for American Music

Journal of the Society for American Music (JSAM) is an international peer-reviewed journal that explores all aspects

of American music and music in the Americas JSAM is dedicated to supporting scholarship that transcends

disciplinary boundaries cutting across historical musicology music theory ethnomusicology cultural theory and

American studies JSAM encourages international dialogue across disciplines The journal features articles reviews

of books recordings and multimedia items and explorations of special topics

Subscriptions

Journal of the Society for American Music (ISSN 1752-1963) is published four times a year in February May August

and November by Cambridge University Press One Liberty Plaza Floor 20 New York NY 10006 USA for the

Society for American Music

The subscription price of volume 11 (2017) including delivery by air where appropriate (but excluding VAT)

is $284 (pound153) for institutions print and online $259 (pound140) for institutions online only Single issues cost $85

(pound46) Japanese prices for institutions including ASP delivery are available from Kinokuniya Company Ltd

PO Box 55 Chitose Tokyo 156 Japan Orders which must be accompanied by payment may be sent to a

bookseller or subscription agent or direct to the publisher Cambridge University Press Journals Fulfillment

Department One Liberty Plaza Floor 20 New York NY 10006 USA or Cambridge University Press

Journals Fulfillment Department UPH Shaftesbury Road Cambridge CB2 8BS UK Alternatively you can place

an order online at ltjournalscambridgeorgsamgt

Individuals wishing to subscribe to the journal should consider joining the Society for American Music Individuals

receive the journal as part of their membership Other benefits include a copy of the Bulletin and the annotated

Membership Directory Annual membership rates are $75 (US) for individual members $30 for spousespartners

$35 for students and $50 for retired individuals If you reside outside the US please add $10 additional for postage

All payments must be in US funds drawn on a US bank or by credit card (Visa or Mastercard only) Please direct

all membership payments inquiries changes of address and correspondence to the Society for American Music

Stephen Foster Memorial University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh PA 15260 USA Telephone (412) 624-3031

fax (412) 624-7447 e-mail SAMamerican-musicorg website ltwwwamerican-musicorggt

For single issues please contact customer_servicecambridgeorg

Advertising

For information on display ad sizes rates and deadlines for copy please visit the journal homepage at

ltjournalscambridgeorgsamgt or contact ad_salescambridgeorg Information can also be found at ltwww

american-musicorggt

Internet access

Journal of the Society for American Music is included in the Cambridge Journals Online service which can be

accessed at ltjournalscambridgeorggt For information on other Cambridge titles visit ltwwwcambridgeorggt

ISSN 1752-1963

EISSN 1752-1971

copy The Society for American Music 2017 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced

in any form or by any means electronic photocopying or otherwise without permission in writing from

Cambridge University Press Policies request forms and contacts are available at httpwwwcambridgeorgrights

permissionspermissionhtm

Permission to copy (for users in the USA) is available from Copyright Clearance Center httpwwwcopyrightcom

emailinfocopyrightcom

Postmaster Send address changes to Journal of the Society for American Music Cambridge University Press One

Liberty Plaza Floor 20 New York NY 10006 USA

Front cover illustration American Idol contestant Candice Glover reacts to compliments from the judges 2013 YouTube

video screen shot httpswwwyoutubecomwatchv=RnW1Pun8XDY

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000013Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232906 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

Journal of the Society for American Music

A quarterly publication of the Society for American Music

EditorKaren Ahlquist (The George Washington University USA)

Assistant EditorJason Michalek (The George Washington University USA)

Book Review EditorsChristina Baade (McMaster University Canada)Travis Stimeling (West Virginia University USA)

Media Review EditorsDana Gorzelany-Mostak (Georgia College and State University USA)William Gibbons (Texas Christian University USA)

Editorial AssociateMark A Davidson (University of California Santa Cruz USA)

Editorial BoardNaomi Andre (University of Michigan USA)Theo Cateforis (Syracuse University USA)William Cheng (Dartmouth College USA)Andrew Flory (Carleton College USA)Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Ohio State University USA)Glenda Goodman (University of Pennsylvania USA)David Gramit (University of Alberta Canada)Nadine Hubbs (University of Michigan USA)Loren Kajikawa (University of Oregon USA)Frank Lehman (Tufts University USA)Jim Lovensheimer (Vanderbilt University USA)Felicia Miyakawa (Independent Scholar USA)Nathan Platte (University of Iowa USA)Leonora Saavedra (University of California Riverside USA)Jessica Sternfeld (Chapman University USA)Robynn Stilwell (Georgetown University USA)Steve Swayne (Dartmouth College USA)

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000013Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232906 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

Journal of the Society for American MusicVolume 11 Number 2 (May 2017)

Contributors v

Articles

Dizzy a la Mimi Jazz Text and TranslationBenjamin Givan 121

Porch and Playhouse Parlor and Performance Hall Traversing Boundariesin Gottschalkrsquos The Banjo

Laura Moore Pruett 155

Staging Overcoming Narratives of Disability and Meritocracy in RealitySinging Competitions

William Cheng 184

Reviews

Books

Mark Ferris Star-Spangled Banner The Unlikely Story of Americarsquos NationalAnthem Sheryl Kaskowitz God Bless America The Surprising History ofan Iconic Song Victor V Bobetsky ed We Shall Overcome Essays on aGreat American Song

Mariana Whitmer 215

Felix Meyer Carol J Oja Wolfgang Rathert and Anne C Shreffler edsCrosscurrents American and European Music in Interaction 1900ndash2000

Jessica Payette 223

Ken Prouty Knowing Jazz Community Pedagogy and Canon in theInformation Age Eitan Y Wilf School for Cool The Academic JazzProgram and the Paradox of Institutionalized Creativity

Brian F Wright 227

Susan Fast DangerousEric Smialek 232

S Andrew Granade Harry Partch Hobo ComposerNavid Bargrizan 235

Carol J Oja Bernstein Meets Broadway Collaborative Art in a Time of WarElizabeth A Wells 238

Amy Absher The Black Musicians and the White City Race and Music inChicago 1900ndash1967 Thomas Bauman The Pekin The Rise and Fall ofChicagorsquos First Black-Owned Theater

John Behling 240

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000013Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232906 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

Ryan Raul Banagale Arranging Gershwin ldquoRhapsody in Bluerdquo and theCreation of an American Icon

Geoffrey Block 246

Media

Beyonce LemonadeLauron Kehrer 250

Jake Heggie The Radio HourColleen Renihan 252

Andrew Norman Play TryJohn Pippen 254

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000013Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232906 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

Contributors

Navid Bargrizan is a PhD candidate in historical musicology at University ofFlorida He has presented papers on intersections of music technology and phi-losophy in the music of Harry Partch Manfred Stahnke and Mozart at nationaland international conferences including those of the Society for American Musicand German Studies Association His articles interviews and papers are publishedin Muzik-Bilim Dergisi The Journal of Musicology Newsletter of the Society of Com-posers Inc and proceedings of conferences in Berlin and Istanbul

John Behling teaches courses on ethnomusicology jazz and popular music atColumbia College and the University of Illinois He has written on jazz in ChicagoSammy Davis Jr improvisation and the history of jazz education He is also aprominent Chicago guitarist and has made recordings of jazz Celtic and Brazilianmusic

Geoffrey Block is Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Puget SoundHe has published widely on Charles Ives American musical theater Beethoven andSchubert and is the author of IvesldquoConcordrdquo Sonata (Cambridge University Press1996) Enchanted Evenings The Broadway Musical from ldquoShow Boatrdquo to Sondheimand Lloyd Webber (Oxford University Press 1997 2nd ed 2009) and RichardRodgers (Yale University Press 2003) He is also the general editor of the YaleBroadway Masters and series editor of Oxfordrsquos Broadway Legacies

William Cheng is an assistant professor of music at Dartmouth College He is theauthor of Sound Play Video Games and the Musical Imagination (2014) and Just Vi-brations The Purpose of Sounding Good (2016) His current book projects include Allthe Beautiful Musicians (Oxford) Touching Pitch Dirt Debt Color (Michigan) andQueering the Field Sounding Out Ethnomusicology (Oxford coedited with GregoryMelchor-Barz) He has written for the Journal of the American Musicological SocietyEthnomusicology Ethnomusicology Review Cambridge Opera Journal 19th-CenturyMusic and Critical Inquiry along with Slate the Washington Post Huffington PostTime Pacific Standard and Musicology Now

Benjamin Givan is an associate professor of music at Skidmore College and theauthor of The Music of Django Reinhardt (2010) He teaches courses in jazz historytwentieth- and twenty-firstndashcentury music history film music music and philoso-phy and post-tonal theory His jazz scholarship includes another article on MimiPerrin which appeared in American Music in 2016

v

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000013Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232906 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

vi

Lauron Kehrer is a PhD candidate in musicology at the Eastman School of MusicUniversity of Rochester Her current research examines the intersections of racegender and sexuality in contemporary American hip hop Her work has appeared inAmerican Music the Journal of the Society for American Music and Inside Higher EdShe has presented her research at meetings of the American Musicological SocietySociety for American Music and Society for Ethnomusicology

Jessica Payette is an associate professor of music at Oakland University in RochesterMichigan She specializes in twentieth- and twenty-first century music and haspublished articles on opera in fin-de-siecle Vienna monodramatic vocal worksand ballet in the German Democratic Republic

John Pippen is an adjunct professor of music at Colorado State University wherehe teaches undergraduate and graduate courses His primary research has been anextended ethnographic study of labor and aesthetics in the Chicago new musicscene Additional projects include a chapter in the forthcoming Oxford Handbookof Spectral Music

Laura Moore Pruett is an associate professor of music at Merrimack College inNorth Andover Massachusetts where she teaches courses in music history theoryand appreciation Her publications which focus mainly on nineteenth-centuryAmerican music include an article on sentimentality in the works of Louis MoreauGottschalk in 19th-Century Music and several articles in the Grove Dictionary ofAmerican Music second edition Her edition of Gottschalkrsquos two symphonies willbe published in A-R Editionsrsquo series Music of the United States of America

Colleen Renihan is an assistant professor at the Dan School of Drama and MusicQueenrsquos University Her research is focused on issues of memory historiographyand temporality in American and Canadian twentieth- and twenty-first centuryopera Her work has appeared in The Journal of the Society for American MusicTwentieth-Century Music and Music Sound and the Moving Image She is currentlyat work on a book manuscript focused on American historically based opera

Eric Smialek earned his PhD in musicology at McGill University with a dissertationon genre and expression in extreme metal music His research combines close musicanalysis with the discourses of fans and critics Smialek is a three-time winner ofIASPM-Canadarsquos Peter Narvaez Student Paper Prize In addition to chapters inGlobal Metal Music and Culture (Routledge 2016) and the Routledge Companion toMusic Analysis he has forthcoming articles on Sigur Ros Meshuggah Katy PerrySouthern Soul and music in hockey broadcasts

Elizabeth A Wells earned her doctorate in musicology at the Eastman School ofMusic and is a professor and the Pickard-Bell Chair of Music at Mount AllisonUniversity in Sackville New Brunswick She is a 3M National Teaching Fellowand co-founder of the International Federation of National Teaching Fellows Her

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000013Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232906 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

vii

book on West Side Story was published in 2011 and her research interests in-clude twentieth-century opera musical theater and the scholarship of teaching andlearning

Mariana Whitmer is Executive Director of the Society for American Music anda part-time faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh where she teaches acourse on film music She has consulted for several years on Voices Across TimeTeaching American History Through Song a joint project of the University and theSociety which uses songs (and their biographies) to enhance social studies curriculain K-12 classrooms

Brian F Wright is a PhD candidate at Case Western Reserve University and atemporary assistant professor of music at Fairmont State University His researchfocuses on the cultural history of the electric bass in jazz rock and rhythm rsquonrsquo bluesexploring issues such as social stigma amateur music making and historiography

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000013Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232906 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

Book reviews 235

admiration for Jacksonrsquos own risk takingmdashand it is inspiring In addition to itsscholarly contributions accessibility for non-scholarly readers and usefulness inthe classroommdashI assigned ldquoDesirerdquo for a term paper on race and sexualitymdashFastrsquosbook might open possibilities for younger scholars who have not yet achieved herprofessional level of recognition and seniority to write a book in this hybrid genre

Eric Smialek

Journal of the Society for American Music (2017) Volume 11 Number 2 pp 235ndash238Ccopy The Society for American Music 2017 doi101017S1752196317000116

Harry Partch Hobo Composer By S Andrew Granade Rochester NY University ofRochester Press 2014

Since the 1990s music scholars have begun only gradually to grapple with theAmerican maverick Harry Partch and his seminal theoretical music philosophicaland compositional ideas Besides Partchrsquos own comprehensive treatise Genesis of aMusic and his collected journals essays introductions and librettos we have thework of the late Bob Gilmore who authored a biography and a study of Partchrsquos earlyvocal pieces and Thomas McGearyrsquos catalog of Partchrsquos works scores bibliographyand discography1 Most other Anglophone publications are limited to individualaspects of Partchrsquos works2 In the German literature articles by Manfred Stahnkea composer and musicologist explain Partchrsquos intonational and aesthetic ideas

1 Harry Partch Genesis of a Music 2nd ed (New York Da Capo 1974) Harry Partch Bitter MusicCollected Journals Essays Introductions and Librettos ed Thomas McGeary (Urbana University ofIllinois Press 1991) Bob Gilmore Harry Partch a Biography (New Haven CT Yale University 1998)Bob Gilmore ldquoHarry Partch the Early Vocal Works 1930ndash33rdquo PhD diss The Queenrsquos University ofBelfast 1996 Thomas McGeary The Music of Harry Partch A Descriptive Catalog (New York Institutefor Studies in the American Music 1991) The main sources of Partchrsquos materials are the Harry PartchEstate Archive 1918ndash1991 and the Music and Performing Arts Library Harry Partch Collection1914ndash2007 both in the the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music of the University of Illinoisat UrbanandashChampaign The special collection Harry Partch Music Scores 1922ndash1972 which is locatedat the University of California in San Diego contains facsimiles of Partchrsquos music composed between1922 and 1972

2 See for example Harry Partch ldquoExperiments in Notationrdquo in Contemporary Composers onContemporary Music ed Elliott Schwartz et al (New York Da Capo 1978) 209ndash221 Ronald VWiecki ldquo12-Tone Paralysis Harry Partch in Madison Wisconsin 1944ndash1947rdquo American Music 9 no1 (1991) 43ndash66 Bob Gilmore ldquoThe Climate since Harry Partchrdquo Contemporary Music Review 22 nos1ndash2 (2003) 15ndash33 Ben Johnston ldquoThe Corporealism of Harry Partchrdquo in ldquoMaximum Clarityrdquo andOther Writings on Music ed Bob Gilmore (Urbana and Chicago University of Illinois Press 2006)216 Ben Johnston ldquoHarry PartchJohn Cagerdquo in ldquoMaximum Clarityrdquo and Other Writings on Musiced Bob Gilmore (Urbana and Chicago University of Illinois Press 2006) 232 Ben Johnston ldquoBeyondHarry Partchrdquo in ldquoMaximum Clarityrdquo and Other Writings on Music ed Bob Gilmore (Urbana andChicago University of Illinois Press 2006) 243 Philip Blackburn ldquoHarry Partch and the PhilosopherrsquosTonerdquo Hyperion 2 no 1 (2008) 1ndash20

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000116Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232815 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

236 Book reviews

and how they have influenced his own microtonal concepts3 Intervening in thisfragmentary literature S Andrew Granadersquos Harry Partch Hobo Composer presentsan exhaustive account of US hobo culture and the ways in which it shaped not onlyPartchrsquos existential and artistic philosophy but also his music theoretical and com-positional procedures The book is organized as a chronological study of the musicthat Partch created while living as a hobo among the multitude of unemployedhomeless men during the Great Depression and after from 1928 to 1943

By recounting the shifting hobo transient and migrant cultures of the Great De-pression era Granade contextualizes Partchrsquos affinity for and conscious submissionto the transient lifestyle as the composer meticulously adopted the hobo persona andgave his music an essential hobo ethos While living as a transient Partch collectedUS folk songs speeches and texts conceptualized a pioneering forty-three-tone-to-octave intonational system and designed a plethora of original instruments Hisjust-intoned eleven-limit scale enabled him to capture all the inflections of a voicereciting these folk texts songs and speeches Partch constructed several visually andacoustically impressive instruments based on his microtonal system and composedworks that relied upon his notions of ldquomonophonyrdquo and ldquocorporealityrdquo in order topresent an inherently US music growing out of the hobo culture

Granade builds his compelling study upon two pillars the notions of conceptualexoticism and documentary imagination In the prologue he argues that Partchrsquosuse of iconic American figures such as the hobo and the transient in his piecesBarstow US Highball San Francisco The Letter and Ulysses at the Edge of theWorld are conceptually exotic4 The fact that Partch collected and set the inflectionsof hobo texts to music while he was hoboing grants his works an exoticism thatemerges from the existential underpinnings of American folk culture In Granadersquoswords ldquoPartch presents life as hoboes lived it and allows the audience to inferwhat it willrdquo (12) Granade demonstrates that decorative exoticism that is thesuperficial integration of folk elements within the apparatus of Euro-American artmusic deviates from Partchrsquos complete immersion in the US folk tradition

On the other hand even as he lived it Partch was also documenting hoboculture His direct engagement with hobo songs took on the aspects of documentaryas we observe in his Bitter Musicmdasha musical visual and literary journal of hishobo years Throughout the book Granade expounds upon the cultural value ofPartchrsquos musical documentary imagination setting Partch alongside such figuresas Dorothea Lange in photography and John Steinbeck in literature all of whomcontributed immensely to the documentation of the hobo transient and migranttraditions

3 See for example Manfred Stahnke ldquoGedanken zu Harry Partchrdquo Neuland Ansatze zur Musikd Gegenwart Jahrbuch 2 ed Herbert Henck (Bergisch Gladbach Neuland Musikverlag 1982) 243ndash251 Manfred Stahnke ldquoZwei Blumen der reinen Stimmung im 20 Jahrhundert Harry Partch undGerard Griseyrdquo Hamburger Jahrbuch fur Musikwissenschaft 17 ed Constantin Floros Friedrich Geigerand Thomas Schafer (FrankfurtM Peter Lang 2000) 369ndash88 Manfred Stahnke ldquoPartch Harp(Er)findung einer nicht-oktavierenden Musikrdquo in Musikkulturgeschichte Festschrift fur ConstantinFloros zum 60 Geburtstag ed Peter Peterson (Wiesbaden Breitkopf amp Hartel 1990) 11ndash26

4 These five pieces constitute The Wayward a collection of Partchrsquos hobo music from 1935 to1941

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000116Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232815 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

Book reviews 237

Besides a prologue and an epilogue Harry Partch Hobo Composer consists of eightchapters which focus on Partchrsquos life and works and two interludes which explorethe culture of hoboes transients and migrants during the Great Depression Thebookrsquos first chapter portrays Partchrsquos pivotal departure from equal temperamentand traditional way of life and arrival at just intonation and hoboing in the late1920s and early 1930s The first interlude that follows offers a fascinating excur-sion to the hobo world beyond the scope of Partchrsquos music Granade explores theemergence and evolution of these underrepresented groups of people throughoutthe country particularly in California He elaborates on the political and economicconditions that contributed to transience and the ways in which the governmentdealt with it In the second chapter Granade investigates the shift of Partchrsquosdocumentary imagination toward a transient lifestyle during the same period inwhich he composed Bitter Music a groundbreaking format that integrates noveldocumentary journalism a musical score and drawings The third chapter analyzesBitter Music and the fourth illustrates Partchrsquos nomadic lifestyle and how it affectedthe composition of Barstow his hobo concerto as well as his other works of theperiod

In order to fully explain why Partch adopted a hobo persona the author elaboratesin the second interlude on how the hobo was understood and constructed by artistswriters filmmakers and the press at the time Chapters 5 and 6 discuss PartchrsquosUS Highball and the other pieces of The Wayward respectively Granade revealsthe evolution of US Highballmdashthe musical account of Partchrsquos hobo journey fromCalifornia to Illinois in 1941mdashas represented in the manuscripts preserving its threeversions The seventh chapter deals with a crucial period in Partchrsquos life from 1941to 1944 when he established his persona of a hobo composer in Illinois New Yorkand Massachusetts while giving concerts lectures and presentations that featuredhis startling compositions instruments and theories The eighth and final chapterapproaches Partchrsquos residency in Madison (1944ndash1947) to work under a grant fromthe University of Wisconsin where he eventually published Genesis of a Music Inthis chapter and in the epilogue Granade clarifies how Partch exploited and finallyabandoned the hobo image in the last three decades of his life During these yearswhile residing mostly in California Partch composed corporeal music dramas suchas Oedipus The Bewitched and Delusion of the Fury As Granade demonstrates evenin these works Partch returns to his affection for the hobo culture and integrateshobo elements in his music whenever he felt the need

Articulating the conceptual exoticism of Partchrsquos Americana music Granadeconcludes that ldquonot only did Partch forge an art that sounded American it wasAmericanrdquo (283) As he asserts throughout the book Partchrsquos worldview lifestyleaesthetics and music were truly interrelated With its focus on Partchrsquos own inte-gration of these elements of his life perhaps the only shortcoming of the book isthe fact that it does not expand much on Partchrsquos microtonal theory as the basisof his intonational system instruments and compositions although it perfectlyillustrates the historical and contextual background of his hobo music In factgrasping Partchrsquos hobo music hinges upon comprehending his theory of just in-tonation and his peculiar notational system as well as his notions of monophonyand corporeality Harry Partch Hobo Composer however goes beyond being a mere

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000116Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232815 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at

238 Book reviews

musicological study of a fundamentally American composer it is also a probinganthropological study of hobo transient and migrant cultures in the United StatesGranadersquos book stands out as a valuable addition to the scholarship of Americanculture which for the first time in the musicological literature affirms the culturaland musical significance of Partchrsquos US hobo music

Navid Bargrizan

Journal of the Society for American Music (2017) Volume 11 Number 2 pp 238ndash240Ccopy The Society for American Music 2017 doi101017S1752196317000128

Bernstein Meets Broadway Collaborative Art in a Time of War By Carol J OjaOxford Oxford University Press 2014

With Leonard Bernsteinrsquos centenary approaching in 2018 more books on themusician have naturally started to appear Two studies of West Side Story (oneby Nigel Simeone and one by this author) came out in the last six years and a recentstudy by Helen Smith explores his theater works in general Simeone has also editeda collection of Bernsteinrsquos letters and Alicia Kopfstein-Penk has recently writtena book on his Young Peoplersquos Concerts Paul Laird a noted Bernstein scholar hasupdated his guide to research with Hsin Lin just this past year1 Timely then is thisstudy of one of Bernsteinrsquos lesser-known works On the Town (and its precursorthe ballet Fancy Free) by Carol Oja Bernstein Meets Broadway Collaborative Artin a Time of War comes from Oxfordrsquos Broadway Legacies Series which includessingle-work studies like Jim Lovensheimerrsquos South Pacific volume Todd DeckerrsquosShow Boat study and Dominic McHughrsquos book on My Fair Lady In a similar veinOja has explored On the Town in exhaustive detail looking at the creative genesisof the show (and the ballet Fancy Free on which it is very loosely based) the racialpolitics of the work and finally the showrsquos musical style

The greatest value of this engagingly written and richly documented volume isthat it covers for the first time some of the most formative influences in Bernsteinrsquostheater career not to mention the entertainment and Broadway worlds of the 1930sthrough the 1940s In chapters 1 and 2 Oja traces the work of Betty Comden andAdolph Green Bernsteinrsquos collaborators in On the Town back to their work withthe Revuers a nightclub and radio comedy team that put together some of the mostinventive (and hilarious) musical and theatrical work of their time Not only werethey inventive in their comedy however they were active in their politics and one

1 Nigel Simeone West Side Story (Farnham Ashgate 2009) Elizabeth A Wells West Side StoryCultural Perspectives on an American Musical (Lanham MD Scarecrow Press 2011) Nigel SimeoneThe Leonard Bernstein Letters (New Haven CT Yale University Press 2013) Helen Smith Therersquosa Place for Us The Musical Theatre Works of Leonard Bernstein (Farnham Ashgate 2011) AliciaKopfstein-Penk Leonard Bernstein and His Young Peoplersquos Concerts (Lanham MD Rowman andLittlefield 2013) Paul R Laird and Hsin Lin Leonard Bernstein A Research and Information Guide2nd ed (New York Routledge 2015)

httpswwwcambridgeorgcoreterms httpsdoiorg101017S1752196317000116Downloaded from httpswwwcambridgeorgcore University of Florida on 30 May 2017 at 232815 subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use available at