Abstract

The Oxford Handbook of The American Musical offers new and cutting-edge essays on the most important and compelling issues and topics in the growing, interdisciplinary field of musical-theater and film-musical studies. Taking the form of a "keywords" book, it introduces readers to the concepts and terms that define the history of the musical as a genre and that offer ways to reflect on the specific creative choices that shape musicals and their performance on stage and screen. The handbook offers a cross-section of essays written by leading experts in the field, organized within broad conceptual groups, which together capture the breadth, direction, and tone of musicals studies today.

Orchestration in musicals is an area that has received little attention. In this chapter I consider the orchestrator’s role in crafting the distinctive Broadway “sound,” from the work of composer Victor Herbert—one of the last to orchestrate his own material—to orchestrators such as Frank Saddler, Robert Russell Bennett, Hans Spialek and Don Walker, who scored many classic musicals. Finally, I consider several related matters: copyright, union agreements, amplification, the virtual orchestra, and actor-musicianship, all of which have influenced the sound of the Broadway show.