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#56205 02/12/02 02:48 AM
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I believe, FB, 'libretto' is more often used for the words of an opera. I think that in the case of a B'way musical, they generally call it the 'book'. Nice simple Anglo-Saxon term.


#56206 02/12/02 03:12 AM
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Bob, your idea makes sense to me. I have no doubt that "book" is proper, and would have thought that "libretto" is not -- but on googling, I do find "Broadway" and "libretto" used together quite often.

Scanning through the sites, my sense is that "libretto" is used to mean the detailed story-line of a musical, and "lyrics" to mean the specific words sung when the characters break into song. For example, "In 1948 Loesser was approached by fledgling Broadway producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin to write music and lyrics to George Abbott's libretto for an adaptation of the classic Brandon Thomas play Charley's Aunt." But I am very tentative on this. Comments?


#56207 02/12/02 04:06 AM
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As a singer/songwriter and musical-theatre performer I've always used and heard lyrics except when referring to a specific word, phrase, or line, in which case we might say, "I'm forgetting the lyric," "What's that lyric?", "Let's change that lyric," something akin to the way an actor might say "my lines" when referring to a large portion of a script, but "I dropped a line" or "I love that line" when referring to one spot or, well, one line. Of course, on the published sheet music it usually reads Music by: and Words by: (a distended period here?...I've never had to place a period after a colon before, how's that work? )


#56208 02/12/02 11:08 AM
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I've never had to place a period after a colon before, how's that work?

While holding the shift key down press the colon/semi-colon key, then release the shift key and press the period/greater-than key.

Or either that or you could interpolate a long parenthetical phrase and put the period after the close paren, one.


#56209 02/12/02 01:23 PM
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So, then, the key to this is that a period is greater than a colon?


#56210 02/12/02 02:09 PM
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a period is greater than a colon?

It's more efficient; it accomplishes more with less.


#56211 02/12/02 02:11 PM
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While holding the shift key down press the colon/semi-colon key, then release the shift key and press the period/greater-than key.

How nice of you Faldage to share your knowledge of technique with others. You inspire me to repay you in kind.

Put your index finger on that key with the brackets pointing to the right...now, mash. Next, type out S-M-I-L-,.. oh, you know how to do that? Silly me, I thought you had forgotten. Please ignore this post.




#56212 02/12/02 02:13 PM
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Put your index finger on that key with the brackets pointing to the right...now, mash.

I don't use emoticons!


#56213 02/12/02 02:19 PM
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Keiva writes;

Scanning through the sites, my sense is that "libretto" is used to mean the detailed story-line of a musical, and "lyrics" to mean the specific words sung when the characters break into song. For example, "In 1948 Loesser was approached by fledgling Broadway producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin to write music and lyrics to George Abbott's libretto for an adaptation of the classic Brandon Thomas play Charley's Aunt." But I am very tentative on this. Comments?

If the lyric is the words of a song, as a melody is the collective notes of one, then a libretto would have lyrics and melodies because it's a collection of songs in the plural. A lyric from the libretto would be a single song from the collection.

Check the dictionaries. There's precedent there for using lyric as the words of a song, though we seem to agree here that most say lyrics for words of a single song.

Collapsing here,
OrB~





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a libretto ... it's a collection of songs

My thought -- unsure of this -- is that the "libretto" includes the words spoken, as well as the words sung.


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