The Sound of Broadway Music

Philip J. Lang, Jonathan Tunick - are names well known to musical theatre fans, but few people understand precisely what the orchestrator does. The Sound of Broadway Music is the first book ever written about these unsung stars of the Broadway musical whose work is so vital to each show's success. The book examines the careers of Broadway's major orchestrators and follows the song as it travels from the composer's piano to the orchestra pit. Steven Suskin has meticulously tracked down thousands of original orchestral scores, piecing together enigmatic notes and notations with long-forgotten documents and current interviews with dozens of composers, producers, conductors and arrangers. The information is separated into three main parts: a biographical section which gives a sense of the life and world of twelve major theatre orchestrators, as well as incorporating briefer sections on another thirty arrangers and conductors; a lively discussion of the art of orchestration, written for musical theatre enthusiasts (including those who do not read music); a biographical section which gives a sense of the life and world of twelve major theatre orchestrators, as well as incorporating briefer sections on another thirty arrangers and conductors; and an impressive show-by-show listing of more than six hundred musicals, in many cases including a song-by-song listing of precisely who orchestrated what along with relevant comments from people involved with the productions. Stocked with intriguing facts and juicy anecdotes, many of which have never before appeared in print, The Sound of Broadway Music brings fascinating and often surprising new insight into the world of musical theatre.

Steven Suskin is the author of numerous books on the Broadway musical, including Show Tunes, Second Act Trouble, and the Opening Night on Broadway series. He has written hundreds of columns and reviews for Playbill, Variety and other publications.

- Verse: On Orchestrators and Orchestration
- Refrain: Men of Notes (And a Few Women, Too)
- I: The Dreyfus System
- II: Twelve Major Orchestrators
- III: Ghosts and Other Helpers
- IV: Valued Members of the Music Department
- V: Comparative Orchestrators
- Bridge: The Art of Orchestration
- VI: From Song to Stage
- VII: The Arrangement
- VIII: Overture
- IX: Meet the Colors
- X: And Then Comes the Orchestrator
- XI: The Orchestration
- XII: Putting it Together
- XIII: "Sweeney in the Pit with Steve"
- Final Refrain: What's the Score?
- XIV: About the Listings
- XV: The Listings
- XVI: Additional Shows by Other Orchestrators
- Coda
- Chronology
- Acknowledgements
- Sources and Bibliography
- Index