Wow, Karen!! That is an amazing amount of information!! I'm archiving your
message for the future.
Paul Sinasohn
-----Original Message-----
From: Karen Mercedes [mailto:dalila@R...]
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2000 10:51 AM
To: vocalist-temporary@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [vocalist-temporary] cabaret
Probably the reason "cabaret" is so strongly associated with women
(specifically _diseuses_) and gays is that the cabaret tradition came, in
large part, from the decadent night clubs of inter-war Berlin, and to a
lesser extent Paris and Vienna. An interesting article about the origins
and development of the German cabaret appears here:
http://www.nodanw.com/shows_c/cabaret_essay.htm
This said, one of the early great cabaret (or, more
accurately - and appropriately French - cafe-concert) singers of France
was the unquestionably "macho" Aristide Bruant, whose dozens of "hits" had
a very music-hall feel to them. Indeed, the French don't seem to have
adopted the Berlin "decadent diseuse" and "decadent homosexual MC"
conventions, and as a result the cafe-concert tradition was carried on
throughout the 20th Century by such male singer-songwriters as Jacques
Brel, Yves Montand, Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Becaud, and Georges
Moustaki. If I were you, I'd tap into this very rich vein of music/lyric
writing.
In the English-speaking world, the obvious source for cabaret songs is the
great Tom Lehrer. But there are also songs by Noel Coward that *aren't*
overwhelmingly "gay" - particularly some of his best comic numbers, like
"Don't Put your Daughter on the Stage, Mrs. Worthington" and "The Stately
Homes of England".
Yet another tradition comes from Russia, and is epitomized by the songs of
Vladimir Visotsky. Where German cabaret songs have a kind of beery
drunkenness to them, and French cafe-concert songs are redolent of bottles
of cheap Vin Ordinaire, the Russian cabaret songs reek of harsh Georgian
tobacco and high-octane vodka. These songs are to, a great extent,
political - ranging from dissent to dissidence (Visotsky's own songs are
those of dissent, not dissidence: he wanted, after all, to keep performing
in Moscow and Leningrad, not in a gulag in Siberia). In a gentler but
similar vein was singer-songwriter Bulat Okudjava. In a different vein,
the "establishment" singer-songwriter Leonid Utyosov, who was responsible
for founding Soviet jazz. Interestingly, Utyosov's songs, particularly
his novelty songs, are very similar to those of Aristide Bruant, who
predated him, career-wise, by about 50 years.
Yet another cabaret-like tradition that could provide some more songs for
you is Klezmer - sung in Yiddish, and usually performed with an
instrumental insemble that includes clarinet, fiddle, and other jazz and
folk instruments.
Of course, these are all popular music songs and writers - because, in
fact, cabaret and cafe-concert music are popular forms. But if you
prefer to look in the classical realm, the thing to do might be to find
cabaret songs by classical composers, songs that aren't obviously or
strongly associated with a female singer. This would mean avoiding
William Bolcom's four volumes of Cabaret songs, because they are so
clearly meant to be sung by Joan Morris (or another mezzo-soprano).
The themes for cabaret songs can be, as you mentioned, political
(particularly anti-establishment), but they can also be about sex, and
some of the best cabaret songs are very sexy (and even slightly obscene).
Kurt Weill's Berlin musical theatre works are definitely in the vein of
the cabaret music of that era, and you could do worse than to "lift" some
of the songs from DIE DREIGROSCHENOPER, AUFSTIEG UND FALL DER STADT
MAHAGONNY, HAPPY END, and JOHNNY JOHNSON - many of which are quite
"heterosexual masculine", and which would work quite well in a cabaret
setting (esp. the famous "Mackie-Messer" - i.e., "Mack the Knife").
Some lesser-known cabaret songs you might look at are:
Georg Kreisler: Cabaret Songs - Kreisler was an inter-war German composer
whose cabaret songs were exactly in the tradition you mention, or
political protest. There's an interesting article about him and his
cabaret songs at:
http://wwwstud.rz.uni-leipzig.de/~ges99jpw/kreisler/krcolin.htm
Benjamin Britten: Cabaret Songs, for voice and piano (texts by Auden)
Bohuslav Martinu: 3 chansons for the cabaret "Red Seven" (Tri sansony pro
Cervenou sedmu)
Erik Satie: Neuf chansons de cabaret et de caf' conc' (9 songs for cabaret
and cafe)
Kurt Weill: Propoganda Songs (1942); Langsamer Fox und Algi-Song
(1920-21) - all for voice and piano
Anton Bruckner: Cabaret Songs
Then there are:
Arnold Schoenberg: Brettl-Lieder (Cabaret songs) - these predate
Schoenberg's dabblings with 12-Tone and atonalism, and are quite
listenable and singable.
You might get some more ideas here:
http://www.cabaret.org/
http://www.nodanw.com/shows_c/cabaret_essay.htm
Karen Mercedes
=====
My NEIL SHICOFF Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Website:
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Es en balde, majo mio, que sigas hablando
porque hay cosas que contesto yo
siempre cantando:
Tra la la...
Por mas que preguntes tanto:
tra la la...
En mi no causas quebranto
ni yo he de salir de mi canto:
tra la la...
- Fernando Periquet
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