Musical Monday: How do you listen to cast recordings?

(Originally posted on Minnesota Theater Love)

Hey everyone - welcome to August!!! I can barely believe that summer is closing down, the State Fair is around the corner, and I start tech week tonight on a show I've been co-directing/co-choreographing since the start of July!

Since it is a busy week for me, and the past few posts have been late, I thought I would do something different. Well, the other reason is that I have been obsessively listening to Something Rotten but don't want to write about it yet, and I still have a stack of nine or ten other cast recordings that are brand new to me sitting and waiting for me to unwrap. Even though I have had them since mid-July!!!

Which is the perfect reason to make this post. I have been collecting music since I was a kid. In fact I still have some cassettes from High School!! (the photo above is just a snapshot of my wall of music as all those boxes are full of CDs) So how do I listen to a new album? For the majority of my music, I just put it on and listen to it. I will look through the liner notes as I'm listening but rarely will I read the lyrics or commentary at that time. I will look at the lyrics if I have a question about them, or really want to quote them, or understand imagery. I also find the "notes" or artists comments to be really interesting when they explain their inspiration, or what they've been going through etc. And yes - I read the "thank you's" and the list of writers/musicians as well. That is just part of who I am.

Now, if the cd is a classical cd I will read the liner notes before I start listening to it. I want to understand the history of the piece, learn about the composer, the musicians/orchestra/singers, and get a good idea of what to expect because that will help me hear the work better. And I will typically have the lyrics out during the listen as well, especially if it is an opera and I need to follow along. There is a lot of study that goes along with my classical listening. (sidebar: I do also listen to quite a bit of world music [music not sung in English] and I will scan the liner notes to help get an understanding of it, but not really delve in like I do with other notes.)

Cast Recordings (show to the left) are such an unique thing. I deal with these in slightly different ways. The one thing that doesn't change it this. I will pull out the liner notes and flip through to look at the photos but I usually don't read them until I have listened to the recording at least once. I find it really fascinating to see how the story is being told via music. For example, when I first heard Bridges of Madison County, I had downloaded it from I-tunes. I had not opened the digital booklet and yet I knew what the story was. I could tell from the music and lyrics almost exactly what was happening on stage or with the characters. On the other side of the coin, when I first listened to the cd of Spring Awakening I had no idea what was happening. Even after reading the liner notes, and the lyrics I didn't really understand the show. Clearly there are some shows that are so complete they need to be seen on stage to understand. There are other shows where you can listen to the music and know what is happening.

Now, after I listen to the show once or twice, I will then pull out the liner notes and read the booklet. I read the synopsis, see what characters are singing what songs and follow the relationship between the songs and synopsis. That allows me to get a better understanding of how it is being translated onto the stage. I also read who the musicians are (mainly scanning to see if I know any of them), and I read the full cast list (for much the same reason). I guess that is part of my being a theatre junkie - when I see a show I will read all the cast profiles in the program, check out their websites, instagram, twitter, etc. While sitting in the theatre I will also look up to see how the lights are hung, if there is a cat walk, check out the spotlights, etc. True junkie fashion - I just can't get enough!!

So is this how most of you listen to Cast Recordings? Talk to your theatre friends and see if you all listen the same way.