Voicing Omnivorousness, Assembling the Omnivorous Voice: The American Musical Explored

Abstract

This article focuses on the notion of cultural omnivorousness, as coined by Richard Peterson, to explore its various manifestations within the American musical, commonly known as the Broadway musical. Through two interconnected research questions, we explore how patterns of cultural omnivorousness are manifested within the American musical, contemporarily and in a historical perspective, and scrutinize what these omnivorous features demand from performers, more specifically, what it takes to perform what we name the omnivorous voice. Using the American musical as a site for exploration, the article aims to show that the omnivorousness is not only enjoyed by its audiences, but produced, brought about and enjoyed by its composers, producers and performers alike. Consequently, the article’s main argument is that the phenomenon of cultural omnivorousness not only concerns cultural consumption but is to be regarded as a matter of cultural production as well, manifested ultimately as specific artistic and embodied practices. The article conveys a theoretically informed discussion, drawing on works written within the fields of cultural sociology, musicology and voice studies, while incorporating illustrative references to specific recorded musical works and the vocal behaviours of named performers.

Cultivating ambiguities within higher music education – preparation for singers’ professional societal participation in opera conservatory and music theatre programs

“…Or to speak with de Beauvoir: Sammankonst could be seen as a positive example of how to stop contributing to the reinforcement of a community that builds on passive immanence as a norm. Throughout the collaborative project the students were given space and time to let old and new experiences collide and let ambiguous feelings about their situations emerge, which is stated as crucial when it comes to participation in aesthetic activities (Ferm Almqvist & Hentschel, 2022a;von Germeten 2022). For example, being forced to compose music and write text, put the musical theatre students in insecure situations where they had to make choices without knowing the consequences.…”

“…This view privileged opera singing solely, as more varied singing activities like chamber, pop, or choral singing were perceived as affecting the singing voice negatively. Although the present-day musical theatre profession has become more open towards performing more varied singing genres such as gospel, rock n'roll, pop, funk, world music, jazz, and rap, the singing ideal is still based on singing with a "legit voice" (von Germeten & Karlsen, 2022). 2 In contrast, research in the field of musical theatre research shows that it is crucial for American musical theatre artists to become "broad, hybrid and fragmented" or "omnivorous" singers (p.13), in order to be employable and successful in the profession.…”