Search - L. Frank Baum, Frederic Chapin, Louis F. Gottschalk :: Before the Rainbow : The Original Music of Oz

Rebuilding the Lost Oz Before Judy Garland sang Over the Rainbow, Oz had inspired over 200 songs. This CD provides an overview of the rich early musical legacy of Oz. Most of the original music of Oz is associated with Baums stage works: The Wizard of Oz (1902), The Woggle-Bug (1905), and The Tik-Tok Man of Oz (1913). In the absence of published vocal scores, music was gathered in the form of published songs, piano or orchestral medley arrangements, and manuscripts. For the Wizard suite, I drew upon Tietjens own manuscript indications and a 1902 orchestral selection by Hilding Anderson, who would later orchestrate for Gershwin shows. The Tik-Tok Man selection is a 1913 orchestral arrangement by J. Bodewalt Lampe, who, like Gottschalk, was a pioneering film composer. From these scores, it was a matter of laying down the parts track by track; fortunately, advances in digital sampling synthesis have allowed me to record this music within a reasonable budget without sounding like Switched-on-Baum. The scores and parts are available for performance. The Cowardly Lions share of this collaboration was done before David and I met, through hours of on-line conversation. The audience for The Wizard of Oz in 1902 largely arrived in horse drawn carriages to see the first stage show in history with electrically controlled lighting. For this project to have been coordinated through the internet and realized digitally is a wonder worthy of Baums imagination.