How to find Happy Music and Musician to Enjoy

Review by Jacob for Ragtime the Musical (Vocal Score) (Complete): Piano/Vocal (Vocal Score)
Rating:
I love Ragtime it is my favorite American musical right behind PARADE by Jason Robert Brown. I love having the full vocal score for this show…and the book is great. I beleive it has the complete script in it. Like how an operetta vocal score is set up with pages of music then the lines in between the numbers. Like the Sweeney Todd vocal score.

It’s n attractive looking book with a list of instrument doublings and a few black and white photos from the original broadway production. It has an appendix with the London playoff of Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc. and the original Broadway version of He wanted to say the the mini reprise of the theme from Journey On.

It is expertly arranged for Piano/Vocal from the composer’s copy rather than the orchestral score. It is arranged for piano with the occasional third line which contains either important solo instruments or another important accompaniment part.

Overall it’s a great book and I have no complaints.

Review by gladbook for Ragtime the Musical (Vocal Score) (Complete): Piano/Vocal (Vocal Score)
Rating:
The other review below (4/27/09) pretty well covered it; this score is nicely engraved and complete. It corrects a lot of mistakes found in the orchestral parts that Music Theatre International uses for its licensed productions. That can lead to some confusion when using this score in rehearsals, but nothing too major. It is almost identical to the engraved piano-vocal score MTI uses, but a little easier to read since it has been more fully edited. Similarly, it includes ALL of the dialogue between songs and over the underscoring, which is great for a rehearsal accompanist.

Probably my only criticism is that there are NO measure numbers anywhere in this score. None. This was the biggest hassle for me using this score in rehearsal. To write them in by hand, I had to compare this edition to the MTI piano-vocal score, because often there were added or dropped measures marked “32, 32A, 32B,” etc. Repeats sometimes are counted twice, sometimes not.

Also, since the “Harry Houdini” number was dropped after the Broadway production and eliminated from the licensed version, it has also been removed from this edition. This means all song numbers from Act 2 will be one number off from the conductor’s score and orchestra parts. Again, not a huge deal, but something to be aware of for anyone else planning to use this in rehearsal.

You will also not find any of the “alternate key” versions of songs in here. Like the other review said, the appendix does include the alternate reprises of Journey On and Buffalo Nickel, and the alternate ending (as heard on the Broadway cast album) of He Wanted to Say.