What Gives Musical Theatre Musical Integrity? An Analysis of the Opening Scene of South Pacific

Perhaps no term is more associated with the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein than "the integrated musical."It has often been stated that with Oklahoma!(1943) a new integrity came to the art of Broadway: a true coordination of all its constituent elements.1 Many historians would disagree, arguing that such a musical existed as early as 1927 with Showboat.Others would say Rodgers himself had already approached this ideal by 1940 with Pal Joey.However this all may be, there remains a surprising, even shocking, gap in the way most scholars have approached the issue of "integrity" in the "integrated" musical.For if musical theatre is to make a unity of all its elements, musical and extra-musical, would it not make sense to ask on what basis it might achieve musical integrity?Rodgers, as early as 1939-several years before the "breakthrough" of Oklahoma!-was already insistent that his scores be seen as more than mere tuneful medleys, more than collections of isolated hits.More, even, than a cunning selection of separate musical numbers artfully designed to fit ever-changing dramatic situations.While Irving Berlin-even as late as Annie Get Your Gun (1946)-remained largely content with the concept of a show as a collection of effective independent numbers, each of which, hopefully, might also achieve extratheatrical success as a pop hit, Rodgers saw musical theatre, and a composer's responsibility towards it, differently.2 In "How to Write Music in No Easy Lessons: A Self-Interview," which appeared in the October 1939 issue of Theatre Arts, he asserted: "I write scores and not isolated song numbers; therefore the particular song in question must bear a family resemblance to the other musical materials in the piece." 3 Among the few scholars who have taken Rodgers at his word and have inquired into his works in terms of their structural integrity and large-scale musical coherence is Geoffrey Block. 4 For example, he dedicates eight pages in his 2003 study, Richard Rodgers, to how "family resemblances" can be found among the seemingly very divergent melodies of South Pacific.5 In that book, he points out Edward Green is a professor at Manhattan School of Music, composer-in-residence for the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company, and staff composer for Imagery Films.