Songbook
FAQs
I'd like to hear your
songs. Is there
a CD I can buy?
No, there's no CD, however
you can hear
live recordings of the songs on my
Podcast
page (free!), and you can also hear clips from the songs on my
Songclips page (also free!).
I'd
like to sing one of your songs
from the songbook in a transposed key. Do you offer transpositions?
and/or
I'd like to purchase the
sheet music for one of the songs in the book. Is that possible?
Yes. Please address your
inquiries for
transpositions/sheet music to
songbook@jeffblumenkrantz.com.
Sheet music for individual
songs costs $5, plus $.50 for each additional page after the first
five, i.e. "Love Is Not All," at four pages, would be $5. "Toll," at
ten pages, would be $7.50.
Transpositions
cost $7.50, plus $1 for each additional page after the first five, i.e.
"Love Is Not All," at four pages, would be $7.50. "Toll," at
ten pages, would be $12.50.
Can't you just send me a pdf of one of your songs?
No, I don't sell pdfs. I only sell hard copies. You should check
newmusicaltheatre.com where some of my songs are available in pdf form.
I'd like to order multiple copies of the songbook. How do I go about
this?
Go ahead and order online. The "music store" should allow you to order multiple copies and charge you accordingly.
I don't live in the US. Can I still order your songbook?
Of course! Go
ahead and place your order online on the "songbook" page. The shipping
rates may vary, country to country, but it will be revealed before you
are required to pay.
I'd like to sing one of your songs for
an audition or include it in my cabaret show. Is that OK?
Absolutely! I'm thrilled!
Enjoy, and
break a leg.
I'd like to include one of your songs on my CD. Is that OK?
Absolutely! I'm thrilled!
My song, like
all the others on your recording, would be subject to standard royalty
fees. You can contact
The
Harry Fox Agency to pay those fees. However, if yours is the
first recording of the song, you
will need to secure permission and a mechanical
license. All inquiries regarding recording issues should be addressed
to
songbook@jeffblumenkrantz.com.
No. We are
no longer
working on The Other
Franklin.
And unfortunately, the rest of the score will not be made available.
Is that supposed to be an
A Flat on
the word "you" on page 75, measure 9, in the song "My Book?"
Yikes! Yes, and I have Prof. John Koch of Illinois State University to
thank for finding this oversight. If anyone else finds one,
let
me know and I'll give you credit too! :-)
Yikes again! Yes, and I
have the
wonderful singer Rebecca Luker to thank for finding this oversight. I'm
completely horrified, and I hope Edna isn't getting too dizzy in her
grave. Nor! Nor!
In "Toll," under the lyric "think they could
chat for
a minute or two,"
should that
F# change to an F natural on the third beat in the piano right hand?
Yikes yet again! This
time,
Geoffrey
Castles gets the credit
for calling this to my attention. Thanks, Geoff! (Specifically, it's
the 4th measure on page 114.)
Could you discuss the
origin of the
songs in the songbook?
ALL
BECAUSE OF YOU
Written for the Broadway
production of Urban
Cowboy. Aunt Corene has
waited up all night for Bud, her nephew, to arrive. He was expected for
dinner the night before. Now it’s morning, and she’s pissed! In the
original version, there was dialogue between Corene and Bud
interspersed throughout the song, but for the purposes of the songbook,
I revised it as a solo.
ANOTHER
GUY
Also written for the
Broadway
production of Urban
Cowboy.
Sissy, a tough, young woman regales her friend/coworker with stories of
her failed relationships.
DEPARTURE
A musical setting of a
poem by Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet,
Edna
St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950). As printed, the last stanza
of
"Departure" is shown in italics, so I imagine the song as the stream of
consciousness reflection of a New England girl at the turn of the
century. Then, the chiming of the clock is what brings her back to
reality
(the italics).
Written for (and
subsequently cut from)
Hush. Miles
Berlin is a
neurotic,
young theatre composer, and this song reveals his
yearning to be in a relationship.
I WON'T MIND
Written for the unfinished
musical, The Other
Franklin. Lizzie is wife
to William Franklin, who is Benjamin Franklin’s son. After years of
desperately wanting a child, becoming pregnant and ultimately
miscarrying, she learns that she will never bear a child. She sings the
song to her godson (her best friends’ newborn) in the nursery, while
everyone else is in the next room celebrating the christening. Recorded
by Audra McDonald on her CD, How
Glory Goes.
I'M FREE
Written for the one-act
musical, Precious
Little Jewel, based on the
Kate Chopin short story, “The Story of an Hour.” In turn of the century
New Orleans, Louise has just found out that her husband has been killed
in a train crash. After her initial response of shock and despair, she
begins to recall moments from her stifling marriage and ultimately
rejoices in
her newfound freedom.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
A little pop song written
for an ex.
(Note: this song was originally delivered via voicemail, hence the line
“Hope this comes out clear.”)
IT'LL WORK FOR YOU
Written for Fits and Starts (an
unfinished/abandoned project). Ben, a Jewish
composer, has recently come out to his mother. This is her unique
response to that news.
LAMENT
Another
Millay
setting.
A mother tells her children that their father has died. Recorded by
Megan Mullally on her CD,
Big
as a
Berry.
LOVE IS NOT ALL
Another
Millay
setting. A
world-wise woman's reflection on the concept of love. (And, if you ask
me, a flirtation. If I were shooting the video, she would be in bed
with her lover, smoking a post-coital cigarette. Edna is spinning....)
Written for Fits and Starts.
Ben and his best
friend, Linc, go to their neighborhood gay bar to find dates for Ben.
Instead, they decimate everyone in sight.
"Moving Right Along" was
rewritten
as a women’s duet for Rebecca Luker’s American
Songbook Series Concert at Lincoln Center, February 2005.
MY BOOK
Written for the Audra
McDonald song
cycle,
The Seven Deadly
Sins,
commissioned by Carnegie Hall for her series of concerts there in June
2004.
Seven writers/teams were each assigned a sin to develop as a song. Mine
was Sloth. (You can listen to that concert on
npr.org.)
Another
Millay
setting for
a female singer. A woman questions her flawed choice for a partner.
Another
Millay
setting,
this time as a
duet. A couple tenderly reminisces about a special evening.
Another
Millay
setting for
a female singer. Another woman recalls moments from a past relationship.
Written for Fits and Starts.
Randy was Ben’s
girlfriend for a year until he came out of the closet a year ago.
She has transitioned (mostly) gracefully into being his best friend,
and she has been encouraging him to get in the dating pool, to no
avail. After his tirade about how undate-able the men in New York are,
she diagnoses his “filter problem” and launches into this song.
TIME DOES NOT BRING RELIEF
Another
Millay
setting
dealing with the process of recovering from a relationship which has
ended.
A song sung by a female
tollbooth
worker in love with one of her driver "customers." Written for an
unproduced revue which
explored themes of travel, people going places, movement, etc.
WALKING THE WRONG WAY
Lyrics by Libby Saines. A
self-contained cabaret-type song which explores a woman's experience in
an extramarital relationship with a younger man.
T
h a n k s
f o r a s k i n g !