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Title: Rent by Jonathan Larson, Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation ISBN: 0-7935-7229-0 Publisher: Hal Leonard Pub. Date: 01 December, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.42 (19 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Doesn't do justice to Larson's wonderful score
Comment: Speaking as one of the biggest fans of "Rent" in the world, I can sincerely say that this collection of songs by Jonathan Larson simply does not work on the piano. The only song that seems to even remotely work is "Seasons of Love". I have a feeling that "Your Eyes" and "One Song, Glory" might work if played on the guitar, but since I'm not a guitarist, I'm not sure. / One doesn't realize how repetitious songs such as "Without You" are until one attempts to play them on a solo instrument. And the heavier rock songs like "Rent", "Out Tonight", and "What You Own" just sound stupid played on the piano. They're meant to be sung at the top of one's lungs, while accompanied by eletric guitars, keyboards, and drums. "Santa Fe" and "Halloween" have so many speaking parts in them, I wonder how on earth they ever made it in to the collection in the first place. "Take Me Or Leave Me" is a fabulous song, but it also sounds awful when played on the piano. / Secondly, many songs were left out of this book which I feel might have worked on the piano. I can see leaving out songs like "Light My Candle" ,"La Vie Boheme", and "Tango: Maureen"...they clearly wouldn't work on the piano. But where were some of the slower songs, such as "I Should Tell You"? / As I said before, I am a die-hard fan of "Rent" and I love every single song from it. However, this collection is an extremely awkward and empty representation of the music from "Rent". I was disappointed.
Rating: 4
Summary: generally good, although not complete
Comment: The selections in this collection match the selections featured on the RENT - selections album. Unfortunately, this means that many of the best songs in the full score are cut out (including: Light my Candle, La Vie Boheme... I Should Tell You, etc.), because they involve sung dialogue rather than "liftable" songs (songs that work out of context). Another drawback is that in general, songs written for a rock band (featuring extensive guitar) do not transcribe well to solo piano (guitar chords are included in this book, though). With this in mind, however, there is still a lot of good things about this collection. Larson's great ballad-esque songs, like "I'll cover you," "Your eyes," "Without You," and "Seasons of Love" work very well as piano/vocal. Other, more rock-sounding songs such as "Rent," "Out tonight," and "What you own" are still doable. As written they may sound a little awkward, but people who have had experience playing rock piano may find that with a little fiddling with the written notes a decent version can be produced. Even if you don't have experience playing rock piano, if you have more experience playing other Broadway music you can still learn a lot from working with these songs and trying out different things. Other songs included are: "Take me or Leave me," "Another Day," "Halloween," and "Santa Fe." "Take me" didn't transcribe well (esp. the vocal line) due to the bluesy pitches of the song, but the main riff and the chords are accurate. "Another day" contains both the rock elements and the balladesque elements, but the rock elements do not require many changes."Halloween" transcribes faithfully and works well; "Santa Fe" is transcribed well, but since much of it is spoken it is also a little odd. Overall this book is well done. The songs are all faithful in spirit to the album, although at times a pitch is written differently from the orig. broadway cast recording. The song where this is most apparent is in "Seasons of Love" where it appears that the two soloists' lines were mostly improvised. Although I usually prefer for a song's accompaniment to reflect the actual full score, in the case of these songs such accompaniment is repetitive and adding the vocal line (which is actually a very standard practice for vocal selections) was very welcome. RENT has become a part of the modern musical theater canon, and so this book has become necessary for any Broadway-lover's sheet music collection.
Rating: 4
Summary: You're What You Own...
Comment: The essence of Rent was absolutely captured in this vocal selections book, with great songs such as "One Song Glory", "Another Day/No Day But Today", and "Your Eyes", included, however I was disappointed to see that songs such as "Over the Moon", and my personal favorite "La Vie Boheme" were not included. Guitar chords above measures in the music make easy for a non-piano expert such as myself to play the songs and sing along. Now this is not an original broadway score, and some songs sound awkward on the piano, but once a person is set with just sitting down at the piano to have fun playing their favorite Rent songs, this book is perfect.
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Title: Rent by Jonathan Larson Estate ISBN: 0688154379 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 04 June, 1997 List Price(USD): $38.00 |
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Title:Rent (1996 Original Broadway Cast) ASIN: B000005ALT Publisher: Dreamworks Pub. Date: 27 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $32.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $29.49 |
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Title: Les Miserables by Todd Lowry, Alain Boubil, Claude-Michel Schonberg ISBN: 0881885770 Publisher: Hal Leonard Pub. Date: 01 July, 1987 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Miss Saigon by Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg ISBN: 0793500176 Publisher: Hal Leonard Pub. Date: 01 August, 1990 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Rent Easy Piano Selections by Jonathon Larson, Jonathan Larson ISBN: 0793579031 Publisher: Hal Leonard Pub. Date: June, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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