Wicked: A New Musical

Most soundtrack scores are NOT suitable as piano accompaniment because they contain the vocal melody in the right hand, which no reasonable pianist would ever do to any vocalist they liked! There are two scores available for Wicked with confusing titles "Piano/Vocal Arrangement" and "Vocal Selections. This book, "Vocal Selections" is what you want if you want to accompany a vocalist. The arrangements are beautiful, basically they are reductions of the full orchestra score. I feel the full magic of Stephen Schwartz's incredible musical vocabulary when I play them and never seem to get bored of them. As a previous reviewer, I'm not pleased with the editing of "Dancing Through Life", in which they've taken out several key sections that move the story line or accommodate a dance sequence (Glinda gets Boq to invite Nessarose, Glinda gives Elphaba the black hat,...). Although not part of the song itself, they contain wonderful themes. But I can't disagree that such editing is consistent with the notion of providing a score that might be performed as a soloist or duet. The piano arrangement of "For Good" is particularly beautiful, particularly if you can play it with an synth bell-like piano (I think of such patches as Yamaga DX-7 piano as that was the original source of these type of sounds; think Whitney Houston's "Greatest Gift of All".) These arrangements are NOT particularly easy to play, nor sight read. I noticed that several of them contain 5-note right hand chords (a first for me) and although all these chords allow for fairly natural hand positions, it's tough to get used to. Be aware that many of the chords I've encountered are much easier to play if you let your thumb play two notes although there are no notations for that. In conclusion, I HIGHLY recommend this book. It's probably the best score I've ever purchased and playing thru it is like a lesson from the master.

This is not a beginner piano book. These compositions are hard to play, even for advanced piano players. But the arrangements are beautifully done. If you loved the musical and love to sing along with the soundtrack, this is the next step. Beware though, what is sung on the soundtrack may not be the exact way it is in the book. Don't expect Idina Menzel's performance to match the accompaniment perfectly. There may be times when you have to follow the written notes to allow the song to sound the way it is supposed to. Again, this book was made to give what the whole orchestral effect would be solely to the piano, so there are complex parts in each song. Do not expect to be able to play these songs if you don't have plenty of piano experience. The accompanist who worked with me had trouble and she has been giving piano lessons and playing for well over 40 years. It is worth the money if you are looking for an advanced version of the musical Wicked to sing or perform. There is another book that has a much simpler accompaniment along with the songs. If you are looking for a heightened performance quality, this is the book for you.

Although the accompaniments are hard to play - they match the music in the actual show so if you are looking for a challenge this is the way to go.

I ordered this music book after reading the real book and hearing reviews of the musical. Although I haven't yet seen the musical the songs contained in this book are excellent. I am very satisfied with this book. Unlike many "Vocal Selections" books I've come across, the arrangments of this are wonderful and sometimes challenging. Please note, these are NOT unplayable as some may have suggested. Once again, I am very satisfied with this book...5 stars on the product. Another note, I ordered this product when it was out of stock. It seemed like it took forever to come. My advice is to order this seperately if it is out of stock (I ordered 3 other music books, all in stock); I also used the budget shipping...everything came together in one shipment. So it took a little time to come. My little mistake, but just a heads up if you are eager to receive your orders.

This version of the Wicked Songbook is the one that DOES NOT have the melody interpolated throughout the piano part-- it is meant as a "vocal line with piano accompaniment" version. It is described by Stephen Schwartz in his forward to the book as being "essentially a reduction of what is played by the show orchestra, edited so that it is playable by one person with two hands and ten fingers."The songs have been adapted so that they may be sung out of the context of the show, with longer instrumental sections, chorus parts, and other such material being trimmed out in most cases. Though this gave me pause at first, I am learning that it really serves the material in this sense, making the music perfect for performing on its own, out of the story-driven context of the show. (Some cuts include the 'We Deserve Each Other' section of "Dancing Through Life", and the 'Who's that Mage...' counterpoint in "One Short Day")All the favorite songs appear here, from "The Wizard and I", to "Dancing Through Life" and even an excerpt from "Thank Goodness" entitled "I Couldn't Be Happier". There have even been some small additions to the songs to make them work better for solo performance-- I love the new added verse in "No One Mourns the Wicked", for example. It makes for exciting rediscoveries of these already familiar pieces.The arrangements are challenging, yes, and except for in one case all the songs appear in their original show keys (which means, e.g., that "Defying Gravity" is in Db, "One Short Day" is in F#, etc, but are well worth the effort-- both those songs sound amazing. "For Good" has been taken down a half step and appears in the book in C major). For those trying to compare this book to the P/V/G (with melody) version, I would say there is NOT a huge difference in degree of difficulty between the two books.The wonderful result of this effort is that the arrangements are SO true to the score. It's really encouraging that Hal Leonard is starting to let composers publish more accurate and exciting versions of their work, and that what we get in the vocal selections is not some cheap simplified thing that sounds nothing like the nuanced and complex score but instead is actually rich and fantastic and interesting. These Vocal Selections are without a doubt some of the best I've seen produced. Huge congrats to Stephen Schwartz for getting out the music in such a way that the core of the score really is still intact and ensuring that the great songs from this show will be performed for a very long time. Just Amazing.