Musical Theater Flashcards
Book Musical:
The. most traditional musical, this has a strong story which is driven by the songs. The story can be new or an adaptation.
Concept Musical:
A musical where the message is moRe important than the story, for example ‘A Chorus Line’, which is constructed from various stories dancers taking part in an audition. They can also be called booklets musicals.
Jukebox Musical:
A musical using songs from one band or group, where the story is constructed around these songs.
Who writes the musical?
Composer: Music - the score
Librettist and/or book writer: Lyrics, dialogue, story - the libretto
Famous Musical Composers and Librettists:
-Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Leonard Bernstein. Richard Rogers, Oscar Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, Lin Manuel-Miranada
Key roles of a team putting a musical theatre production:
- choreographer
- musical director
- director
- designer (costume, lighting, scenic, sound)
- producer
- front of house
- actors
- dancers
- stage manager
- publicity team
How much does it cost to put on a musical?
A broadway musical can cost up to $700,000 per week to run.
‘Les Miserables’ at the 02 arena cost £2 million per day. Ticket sales generated £1.3 million per show resulting in another showing put on.
Lion King has grossed approximately $1.6 billion on Broadway.
Dictation:
Dictation is the ability to hear a piece of music and quickly plait back or write down the notes of the melody. It helps us by strengthening our understanding of how music is formed including rhythm and melody shape.
Inner Monologue:
A character may express their inner thoughts directly to the audience, sentiments which the other characters on stage do not hear.
Emotional Climax
When characters reach a point in the drama where they can’t help but explode but explode with feelings of love or success or simply the joy of life, an emotional climax serves to amplify these emotions to a level above mere words. This allows the audience to share the characters’ passion and excitement.
“I am” songs:
characters express freely about how they feel at the moment. Sometimes characters discover something about themselves. “I am” songs describe a present state.
“I want” songs:
suggests a course of action for the future
exposition songs:
Inform the audience about what has happened prior to the play and what has brought the characters to this particular point in the action. They also may preview the themes of the play.
conflict songs:
At the heart of every drama lies conflict. Some of the most exciting numbers in musicals involve conflict songs when characters struggle to attain differing goals.
narration songs:
Characters describe events that we otherwise do not see.
summary songs:
Similar to narration songs, summary songs compress lengthy amounts of time into one number.
ballads:
usually slow, romantic and reflective
comedy songs:
which are funny, so the lyrics are very important
production numbers:
involve the full company and are used to show major changes in location or plot, and often open and close acts
rhythm songs:
are driven by energetic rhythm patterns
a note:
a single sound with a certain pitch and rhythm
What is a melody?
When a number of differently pitched musical notes have been put into a sequence, a melody is formed.
Solo vocalists use melody when they sing the main/tune of a song. (i.e. it is the bit that you find yourself singing when your favourite songs come on). Your melody should aim to use mostly notes from your chords to ensure it sounds nice with your chords. As a focus point you should focus on pitch only ensuring that is singable (e.g. don’t suddenly jump two octaves).
Composing your melodies:
step 1: what notes are available for you to use?
Only use three notes of the chord underneath - you an repeat a pitch multiple times, but make sure it’s got movement as well.
Does your text suggest a direction the melody should move in? Flight? Falling? Heavens? Earth? etc.
step 2: ABAC structure - line 3=line 1 or 5+6=1+2
Once you’ve written line 1, move those notes across to line 3
Remember: you can change the melody slightly (to fit with the words) but it should be 95% the same
step 3: finishing the melody
Your melody shouldn’t leap around too much it needs to be nice to sing
What note finished line 1? What note in the next chord is near to that note? That note could be the first note of line 2s melody
