Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats is championed as the first true megamusical, a subgenre of musical theatre known for its extravagant staging, numerous ensembles, and all-encompassing themes such as love, revenge, and the human condition. This essay seeks to explore how songs from megamusicals explore the psychology of their characters and how said psychology influences and advances the narrative of their respective musicals. Les Misérables is a 1980 pop-opera musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name, with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg. In this essay, however, the lyrics analysed will be Herbert Kretzmer’s English translation of ‘What Have I Done?’ and ‘Javert’s Suicide’, as these songs represent the moral crossroads the rivals find …show more content…
Both of these musicals explore themes in accordance with conventions of the megamusical and contain non-diegetic scores. (Neumeyer, 2009) This essay will focus on Wicked’s Act I’s closing number, ‘Defying Gravity’, as it is the most poignant turning point in the story. By referencing both music theory and the five stages of grief, this essay will discuss the ways in which the three songs chosen as case studies play a role in moving forward the action and narrative within their respective musicals. Jean Valjean and Javert’s dynamic in Les Misérables is not that of a traditional protagonist and antagonist, as rather than a simple cat-and-mouse game, there exists an undercurrent of kinship between the characters. Valjean is an ex-convict who is moved by hefty themes that characterize the megamusical genre— religion, redemption, love, and, most importantly, forgiveness. Javert, on the other hand, is an inspector unable to see the world for all its nuances. Both characters have a song in which they process the second chance at life they have been granted: For Valjean, it is his ‘What Have I Done?’ soliloquy and, for Javert, it is ‘Javert’s …show more content…
Therefore, Glinda’s complete lack of faith is a reflection of the deep indoctrination she suffered during Oz’s authoritarian regime. (Comstock, 2024) Additionally, this line is sung in a crotchet triple-based melody, which reflects Glinda’s frantic state and disrupts the resolute and serene tune Elphaba has established as the chorus (MusicHelpGuy, 2020). Thus, this line indicates that Glinda is still in the bargaining stage. The characters’ sarcastic repetition of the sentiment ‘I hope you’re happy’ back at the beginning of the song makes the line’s reprise in the penultimate section of the song bittersweet. This callback to the beginning of the song includes the same homophonic chordal music, only the chord stabs are replaced by a crescendo, as anger has left way to a melancholy and a fervent wish. Ibid. Such a stark change in tone serves to denote how poignant Elphaba and Glinda’s last words to each other are. The phrase ‘I hope you’re happy in the end, /My friend’, after all, is a layered
In 1940, Messiaen was called up to serve in the army as a hospital orderly, but was soon captured by the Germans and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp. Here, suffering from food deprivation and extreme cold, he had the idea of composing a piece for the End of Time. There were four musicians on the camp – himself (a pianist), a violinist, a cellist and a clarinettist – and so he wrote a quartet. Performers of the work need to consider the circumstances under which the piece was composed and also the reaction it created at the first performance of it. This was in front of the entire prison camp in January 1941 where, says Messiaen, ‘never have I been listened to with such attention and understanding.’
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were both writers and producers in the theatre, but, their collaborative venture in the 1940’s introduced a new era of musical theatre. First, they wrote the first musical in which every element: music, lyrics, narrative, and even dance contributed to telling the story, each part blending and woven into the whole. Their new idea was a huge sensation with audiences, and brought with it, new recordings of shows with albums and records to follow and revival productions around the world. The duo changed the fate of musical theatre practically overnight, but, it couldn’t have been done without the projects, big or small, that got them there, their
If you don't think this is romantic, consider that Jonathan Larson's sensational musical is inspired by Puccini's opera "La Boheme," in which the lovers Mimi and Rodolfo are tragically separated by her death from tuberculosis. Different age, different plague. Larson has updated Puccini's end-of-19th-century Left Bank bohemians to end-of-20th-century struggling artists in New York's East Village. His rousing, moving, scathingly funny show, performed by a cast of youthful unknowns with explosive talent and staggering energy, has brought a shocking jolt of creative juice to Broadway.
Horowitz, Mark Eden. "The Craft Of Making Art: The Creative Processes Of Eight Musical Theatre Songwriters." Studies In Musical Theatre 7.2 (2013): 261-283.Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Ever heard of a story that sings of the “Angel of Music” and the “Phantom of the Opera”? A tale that once you have listened to the sweet melody that you will realized that you've pasted the “Point of No Return”? This love triangle has captivated multitudes ever since the 1910 original Phantom of the Opera was published in France by Monsieur Leroux, although most story lovers recall the musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber or the motion picture adaption. Although this story has been entertaining people for over a century, in this new era have prerecorded voices and movements begun to overshadow the talented performers of live theater? Although “The lavish screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera (2005) only deepened the damage” of the dislike of musicals made into film “with non-stars in the leads and an unimaginative production,”(Musical),which version, the live performance or the film, makes the story more attractive? To answer these questions, permit this essay to analyze two methods of storytelling: 2011 live performance Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall and the 2005 film, and decide if music and story lovers everywhere have too “turned from true beauty”.
Song lyrics have set off a great generation of our leisure time than reading poetic devices, therefore song lyrics are better than poetic devices. Song lyrics have dropped numerous lines that attach to us now a days and make us listen to the line over and over unlike poetic devices. Song Lyrics have so much meaning by word choice and by relations.”Mr. Rager” by Kid Cudi, is about people fed up with society and plan on taking a journey. “Dreams” by Edgar Allen Poe, is about a man who dreams of a greater life. Mr. Rager, the song by Scott Cudi, has a better meaning than Dreaming, the poem by Edgar Allen Poe, by personification, allusion, and symbolism.
Using metaphors that bring every word to life, Harper shares remorse with the reader as he describes the expectation of three Idols in the African American community through a more relatable form that is music. As the reader you place yourself on a train which as
For centuries, writers of both poetry and prose have sought to entertain and educate their readers as well as evoke specific emotions by detailing events from the human experience to which they can relate. Similarly, composers have sought to do the same albeit through the combination of music and lyrics. In his 1982 release, “Goodnight Saigon,” singer/songwriter Billy Joel, through the use of sound, imagery, symbolism and the juxtaposition of opposites, brings images of the Vietnam War to the forefront and in so doing, provides his audience with insight into the human experience.
Composers effectively reflect and communicate how universal human experiences can explicitly modify an individual’s understanding and acceptance of one’s sense of identity and maturation. Goldsworthy’s novel Maestro, Don McLean’s song ‘Vincent’ and Baz Luhrmann’s film Australia all inter-relate within the deeper realisation of the impact the appreciation of art, and the development of understanding the concept of love acting as a compelling emotion can create towards one’s self-image.
There is one universal language: the language of music. Music has a special quality and ability to bridge both social and cultural divides. A proposed theory by Dr. Gray, Founder and Director of National Musical Arts’ BioMusic Program; describes music has been around longer than human-beings have. Music is the one thing human beings from various backgrounds can relate to. Every living creature would agree. Music is heard everywhere not just among humans, but in nature as well, through the twitting of birds, winds blowing, the soft sound of raindrops against a windowpane, the ocean waves moving back and forth and the hum of the ocean rushing in a sea shell. There is no escaping it; music lives in and surrounds us steadily. While there are countless songs which confer social or cultural consciousness, this paper will analyze and address the dynamics of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes”, video. Stylistically, the paper will examine the artist point of view, the unique use of lyrical analysis and sound description in relation to its historical, social, political and/or cultural context. This essay will also trace the lyrical analysis and sound description of song and discuss how the elements (visually, sonically, and lyrically) interplay with the theme of immigration and/or violence.
The songs that I will be dedicating in this play are for the character Macbeth. He is the most unique entity who is constantly changing his personality and developing more evil traits. These songs will represent all of the Macbeth’s major characteristics and the events that led to demonstrating and revealing what kind of person he is. Every crime he committed had a big consequence on his conscience. The lyrics or the mood of the song will, in some way, describe Macbeth and his behavior in this play.
Lloyd Webber’s widely regarded masterpiece Phantom Of The Opera uses key motifs and themes throughout the musical to establish its characters and scenes in an effective manner. Throughout the production the motifs, themes and songs all develop to reflect the changes their respective characters undergo. This is particularly evident when analysing The Phantom, his motifs and songs, and how they develop throughout the story.
In the tremendous play of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Shakespeare’s ways engages the audience straight away. The astounding methods he uses hooks the audience into the play and allows them to read on, wondering what will happen. The tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet, as mentioned in the prologue, sets a variety of themes throughout Act 1 Scene 5. Many of the recognisable themes are: youth and age, revenge, forbidden love, fate, action and hate. The main idea of the play is a feud that had been going on between two families, The ‘Montagues and Capulets’, the son of the Montagues and the daughter of the Capulets fall in love and the story tells us how tragic, death, happiness and revenge find them throughout the play.
A life changing journey is taken as Jean Valjean, Cosette and Marius feel the emotion of love and learn to cope with its effects. Each character soon realizes that the effects of love are very powerful. Happiness, self-confidence, and depression are all found during the enduring journey. Studies have proven that, “...without love we die...” (B). Jean Valjean, Cosette, and Marius realize that they can not survive without experiencing the profound effects of love.
In High Fidelity, Rob, the protagonist and narrator, says “I find myself worrying away at that stuff about pop music again, whether I like it because I’m unhappy, or whether I’m unhappy because I like it” (168). It is obvious to the reader that Rob has a very strong relationship to pop music but also that this relationship is not as simple as the either-or dichotomy he describes it as. At first, it is an obsession that is almost pathological; by the end, it is an aid to his relationships and his idea of who he is. Rob’s relationship to music helps us understand Rob as a character through the different ways he uses it to interact in his environment – either as a crutch inhibiting his growth or as a way to aid his self-development.