57-965 Repertoire Analysis: Contemporary Musical Theater
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
Each week we will look at how musicals (examples: Wicked, Falsettos, The Color Purple, Waitress, Sweeney Todd, Hadestown, The Wiz, Fun Home, and others) communicate a story with choices made in orchestration, phrasing, time, harmony, melody, motivic development, and text setting. These elements (and many others) work together to shape how an audience experiences and understands a show. This music-analytical work will be supplemented by considerations of choreography, staging, costumes, casting, and other extra-musical choices that aid in how an audience takes a performance in. We will situate our work with the musical-as-genre alongside the styles that inform the distinct voices of each show, considering, for instance, how New Orleans jazz and blues are reflected in Hadestown, or how Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray use gospel traditions to sustain the narrative environment of The Color Purple. We will explore the correlations between how a show is consumed (live performance, audio recording, score study) and what is gleaned, connected, and understood; how does knowing around the immediate musical moment influence our experience and understanding of it? What is audible in the musical itself and what is inferred from larger-reaching discussions? ...what of this knowledge "matters" (and who decides)? Through listening, annotation, performance, and discussion, students will develop methods of close "reading" and analysis within the genre. They will hone skills to communicate their understanding of the musical moment, the piece, and large arcs across a whole show, and transfer their interpretation into performance and creative practice. Students will be assessed through regular analytical, creative, and response-based assignments, as well as in-class discussions and a final project or paper.
Prerequisites: none listed
Offered: Fall 2025
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