Advanced Creating the Musical (355-0-20)

Topic

Composer as the Dramatist

Instructors

Masi Asare

Meeting Info

Wirtz 235 Seminar Room: Wed 1:00PM - 3:50PM

Overview of class

In the creation of a new musical, the composer is as much a dramatist as the lyricist or bookwriter, and the music must have dramatic integrity that is equal to and aligned with that of the show's text. In this course we will study several leading musical theatre composers who have approached the work of being a "playwright in music" in differing ways; we will then apply techniques from these artists' work to our own practice as musical theatre composers. Artists studied may include Anaïs Mitchell, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeanine Tesori, Jonathan Larson, Elizabeth Swados, William Finn, Stephen Flaherty, Stephen Sondheim, and Richard Rodgers. Students will analyze the musical-dramaturgical composition techniques utilized by these composers and complete music composition assignments inspired by their methods. We will workshop the submitted composition assignments together in class. This course equips students to command a range of approaches for conveying story in music, to articulate their goals as composer-dramatists in creative team meetings, and to make strong, story-driven choices in service of one's individual compositional style.

Registration Requirements

Theatre 255 or comparable coursework is strongly recommended as a prerequisite. Email the professor at masi.asare@northwestern.edu for a permission number.

Class Attributes

SoC Humanities and Fine Arts Distro