Musical theatre styles

Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill

• Evokes Jazz

• using extended chords & Unprepared suspensions

• Speech singing style, syllabic

• Strophic form

• Harmonic progressions

Stephen Sondheim

• motifs, (Dies Irae)

• bitonal effects

• fragmenting

• imitating soundtrack

• use of tessitura singers

Richard Rodgers

• catchy melodies

• Use of dotted rhythms

• Strong melodies, rising falling triads

• Use of waltz

• chromaticism and augmented chords

• 'hot' performances

Claude-Michel Schonberg

• using an arpeggio quaver figure played over a stable rising conjunct bass line

• wordpainting

• simple structures

Jason Robert Brown

• fuses pop rock stylings with theatrical lyrics

• uses wide vocal ranges

• vocal lines often include internal rhymes as well as melodic phrases which are irregular