Musical theatre styles

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