What is a Musical?
https://musicals101.com/musical.htm
We are going to study the musical "West Side Story" by the composer Leonard Bernstein, which was first performed in 1957 in the USA.
So.....Who was Leonard Bernstein?
https://www.biography.com/musician/leonard-bernstein
Here is a synopsis of his musical, "West Side Story"
https://allmusicals.com/lyrics/westsidestory/synopsis.htm
Let's watch the video of the scene between the rival gangs of the Jets and the Sharks:
And now let's watch the scene of the dance at the gym, where Tony and Maria meet each other.
Questions for you: What is the relationship between the Jets and the Sharks? Do you think Tony and Maria's relationship can be successful? Can you think of any similar situations, in books, films, media or in real life?
What does the music sound like in each of these extracts? What does it tell us about the people in the scenes?
Discussion:
The Sharks are a gang from Puerto Rico. The music of Puerto Rico is very popular with teenagers today, especially artists like Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. Sometimes their music can be conflictive, especially because of the lyrics. Discuss.
TASK 2.
How does "West Side Story" compare with the original source, Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"?
Let's read this short summary of Shakespeare's play, which was written in 1597:
https://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/reading-romeo-and-juliet-summary.php
Romeo and Juliet has been set in many many forms; let's listen to a musical moment from Prokofiev's ballet score, written in 1935.
This scene, "Montagues and Capulets", is comparable in character to the "Jets and Sharks" scene we listened to previously. It actually takes place at the dance, where members of both families are present, and Romeo and Juliet will eventually meet.
Questions for you: How does this music sound different from the music we heard in the extract "Jets and Sharks"? Can you find any similarities?
Following her meeting with Romeo, on discovering his identity, Juliet returns to her room and reflects. Romeo enters Capulet's garden, walks underneath Juliet's balcony, and hears her:
https://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/what-s-name-that-which-we-call-rose
Meanwhile, in "West Side Story", Tony reflects upon Maria's name:
The French composer Charles Gounod wrote an opera about Romeo and Juliet which was premiered in Paris in 1867. In the scene in the garden under Juliet's balcony, Romeo waits for Juliet to appear:
Questions for you: How does the music sound in Tony's song, "Maria", and in Romeo's aria? How do you think the protagonist is feeling, and how does the music show that?
TASK 3.
What's in a name?
Juliet doesn't think that a name is important. Tony enjoys repeating Maria's name. Your name is a way of identifying yourself, and many characters in musicals have name songs in which they are presented. Let's listen to some name songs from some other famous musicals.
Here is "Alexander Hamilton" from the musical "Hamilton" (2015) - listen to the name around minute 1:18
(Trivia: The writer of "Hamilton", Lin-Manuel Miranda, received an honorary Latin Grammy alongside Luis Fonsi)
Two other very famous name songs appear in the British musical "Oliver" (about Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens), premiered in 1960.
In the first, "Oliver", the little boy is being scolded by the director of the workhouse (a home for poor children and orphans):
In the second song, "My Name", the villain (Bill Sykes) dares the children to speak his name:
"Strong men tremble when they hear it!
They've got cause enough to fear it!
It's much blacker than they smear it!
Nobody mentions...
My name!"
(For any Harry Potter fans out there, I would compare this last song to the fear of the wizards to speak the name of Lord Voldemort, to whom they refer as "You-know-who" or "He-who-must-not-be-named".)
To resume, you have now listened to four different name songs, "Maria", "Hamilton", "Oliver" and "My name".
Over to you: Create a song together in small groups, to describe the name or the characteristics of one person, or of your group. You can use free composition, or you can use a musical or rhythmic base. Here are examples of bases if you want to use one:
Further down this page, in section 6, you will find more examples of identities (racial, sexual...) and you can include these ideas in your compositions if you wish.
TASK 4.
Returning to West Side Story, here we have part of the lyrics to the song, "America", which is sung by the Puerto Rican girls, with some comments from the boys. The girls describe what they love about America, while the boys describe the negative things (in brackets).
Chorus:
I like to be in America
Okay by me in America
Everything free in America
(For a small fee in America)Okay by me in America
Everything free in America
Verse:
Buying on credit is so nice
(One look at us and they charge twice)
I have my own washing machine
(What will you have though to keep clean?)
Chorus:
Skyscrapers bloom in America
Cadillacs zoom in America
Industry boom in America
(Twelve in a room in America)
Let's watch the song here:
Here we have an arrangement of part of Bernstein's "America" from West Side Story, to play with some school instruments:
Here we have an accompaniment in a different key, and we can sing along using the words of the song above: America (accomp. for singing)
TASK 5.
Let's Dance!
Tony and Maria meet each other during the dance at the gym, where they are doing the ChaCha dance (we saw the video of them back in Task 1)
So now we are going to try a little ChaCha ourselves:
And a little more: ChaCha for Zumba
TASK 6.
Now we are going to take a closer look at a modern day musical called "Jagged Little Pill", created and premiered in 2018, using songs by Alanis Morisette taken from the album of the same name, released 25 years ago, such as "Ironic"
Alanis's songs have been described as autobiographical (she wrote songs about experiences in her own life), as she admits in this essay.
The musical describes a modern (fictional) family, with complex issues relating to prescription-drug dependency, depression, racial and sexual identity (to name a few).
In this video, Alanis Morisette performs her song "You Oughtta Know" alongside Demi Lovato. The song describes some questions regarding female relationship roles.
It is interesting to think about whether we ourselves can identify with any of the characters in the musical, or whether we can identify these characters with anybody that we know, either in real life or in another story we have heard. (For instance, we have already seen examples of problems raised by racial identity in the musical West Side Story)
Read about the story on www.jaggedlittlepill.com
In the following video, members of the cast from the musical perform the song "You Learn".
Find out more: Interview with Alanis
TASK 7.
What is a jukebox musical?
Find out here: https://theatrelinks.com/jukebox-musical/
Now, over to you...
Using two or three songs and (if you like) some editing software (for example, CoolEdit, Garage Band...), create a mini jukebox musical that tells a short story or scene. In class we will talk more about how to achieve this. See you there!
EVALUATION OF THIS UNIT:
The activities in class will be evaluated according to the students' participation and level of effort.
The students will also be able to leave an opinion regarding what they have learned in these classes, whether they have enjoyed themselves, and what kind of activities they would like to see in future music classes.
EXTRA:
Would you like to know more about the Musicals mentioned here? Search and listen:
"Oliver" by Lionel Bart (based on the story by Charles Dickens)
"West Side Story" by Leonard Bernstein
"Hamilton" by Lin-Manuel Miranda
"Jagged Little Pill" by Alanis Morisette
Other famous musicals include:
"Les Miserables" (based on the book by Victor Hugo)
"The Lion King" based on the Disney film
"Wicked" based on the wicked witch character from the Wizard of Oz
"Blood Brothers"
"Cats" by Andrew Lloyd Webber
"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (based on the Bible story of Joseph)
"Evita" (based on the story of Eva Perón)
The "LOVA" project offers the possibility to make a musical or an opera at your school. Take a look here: www.proyectolova.es
You can search for projects made by students like you.
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