TOWARDS A POETICS OF A CONTEMPORARY BROADWAY SOUND: ORCHESTRATION TECHNIQUES IN ALAN MENKEN’S DISNEY MUSICALS AND THEIR APPLICATION TO A CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN MUSICAL
Date
2024-12
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Stellenbosch University
Abstract
This research project is concerned with orchestration techniques characteristic of the Disney Broadway musical and their applicability in a specific South African musical theatre context. Orchestrators and arrangers have been and are today constantly changing their approaches when orchestrating for Broadway musicals. The main reason for these changes in orchestration techniques is the decreasing number of players available in the Broadway orchestra pit resulting in diminished instrumentation. The inclusion and use of keyboards in the Broadway orchestra also has a seminal effect on the orchestration process, especially with regards to the economisation of instrumentalist numbers, and naturally with musical consequences. In this dissertation, ten musical numbers composed by Alan Menken, with diminished instrumentation from a variety of Broadway Disney musicals, and by different orchestrators, are explored, to uncover the orchestration strategies employed to ensure a ‘full’ orchestral sound, appropriate to the original soundtrack versions, while adhering to Broadway pit restrictions. A further exploration is made towards an understanding of how the orchestration approach adapts itself to serve each specific musical number and its function within the specific musical. This is done in accordance with a matrix by Jack Viertel, which narratologically taxonomises the various kinds of songs composed for musicals, as formulated in his book The Secret Life of the American Musical (2016). The findings of this exploration are finally applied to a newly constructed South African musical, Valentyn, to attest to their usefulness and validity.
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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.