Music Theory for Musical Theatre - by John Bell & Steven R Chicurel (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Music Theory for Musical Theatre is a textbook designed to demystify music theory and analysis to make it more accessible to the musical theatre student. It aims to equip the student with a basic skill set that he or she can directly apply to the art form. John Bell and Steven R. Chicurel explore how musical theatre composers use basic principles of music theory to help illuminate characters and tell stories, while helping the student understand the form, structure, and dramatic power of musical theatre repertoire.

The material is presented in three parts. Part I breaks down key concepts in the rudiments of music theory, including melody, rhythm, harmony, and form, while using excerpts from musical theatre literature to illustrate these ideas. Part II offers full analyses of musical theatre songs, presenting a model for singing actors on how to use musical analysis as an aid in performance. The workbook in Part III provides hands-on drills and exercises that the reader can use to facilitate skill development of the ideas presented in part one. Published with a lay-flat binding for easy use in the classroom and concluding with a glossary that reinforces important terminology, this textbook fills a long-neglected need in musical theatre study that will be beneficial to beginning and advanced students alike.

Review Quotes

"A new, fresh and practical approach to this dreaded-by-many discipline....John Bell and Steven R. Chicurel offer a pragmatic and gestalt-like presentation of standard music theory in the context of musical theatre repertoire." --Robert Edwin, American Music Teacher

"The authors should be commended for securing the rights to include these useful examples.... A useful starting point for understanding harmonic thought in musical theatre." --Studies In Musical Theatre

About the Author

John Bell is the Chair of the Performing and Fine Arts Department at DeSales University.

Steven R. Chicurel is the Chair of the Theatre Department at The University of Central Florida.