MUS 31A Broadway Bound: The Craft of Composing Songs for Musical Theater Syllabus Fall 2017: Tuesday, Thursday 2:00 pm-3:30 pm Instructor: Professor Hampton office: Slosberg 235 office hours: Tuesday 12:45 pm to 1:45 pm, or by appointment email: hampton@brandeis.edu phone: 781-736-3328 Objectives: An introduction to the art and craft of composing for the theater, participants will create and present several songs and dramatic scenes for peer and instructor feedback and will analyze contemporary and traditional musical theater masterpieces. Final project compositions will be presented for the public Prerequisites: Participants should have essential musical skills in place and an interest for writing for the theater. You should either be able to write down your music for others to perform or be able to perform it yourself. Piano proficiency and past study of music theory are very helpful, but not required. Required materials: Purchase of tickets to 2 local musical theater productions that the class will attend. TBD Texts: Wood, Clement. The Complete Rhyming Dictionary (available on Amazon). Online rhyming dictionaries are not a substitute for this book. Frankel, Arron. Writing the Broadway Musical. 1991, 2000 Da Capo Press Spencer, David. The Musical Theatre Writers Survival Guide Suggested Reading: Scott McMillin. The Musical as Drama Simon, Mayo. The Audience and the Playwright Andrews, Richard. Writing A Musical Banfield, Stephen: Sondheim’s Broadway Musicals Engel, Lehman. Words with Music: Creating the Broadway Musical Libretto Rosenhaus, Steven and Cohen, Allen. Writing Musical Theater Assignments: You will present a new or rewritten song approximately every one to two weeks. Copies of clearly notated music and typed lyric sheet must be made available to the instructor at the time of presentation. Some of the assignments will be for multiple characters. You will be responsible for finding an accompanist (if needed) and rehearsing with your actors before the presentation. Before you get credit for an assignment, you may be asked to rewrite it. Even if you perform songs yourself, you will be required to produce clear, legible lead sheets with melody, chords and lyrics or piano/vocal arrangements. Style and Craft: You can write in any musical style (pop, rock, contemporary, etc), however there are issues of craft in music and lyric composition that can be addressed to make the song or scene you are writing clear, concise and effective. For instance, musical theater songs

differ from pops songs in that they contain very few half-rhymes (ex. PHONE – HOME is a half-rhyme, PHONE – ALONE is a true rhyme). All work is considered your own unless the assignment is specifically deemed collaborative. Collaboration: Collaboration (with a lyricist, for instance) when writing song assignments is encouraged, the large bulk of any composition assignment must be your own. Work on all other types of assignments such as song analyses must be entirely your own. Please refer to the Brandeis policy on academic honesty. Grading: To pass the course, you must present all song assignments on their scheduled dates and attend all classes to listen and give written feedback. You will be responsible for organizing pianists and actors to perform your songs. You may also be asked to make in class presentations on topics such as an analysis of a song and also be prepared to identify songs from the assigned listening on quizzes. There are no midterm or final examinations. Instead, a portfolio consisting of all revised song assignments, your class presentation and organized notes from your lectures will be due the first day of exams. This is a creative course. Experimentation is encouraged. You will NOT be graded on whether the professor thinks your idea is good or bad, but on the effort demonstrated, the improvement you make and how effectively you execute an idea. That said, there are certain tangible tenants of craft (such as avoiding the setting of half-rhymes and mis-accented words) that can affect a grade if left uncorrected. Your overall grade will be based on:

• Class presentations of songs you write (50%). You will be responsible for composing music and/or lyrics for several assignments, securing and rehearsing performers and musician(s) for presentation on a specific day. These can only be made-up at the teacher’s discretion and generally because of significant extenuating circumstances (severe illness, documented family emergency or similar) with advance notice.

• Class participation (30%). You will be responsible to be familiar with the readings and listening assignments given as homework before the next class and participate actively in discussions. Collaboration and feedback on others work will be done in a genial and responsible manner.

• Homework assignments/quizzes (10%). Timely submission of materials is required: work handed in past deadline will receive a lower grade.

• Daily work log posted to LATTE (10%): You will be responsible for keeping a daily log of the work you do on your compositions.

• Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).

Additional Information

• You are responsible for any messages delivered via email from the professor or via LATTE and for being able to upload assignments, etc. Daily logging onto LATTE is highly recommended.

• Electronic devices: Cellphones are to be turned off in class and computers will generally not be consulted.

• Students with disabilities: If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see the instructor immediately.

Attendance Policy: Class participation and attendance at all classes is required. Excused absences for documented illness or family emergency (a family event such as a wedding would not count as an emergency, nor would the need to catch an early flight to leave for the holidays) require proper documentation, such as a note from a doctor or nurse on business (not personal) stationary. An unexcused absence which causes you to miss an assigned song or class presentation slot will result in a failing grade for that assignment. If this policy creates a hardship for you that I may not have foreseen, please see me immediately at the start of the term.