Outline how musicals changed from 1960 to the present day.

Outline the characteristics of the period 1960 to the present day. During this period musicals began to expand; the ‘Megamusical’ emerged, synthesisers replaced instruments such as strings, the ‘concept musical’ replaced the ‘book musical’, shows were completely integrated, and influences from pop and rock became commonplace. The ‘Megamusical’ was term used to describe large productions which often had long runs on Broadway and strong special effects similar to those of a blockbuster film. Both ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ by Lloyd Webber are both ‘Megamusicals’ which both were Broadway productions and featured large orchestral scoring and amplifications. These two musicals were so successful; they were later made into films. Lloyd Webber’s musicals heavily features influences from pop and rock. His 1978 musical, ‘Evita’ is dominated by two musical styles; Spanish-tinged rock which is found in ‘Don’t Cry for me Argentina’ and is used to show cynicism, dissembling, and pretence; and a Modern, syncopated, dissonant style to express real feelings which is evident in, ‘There is no one’ through the use of syncopated waltz style with accented dissonances. Rock influences can be found in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ through the use of rock riffs similar to those used by the band ‘Deep Purple’ in the

  • Word count: 766
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Music
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Identify important achievements made by the Gershwin Brothers in the composition of musicals

Identify important achievements made by the Gershwin brothers in the composition of musicals. The Gershwin brothers composed over 13 musicals within the space of 11 years including the 1935 folk-opera/musical, ‘Porgy and Bess’ and ‘Girl, Crazy’ in 1930. Within this time period, their musical style developed from lightweight, comedies to more structurally sophisticated, and integrated works such as one of their later musicals, ‘Porgy and Bess’. The Gershwin brother’s musicals contained high levels of integration, in which the music and lyrics reveal character and progress the plot. They achieved this through use of leitmotif which is predominant in ‘Porgy and Bess’. Each main character in this folk opera/musical has their own musical theme which represents them, excluding Bess; this is because her music changes depending on which man she is with thus showing her fickle personality. However, at the end of the musical, she sings ‘Summertime’, the chorus’ anthem to show that she has now been accepted into the community of Catfish Row and during her duet with Porgy, ‘Bess, You is my Woman Now’, she sings a portion of Porgy’s earlier solo, ‘When Gawd Made a Cripple’ to show that she is the answer to his loneliness. Porgy’ leitmotif containing an upward grace note symbolising his stumbling and clumsiness as he is a cripple also features

  • Word count: 637
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Music
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Dramatic Monologue

(The phone rings and she picks up) Hello? (Beat) Oh hey Lisa! What's up? (Beat) So, are you going to the dance this Friday? (Beat) What, you're not going? Why not? (Beat) Who cares if you don't have a date? You have 2 days till Friday! Oh, hang on Lisa, I have another call coming in. (Push button on phone) Mera here, talk to me. (Beat) Brad, hey! How you doin'? (Beat) What? You like Lisa! Ohmigosh this is so cool! (Beat) Uh, no, I haven't herd from Lisa in a while. Oh, uh, Brad? Hang on. Uh, I, I think I, um, smell smoke! (Push button on phone) Lisa? Eek! You'll never guess who that was! (Beat) Brad! Yeah! He says he likes you! This is so awesome! Hang on, kay? (Push button on phone) Brad? Still there? (Beat) Oh the smoke... uh musta been my imagination. Anyways... (Beat) Yeah, sure. I'll ask Lisa if she likes you next time I talk to her! So, are you going to the dance? (Beat) Oh! That will be great! (Beat) No! I promise every thing you've said will never leave this conversation! But hang on one sec; my dog's lifting its leg! (Push button on phone) Lisa? Ohmigosh Brad just said he's going to ask you to the dance! (Beat) Yeah, this so cool cause Brad is so hot! (Beat) Hold that thought. (Push button on phone) Brad? (Beat) Oh, yeah. The dog! Uh, I pushed him outside just in time! (Laugh nervously) Yeah. But anyways, I'm sure she will defiantly say YES! (Beat) Oh, really,

  • Word count: 531
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Music
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The Mask.

The Mask "No, I don't think so," Rolando said to his friend Chub Bennett. "Come on, man. We got to do this," Chub said earnestly. "It's free!" They stood in their high school's main hall looking at the bulletin board. "I can't dance, Chub," Rolando said, shaking his head. Then he read aloud from the poster they were discussing: "Annual Scarlet Fasani Costume Ball." He glanced at Chub. "Who's Scarlet Fasani, anyway?" "Dunno," said Chub. "My grandpa went to school here. We can ask him. He's driving me home today. C'mon." "It's a tragic story, with an air of mystery about it," said Chub's grandfather. He glanced up into the rear view mirror flaring his eyes at Rolando in the back seat, and Rolando knew they were in for one of grandpa's 'tales'. "Her father," the old man continued, "was probably the richest man in town. He had everything, and, to him, Scarlet was the jewel of his collection. When they found out she had leukaemia and was going to die, he was devastated. But she had always wanted to be princess at one of the school dances, so he staged a costume ball, gave it her name and declared her the princess. It was the biggest thing to ever happen for our school - or any school in the country, I imagine. He rented the auditorium downtown, brought in one of the biggest dance bands of the day - Glenn Miller, I think it was, or Benny Goodman. He even sent one of his

  • Word count: 2121
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Music
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The Effect of Music on Performance of a Task

An Experimental Psychological Study The Effect of Music on Performance of a Task Abstract In order to investigate whether music affected performance of a task, and experimental technique was used, variables were manipulated and data recorded. The aim of this study was to investigate whether different music styles affected the performance of a task. It was a novel experiment, only loosely based on previous research dating back to the 19th century. The method involved three groups of participants undertaking a test (solving thirty anagrams). One group had fast music in the background, one had slow music and the third performed it in silence. The participants were primarily selected via a systematic sample, but this would have been changed to an opportunity sample had some participants not turned up. It was hypothesised that there would be significant differences between a) fast and slow music, b) fast and no music and c) slow and no music. A two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test at a significance level of p=0.05 revealed that all three alternative hypotheses were accepted and null hypotheses rejected. The data collected illustrated that having slow music playing in the background improved performance of the task compared to performing it in silence, while fast music worsened performance. The implications of this study, its limitations and suggestions of follow up studies

  • Word count: 4858
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Music
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The Effect of Music on Performance of a Task

An Experimental Psychological Study The Effect of Music on Performance of a Task Abstract In order to investigate whether music affected performance of a task, and experimental technique was used, variables were manipulated and data recorded. The aim of this study was to investigate whether different music styles affected the performance of a task. It was a novel experiment, only loosely based on previous research dating back to the 19th century. The method involved three groups of participants undertaking a test (solving thirty anagrams). One group had fast music in the background, one had slow music and the third performed it in silence. The participants were primarily selected via a systematic sample, but this would have been changed to an opportunity sample had some participants not turned up. It was hypothesised that there would be significant differences between a) fast and slow music, b) fast and no music and c) slow and no music. A two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test at a significance level of p=0.05 revealed that all three alternative hypotheses were accepted and null hypotheses rejected. The data collected illustrated that having slow music playing in the background improved performance of the task compared to performing it in silence, while fast music worsened performance. The implications of this study, its limitations and suggestions of follow up studies will

  • Word count: 4965
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Music
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The Effect of

Philip Loos Jeffery Thomas T.A. Steve Lehning The Effect of the Lyrical and Musical Reciprocation in Bach Cantatas 106 and 80 Johann Sebastian Bach was an 18th century composer, not a theologian, yet there are few men in the history of the world who have so thoroughly captured God's character and even fewer still who have so passionately impressed that character upon men's hearts. While the music or lyrics of his cantatas alone are often enough to stir a man to action or reduce him to tears, it is the relationship between the two that truly seems to reflect all that encompasses God's greatness. Two of Bach's most renowned cantatas, "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit" (BWV 106) and "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" (BWV 80), are prime examples of this. The two have few similarities and yet they seem to bookend much of who God is. With these pieces, Bach succeeds in a task where most composers cannot: creating a perfect relationship between music and lyrics. Through this relationship, he succeeds where most theologians cannot: transforming this perfect God from one who is simply feared, to one who is revered and adored in the hearts of men. The first written of the two cantatas, "Gottes Zeit ist allerbeste Zeit" (BWV 106), was most likely written by Bach in August of 1707 in Mühlhausen, during his earliest years of composition. It is different from his later cantatas

  • Word count: 2303
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Music
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Language of Performing Arts

A/S Performing Arts- Language of Performing Arts 2556 Amy Grant 1ADE Performing Arts is a way of expressing ideas, emotions and thoughts to all areas of society using any capability of the body as a tool. In this essay I am going to discuss they ways in which I achieved this idea through the practical work produced in music, dance and drama modules. For each module a stimulus was given which led to the devise-rehearse-performance process. A final performance was then created integrating all three arts using another given stimulus. During the Drama module we were given a poem called 'Seven Poems' written by Antonin Artaud. We were to devise a piece of drama not only stimulated by this poem but also in the style of the writer. We made our own notes on the language of the poem and interpreted it in our own way; this meant no two pieces of drama would be the same as we all have individual ideas and opinions. However when we came together in our groups we discussed our notes and points and came to a group decision about what we thought the poem meant and what it represented before beginning to develop thoughts, actions and finally a narrative. The piece was to be in the style of Artaud. This meant a very surrealistic piece with little dialogue, used just as a mode of communication. Instead we would use our bodies and physicality to communicate our

  • Word count: 3376
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Music
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Media Studies

Genre is a French word meaning portrayal of scenes from ordinary life a category of work used in media, for example some different film genres are comedy action and sci-fi. Other movie genres have 'conventions' which are used as building blocks to make genres meaning that different genres have different conventions Film Genres include: Horror five horror films are Childs play, the Texas chainsaw massacre, the ring, the puppet master and nightmare on Elm Street these and other horror movie conventions include blood, killing, sudden jumps, ghosts spirits etc. Weapons scary music settings, thunder and lightning revenge and the evil source always comes back. Comedy five comedy films include daddy day-care, soul plane, blue streak, barbershop and barbershop 2.The comedy movie conventions include Laughter ,silly behaviour, accidents, misfortune, things go wrong, stupid characters, disgusting scenes, funny appearance, costumes, funny voices, dialect and embarrassment. Action Five action movies are Chronicles of Riddick, alien vs. predator, the matrix, the matrix reloaded and the matrix revolutions. The action conventions include weapons, killing, explosives, soldiers, warriors, agents, goodie and a baddie. Sci-fi five sci-fi films are men in black one and men in black two, war games, the Truman show and E.T the extra terrestrial. The sci-fi conventions are computers,

  • Word count: 600
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Music
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Short Story

Short Story It's final. Completely planned. I'm going to Sarah's, Sarah is at Amy's, Amy is at Jenna's and Jenna is at mine. We'll never get caught, never. We are going out, not just out, I mean out, tonight. And, as far as my mum is concerned, I'm at a cosy little sleepover with my friends at Sarah's house. She knows her parents, so they'll be no questions. I walk out of the door. 'Bye Mum,' I say, very innocently. 'Bye love, have a great time.' The door shuts. 'I sure will mum,' I whisper quietly under my breath. I check my watch, 7:00, exactly on time. As I walk down the path, I turn to wave to my little sister who is at the window. She isn't feeling very well at the moment, she has one of those stomach-aches that little kids get all the time. She had just started throwing up as I left though; thank God I'm out of there. I hold tightly on to my bag of clothes, trying to remember if I had packed everything and if I need to run back for anything. I have my clothes at least, one for tonight and one for tomorrow. I had left home in some plain jeans and a jumper, this way mum wouldn't get suspicious. I couldn't imagine her face if she saw what I was wearing tonight. After a few more minutes of brisk walking, I am at Jenna's. My mum doesn't like Jenna, whenever I mention her; she raises her eyebrows and gives me a weird look. Jenna answers the door as everyone

  • Word count: 1068
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Music
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