Theater and Dance 280 - Words and Music

Spring
2013
01
4.00
Ronald Bashford, Harold Meltzer

W 02:00PM-05:00PM

Amherst College
THDA-280-01-1213S
WEBS 19
rdbashford88@amherst.edu; hymeltzer88@amherst.edu
THDA-280-01,MUSI-260-01

(Offered as THDA 280 and MUSI 260.) Conducted as a collaborative workshop among student writers and composers, this course explores the close relationship between words and music. While working together on new music/text pieces for the stage, we will seek to arrive at various definitions of "music theater." In addition to ongoing creative assignments, we will examine existing works in various genres, including songs, musical theater, opera and other experimental forms.  Featured writers and composers will include Brecht and Weill, Auden/Kallman and Stravinsky, Sondheim and Bernstein, and Goodman and Adams, among others. Although students with varied experience in musical composition and/or creative writing will be admitted, all students should expect both to write text, to compose music and to work together doing so. Regular class meetings will be supplemented by individual tutorials. The course will culminate in a public performance of final projects created in collaboration with other students.  

Admission with consent of the instructors. Limited to 16 students. Spring semester. Professor Bashford and Visiting Professor Meltzer.

 

Permission is required for interchange registration during all registration periods.