Music and Drama

Will Howitt '23 conducts summer research on the musical and dramatic content of 20th century Broadway theater and opera

Allentown, PA (12/08/2022) — Drawing connections between the musical and dramatic content of 20th century Broadway theater and opera. This research was accomplished by analyzing melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, and other musical aspects, as well as how they compliment the text of a work using categories such as characters, subject matter, and form.

The goal was to form an idea of what the best practices for working with story ideas in a musical setting are. Seeing what past authors have done can allow us to make predictions about what advancements/changes may occur in future works, as well as how to employ such ideas in our own writing as composers.

"Looking at such a diverse range of composers and their perspectives opened my mind to so many different styles I could wield in my own music."