MUSIC112

Students begin to create pieces that are fresh and innovative forms of musical theater that do not necessarily appeal to specifically popular audiences but perhaps to audiences more associated with high art, opera, or even contemporary independent music. Musical theater is an untapped resource of potential artistic innovation and has unfortunately become stuck in an ideal of universal accessibility. In present popular culture and the culture of contemporary art forms, musical theater almost exclusively refers to popular productions such as Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Wicked, Jesus Christ Superstar. Although excellent pieces of art in their own way, both dramaturgically and in their ability to evoke emotion through catchy melodies, for the most part each of them have their basis in popular and traditional musical idioms and theatrical forms, seldom exploring more advanced or avant-garde and experimental compositional and theatrical techniques.