Music Theatre Contextual Studies- Journal!

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Josephine Marchant!
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Music Skills!
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I came into the classes with a fundamental grasp of music theory having studied it in high
school after. For me much of the theory work was brushing up on established skills. My
main area of weakness that I discovered in this class was my aural skills which are quite
poor. I especially struggled with hearing individual notes in a chord and singing them back.
This is an area in which I did not improve as much as I would have liked and will become a
focus of mine. Where I did improve was in my sight reading abilities. In the first few weeks
I could hardly pick up any of the tunes we were attempting to sight read but by the final
weeks, especially in week 11 I was pleased with my ability to pick up the rhythm and
notes. Finally, the repertoire assignment has opened my eyes to my personal ignorance
for much of the music theatre canon and how little effort I put into diversifying my
repertoire. Since the assignment I have started adding songs every two weeks to my
repertoire including Time Heals Everything from Mack and Mabel and Ill be Here from
Ordinary Days. This is something I wish to continue for the remaining three years of my
study and beyond starting with a more Operatic piece with Rosie.!

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Music Theatre History!
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Again I came into the subject having studied MT history before, however never through the
critical lens of Trevors lectures. The listenings and screenings opened my eyes to music
and stagings that I had never critically analysed before. I discovered key points in the
historical timeline of Music Theatre that developed and changed the genre such as Hair
and Company. I found the discussions very interesting and engaging. My own personal
discoveries included the racism and sexism found in the works of Rodgers and
Hammerstein such as the extended Small Cabin of Uncle Tom in The King and I which I
consider quite stereotypical and inappropriate in a modern day context, or the lyrics to I
enjoy being a girl- both were never originally written to harm but it highlights the fact that
much of the golden age is significantly dated in terms of cultural beliefs. This applies to the
four over aching themes in the golden age which reflect the time period but are very
outdated today. One of the most fascinating lectures/discussions for me was the Gen X/
Gen Y topic. I have put considerable thought into whether there are any musicals today
that accurately reflect my generation. Personally I do not think there is as shows such as
Spring Awakening and Bare can universally apply to youth. In a way our generation is the
Disney Generation as the Disney boom of the 90s was when we were children. I think we
are yet to see our generation represented on Broadway with an iconic show such as Rent
was with Gen X however there is plenty of time for a young composer to step into the fold.
I thoroughly enjoyed this subject and definitely learnt a lot not about things such as the
conditional love song to Joe Papps peoples theatre that I did not know about before.