Workingtaught me a great deal about structure and how the order in which things happen can make a big difference. ![]() I've been fortunate that some of the shows that I've been involved with that were not initially successful, I've been given the opportunity to revisit and revamp. Were there shows in your career that didn’t go as planned, or weren’t particularly successful, that you were able to learn a great deal from? I think I learned a lot from each project that I do. Sometimes I get most of the lyrics first, but more often than not, it's sort of an organic process back and forth. I ask myself, “What is the story that I'm trying to tell? What does the character want? What is he or she feeling? What is that emotion? How does that emotion translate musically?” I usually like to try to find a title as quickly as I can and work from the title, and then it can go back and forth. In your work as a composer-lyricist, what is your process like in terms of writing music and lyrics? It bounces back and forth. What I learned from working with him was how to have my lyrics support the melodies, so that the silhouette of the lyrics matches the silhouette of the music. Alan Menken is so gifted in terms of coming up with these great melodies. What have those experiences been like, and what did you take away from them? With Bernstein, because we wound up always working music first, it was where I really feel I learned how to write lyrics as a craft. In addition to working as a composer-lyricist, you’ve also collaborated as solely a lyricist on a number of shows throughout your career-from Leonard Bernstein to Charles Strouse, and Alan Menken. ![]() And, uh, I think that's a very good description. Alan Menken likes to call it finding the palette for each project. That's kind of an instinctive decision.īut then ask myself, “What does this sound like harmonically, how contemporary is it?” I've just come from the premiere of the stage adaptation of Prince of Egypt, and obviously, the harmonic structure of those songs-because it's Egyptian and Hebraic-is very different from say the harmonic structure of the songs in Wicked. Then it’s kind of “song-spotting” what parts of the story we feel are going to be best told through music. I spend a lot of time with the book writer, and sometimes the director, figuring out the story of the show, the structure of it, and an outline or storyboard. How do you begin to chart the overall sound of a show dramatically? Do you scaffold it first in terms of harmonics, keys, and time signatures, or is more of an organic process as you sit down to write? It’s a combination of both. ![]() Read: DARREN CRISS, PATINA MILLER, PASEK & PAUL WILL CELEBRATE STEPHEN SCHWARTZ IN 70TH BIRTHDAY CONCERT
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