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“A WHOLE NEW WORLD” OF MUSICALS FROM SONDHEIM TO MENKEN Savara Gunn Alan Menken: Background ■ Born in New York City ■ Started out as an accompanist ■ Moved up to a Broadway composer ■ Was approached by Disney to write the music for The Little Mermaid ■ Tangled vs. Into the Woods Little Shop- Distracting Music ■ “Feed Me (Git It)”- Scene is of the Audrey II convincing Seymour to kill people ■ “A lot of people deserve to die” ■ Acceptable for wider audiences because Audrey II is a plant ■ “Now (It’s Just the Gas)”- Seymour letting the Dentist die ■ Soothing tempo that mirrors “A Little Priest” Little Shop- Unintelligent Women ■ “Suddenly Seymour” and “Somewhere That’s Green” (Audrey Songs) ■ Slow and typical Broadway ballads ■ Resemble ”Lovely” from A Funny Thing and “Losing my Mind” from Follies ■ Type of music signify unintelligent or naïve women Little Shop- Power Struggles ■ Menken also uses tempos to display characters in power ■ ”Feed Me”– Audrey II is more powerful than Seymour so he sings at a faster tempo ■ “Now (It’s Just the Gas)”- Seymour has more power over the Dentist and sings faster than him Hunchback of Notre Dame- Anxiety/Corruptness ■ “Bells of Notre Dame” ■ Clanging of bells interrupt melodic choir ■ Music constantly switches from calm to aggressive ■ Initiates anxiety in audience ■ Indicates corruptness in the setting of the show Hunchback- Immorality ■ “Hellfire” vs “Johanna” ■ Sweet instruments (violin) switch to harsh ones (trumpet) ■ Latin phrases “Mea Culpa, mea maxima culpa” ■ Also switches tempos to amplify immorality ■ Same melody as “Bells of Notre Dame” ■ Choir sings threatening & uses harmonies to diminish intimidation Works Cited ■ "Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz Talk Hunchback of Notre Dame." Interview by Jimmy Carter. Youtube.com. Jimmy Carter, 23 Dec. 2015. Web. ■ Hunchback of Notre Dame (Motion Picture: 1996)--electronic Press Kit. Home Video Release. 1996. Videocassette. ■ "Little Shop." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2016. ■ Menken, Alan, and Howard Ashman. Little Shop of Horrors: A New Musical. Garden City, NY: N. Doubleday, 1982. Print. ■ Menken, Alan, and Stephen Schwartz. The Hunchback of Notre Dame: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack. Walt Disney Records, 1996. CD. ■ Schlesinger, Judith. "Psychology, Evil and Sweeney Todd." Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook: 125-41. ■ Sondheim, Stephen, and George Furth. Company. Radnor, PA: Chilton Book, 1973. Print. ■ Sondheim, Stephen, and James Goldman. Follies: A Musical. New York: Random House, 1971. Print. ■ Sondheim, Stephen, and James Lapine. Into the Woods. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1989. Print. ■ Sondheim, Stephen, Burt Shevelove, and Larry Gelbart. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. London: Frank Music, 1963. Print. ■ Sondheim, Stephen, Hugh Wheeler, and C. G. Bond. Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street: A Musical Thriller. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1979. Print. ■ Steyn, Mark. Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now. Routledge, 2014. ■ Tangled. Rotana, 2011. DVD.