PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
2014
“Don't Ya Think That's Pretty Music?” - Jason Robert Brown's Melodic Construction from Songs for a New World to The Last Five Years" [PDF]
Studies in Musical Theatre 8.3
Jason Robert Brown is an American musical theatre composer who sings as he composes and "write[s] everything at the same time" (Cott 1999). This article focuses on Brown’s small-scale melodic construction techniques through discussion of the horizontal pitch content from his musicals Songs for a New World (1995), Parade (1998), and The Last Five Years (2002). The article concludes that, once Brown has established a “structure that [he] can just start playing with” (Brown in Cott 1999), he regularly uses highly structured melodic cells when creating his melodic lines; repeatedly employs dissonance when his characters are experiencing fear, nervousness, or regret; and uses consonance and unison as dramatic symbols in his love duets.
2012
“Transposition in Jonathan Larson’s RENT” [PDF]
Studies in Musical Theatre 5.3
In composing La Bohéme, based on the novel Scénes de la vie Bohéme/Bohemians of the Latin Quarter by Henry Murger, Giacomo Puccini used musical themes symbolic of characters, emotions and settings. Jonathan Larson also based Rent on Murger's novel, and the characters, plot and themes of both the opera and musical are close to identical. Larson signposted a clear motivic connection to La Bohéme within Rent and this led to the development of my hypotheses: that Larson transposed a number of Puccini's themes into Rent; that he was aware of their symbolism; that the 'Musetta's Waltz' transposition was the most important transposition from La Bohéme to Rent; and that the transpositions applied to the 'Musetta's Waltz' theme throughout Rent were the most dramatically significant. This study compares the scores and musical themes of both works in an attempt to establish Larson's intention behind the transpositions.
CONFERENCE PAPERS
2015
“'You’ll get Urinetown!': Hegel and the Politicality of Song in the Musical"
Australasian Overtures
WAAPA/MTEA Conference – June 2015
2012
“Oklahoma! – A Musical Revolution?”
Rodgers and Hammerstein – Understanding the Phenomenon
Victorian College of the Arts, 13 August
2013
“Developing a Methodology for Musical Direction”
Researching the Musical and Opera, ca 1890 to the present
Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, 31 May
THESES
Current
Hegel and the Politicality of Song in the Musical
Doctor of Philosophy
Monash University
2012
Compositional Techniques in the Early-Career Works of Jason Robert Brown [PDF]
Master of Philosophy
Australian Catholic University
2008
Transposition in Jonathan Larson’s RENT [PDF]
Bachelor of Music (Honours) (First Class)
Australian Catholic University
2014
“Don't Ya Think That's Pretty Music?” - Jason Robert Brown's Melodic Construction from Songs for a New World to The Last Five Years" [PDF]
Studies in Musical Theatre 8.3
Jason Robert Brown is an American musical theatre composer who sings as he composes and "write[s] everything at the same time" (Cott 1999). This article focuses on Brown’s small-scale melodic construction techniques through discussion of the horizontal pitch content from his musicals Songs for a New World (1995), Parade (1998), and The Last Five Years (2002). The article concludes that, once Brown has established a “structure that [he] can just start playing with” (Brown in Cott 1999), he regularly uses highly structured melodic cells when creating his melodic lines; repeatedly employs dissonance when his characters are experiencing fear, nervousness, or regret; and uses consonance and unison as dramatic symbols in his love duets.
2012
“Transposition in Jonathan Larson’s RENT” [PDF]
Studies in Musical Theatre 5.3
In composing La Bohéme, based on the novel Scénes de la vie Bohéme/Bohemians of the Latin Quarter by Henry Murger, Giacomo Puccini used musical themes symbolic of characters, emotions and settings. Jonathan Larson also based Rent on Murger's novel, and the characters, plot and themes of both the opera and musical are close to identical. Larson signposted a clear motivic connection to La Bohéme within Rent and this led to the development of my hypotheses: that Larson transposed a number of Puccini's themes into Rent; that he was aware of their symbolism; that the 'Musetta's Waltz' transposition was the most important transposition from La Bohéme to Rent; and that the transpositions applied to the 'Musetta's Waltz' theme throughout Rent were the most dramatically significant. This study compares the scores and musical themes of both works in an attempt to establish Larson's intention behind the transpositions.
CONFERENCE PAPERS
2015
“'You’ll get Urinetown!': Hegel and the Politicality of Song in the Musical"
Australasian Overtures
WAAPA/MTEA Conference – June 2015
2012
“Oklahoma! – A Musical Revolution?”
Rodgers and Hammerstein – Understanding the Phenomenon
Victorian College of the Arts, 13 August
2013
“Developing a Methodology for Musical Direction”
Researching the Musical and Opera, ca 1890 to the present
Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, 31 May
THESES
Current
Hegel and the Politicality of Song in the Musical
Doctor of Philosophy
Monash University
2012
Compositional Techniques in the Early-Career Works of Jason Robert Brown [PDF]
Master of Philosophy
Australian Catholic University
2008
Transposition in Jonathan Larson’s RENT [PDF]
Bachelor of Music (Honours) (First Class)
Australian Catholic University
