AREA OF STUDY C

Musical Theatre
Stephen Schwartz (born 1948)

The only extra composer for the Eduqas A2 examination to study is Stephen
Schwartz. Schwartz is best known for writing music and lyrics for the musicals
‘Godspell’ and ‘Wicked’ along with lyrics for a number of Disney films including
Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Prince of Egypt.

His main musical theatre works are:

• Godspell (1971)
• Pippin (1972)
• The Magic show (1974)
• The Baker’s wife (1976)
• Working (1978)
• Children of Eden (1993)
• Wicked (2003)

Musical features and style

Like Sondheim, His ability to write both lyrics and music for his songs allows a
complete unity in style for each character and scene.

Schwartz is quoted online as describing his style as ‘a mishmash’ this is due to the
varying styles and popular genres that he uses throughout his musicals. Schwartz’s
musicals are very melodic and in all of his musicals there are ‘take home tunes’
(tunes you remember after you’ve heard them in the show). His style is eclectic
though encompassing a range to suit characters and plot, but at the same time, he
doesn’t always stick to one style throughout a show especially in ‘Godspell’ and
‘Children of Eden’.
Some suggested listening:

• Patter songs ‘War is a science’ from ‘Pippin’

‘Two’s company’ from ‘The magic show’
• Music hall ‘All for the best’ from ‘Godspell’
• Vaudeville ‘Wonderful’ from ‘Wicked’
• World music ‘Generations’ from ‘Children of Eden’
• Gospel ‘Children of Eden’ from ‘Children of Eden’
‘You are the light of the world’ from ‘Godspell’
• Jazz ‘Turn back o’ man’ from ‘Godspell’
• Jazz/rock ‘Simple joys’ from ‘Pippin’
• Modern ‘Alas for you’, ‘Tower of babble’ from ‘Godspell’
• Folk ‘Chanson’ from ‘The Baker’s wife’
‘On the willows’ from ‘Godspell’
• Pop ‘Day by day’ from ‘Godspell’
‘The Wizard and I’, ‘Defying gravity’, ‘As long as you’re
mine’ from ‘Wicked’

Musical Example: ‘Stranger to the rain’ from the musical ‘Children of Eden’:

Notice that this song, in a ‘pop’ style, changes time signature every bar to create the
rhythmic effect that Schwartz wants to capture specifically. Some notable features of
style included here are:

• the limited vocal range

• the use of the syncopation
• use of anacrusis in bars 2, 4 & 6
• the use of repeated notes in the melody
• the slight change in bars 5-8 to make it not an exact repeat with the downward
scale in bar 5 added
• the mainly syllabic writing
• the use of ‘melisma’ on the words ‘me’ and ‘speed’, which give it a ‘pop’ feel
Comparison

Schwartz wrote lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Mass’ and it is an interesting

comparison to make between the changing time signature of ‘Stranger to the rain’
with ‘America’ from ‘West Side Story’ which also has the same changes each bar.
Also Bernstein’s use of leitmotif in the same show was clearly an influence on
Schwartz’s use of leitmotif in ‘Wicked’.

Composer Website: www.stephenschwartz.com

Did you know?

Schwartz used the first seven notes of ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ from ‘Wizard of Oz’ to create a
leitmotif for Elphaba in ‘Wicked’?