Fine Composers To Keep In Mind

Just to give mention to Martin Charnin, Sheldon Harnick, Charles Strouse and some other fine theater composers still very much with us! Hope to hear more music from these creative people soon.

The term music was used to refer to music and lyrics, thanks.

But the term 'composer' I believe refers to the music itself.

Charnin and Harnick are certainly not composers. They're lyricists.

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Just thought it was odd to title your thread "Fine Composers to Keep in Mind" and start off with two gentlemen known principally for writing lyrics. (Harnick, I believe also wrote music and lyrics for several songs in the The Littlest Revue, including the legendary "The Ballad of the Shape of Things" - although he is of course, best known for his lyrics to Jerry Bock's music.)

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Merriam-Webster defines composer as one who forms by putting together..Always happy to talk about words but would rather keep to the topic.

For the record: "Martin Charnin began his theatrical career originating the role of Big Deal in WEST SIDE STORY. Involved subsequently in 53 theatrical productions, including I REMEMBER MAMA and TWO BY TWO, as lyricist, librettist, composer, director, or a combination of all four, in 1977 he brought ANNIE (the 11th longest running musical in history) to Broadway. He has received four Tony nominations, a Tony Award, three Grammy nominations, two Grammy Awards, three gold records, two platinum records, six Drama Desk Awards, 16 Emmy nominations, three Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award for Broadcasting. He directed Montreal's first mega-musical JEANNE LA PUCELLE, based on the life of Joan of Arc".

While this may be true for literature, it is not for theatre.

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But the score is not the same as the lyrics. =)

The lyrics are the libretto.

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Updated On: 11/12/03 at 06:00 PM

actually, opera and musical theatre seem to divide on what a "libretto" is and what is contained in the "score"...musicals sometimes call "the book" the libretto, and credits may be "libretto by", "lyrics by" etcetera...rental materials from the publishing houses are labelled "libretto" and include all words, the texts of songs and scenes (no matter who created what)...i think the generally accepted "score" meaning for musical theatre is both music and lyrics...

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got nothing against Finn, myself. Here's a query: if a songwriter works with pre-existing melodies (think KISMET, the typing test from MILLIE, etcetera) since they're only using words, are they still a composer?

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1. Jerry Herman
2. Charles Strouse
3. Jerry Bock
4. JUle Styne
5. Stephen Sondheim
6. Frank Wildhorn
7. David Friedman
8. Frank Loesser
9. Jule Styne

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Updated On: 11/12/03 at 08:35 PM