Music for Theatre

AoS4: Music for theatre 

A-Level music revision 

Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera 

 

Born in Germany in 1900, Weill was one of the most popular composers for stage, especially when collaborating with Bertolt Brecht. 

 

The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is one of Weill’s most famous contributions to the genre. It is a ‘play with music’ that was first presented in 1928 Berlin and investigates the issues of love, rivalry and revenge in Victorian London. The plot is very similar to John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, which was premiered some 200 years before. A film version was released in 1931 offering another way of engaging with the music. 

 

Bar by bar: ‘The Ballad of Mack the Knife’ 

 

Possibly the most famous song from The Threepenny Opera, ‘Mack the Knife’ is the opening musical number and is sung by a street musician, often complete with barrel organ. 

 

Moritat – literally ‘deadly deed’, is a song sung by a Cantastoria telling a dark or sad story, often with a moralistic quality 

 

Cantastoria – literally ‘story-singer’, is  a person who performs using actions and a set of images to enliven the performance 

 

Analysis 

 

• The song is mainly in strophic form with only small changes to the accompaniment pattern to provide contrast between verses. 

• The piece is based around a repeating chord sequence using C6, Dm7, G9, and Am 4-3 suspension chords- essentially chords I, ii, v and vi in C major: 

 

 

C6 

Dm7 

G9 

Am (4-3) 

In C major: 

I6 

Ii7 

V9 

vi 

 

• The harmonic rhythm is steady is steady: one chord for every two bars of 2/2.  

• The use of extended chords helps to set the scene by evoking jazz, typical of Weill’s style.  

• The harmonic progression is supported by a bass outlining tonic and dominant on each minim beat.  

• The melodic line uses very similar rhythmic values throughout: dotted crotchet + quaver + minim. 

• Use of descending interval of a minor 7th, which features towards the end of the verse. 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Rogers: Oklahoma! 

 

Written in the early 1940s and opening on Broadway in 1943, Oklahoma! was the first collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. 

 

Oklahoma! set the standard for an art form where music, speech, dance  and scene-changes were all integral to the central plot, rather than the music simply providing comic relief to the storyline. Rogers also uses a recurring melodic idea or leitmotif to help unify the entire piece. This was used extensively by Wagner in his operatic music, as well as being used in much film music to represent the changing fortunes of the characters onstage. 

 

Bar by bar: ‘Oh, What a…