The Arts | Palace Theater
This presentation examines links between Harold Arlen’s music from “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) and Stephen Schwartz’s music for “Wicked” (2003), especially focusing on the relationship between “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from "The Wizard of Oz" and the ‘Unlimited’ theme in "Wicked". We will learn about the ways in which this theme is musically transformed across "Wicked", in a way that reflects in music the plot onstage. We will then look at other musical relationships between the two, and the ways in which they create a sort of musical 'worldbuilding' in the world of Oz.Presenter: Kyle Hutchinson is currently a visiting assistant professor of Music at Colgate University. He has published widely on various topics, including nineteenth-century chromatic harmony, Richard Strauss, musical form, and Broadway Megamusicals. His first book, Processual Tonality and the Psychoacoustics of Chromaticism" will be published this October.