Les Miserables Essays (639 words) - Les Misrables,

Les Miserables Les Miserables known in English as "The Terrible" is a musical portrayal of the French Revolution. It is a musical tragedy, which served as a major powerhouse competitor for Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals in the early eighties and nineties. When first debuting on Broadway in 1987 it traveled a long hard road to compete with musicals of the decade. However, in time many well-known performers were proud to associate themselves with this wonderful work of art. The musical play begins with its lead character named Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean was released on parole after 19 years on the chain gang. In this initial scene the audience can almost immediately feel the tonality of the play with the constant reference to the number 24601. 24601 were the prison number that became Jean Valjean's identity for 19 years. The dark and dreary ambiance set the tone for the first song of the libretto, "Look Down. The lyrics to look down coincide with the chain gang, overseen by brutal wanders, working in the hot sun. It is this series of songs in Act one that take the audience through many turns of feelings and emotions. These emotional songs are used to portray poor men and women working in low class factories, women selling their bodies and more importantly a class of people struggling to scrape by. The most vivid songs used to identify the various themes of poverty and prostitution are Lovely Ladies, A Heart Full of Love, and Master of The House. Moreover, it is a song titled Do You Hear the People Sing? That prepares the audience for the ending of Act one. Most if not all of Act one uses song, tonality, character, pitch and tone to depict the various themes of the play while the story is beginning to unravel. Throughout the second and final act the musical content within the play acts as a story of it's own through theme and variation. Each separate song represents a feeling and or mood and is enhanced as it is varied throughout the act. Like the first act, the songs are used to portray poverty, suffering, hardships, and even death. However, unlike the first act, there is also a theme of love and happiness. Closure is brought about with a sense of warmth and this is often heard through the display of the tempo. When the times were tough the tempo decreased and was often slow and morbid like. When happy times were brought about, the tempo increased to a song and dance farewell. The final song of the musical really brings the whole story together. The loose ends are tied and the audience's hearts are left captivated and moved. This musical would not be complete without the dramatization of the performers. It is each individual performer that brings song into the story. Each of the eight main characters represents, in a sense, their own theme and motivation towards the story. Without these characters the notes and chords wouldn't bring about any music. It would merely be song without feelings or words. Each of them sings to sing to us in their own different way and exemplify their role within the story. Together these two important ideas make this play an excellent musical. My personal reaction to this musical was surprisingly a good one. When my girlfriend first told me that we were going to see a Broadway play I wasn't initially excited. However, after just about 30 minutes into the opening act I was beginning to recognize and comprehend musical terms that we had discussed in class. I then decided to be open minded and take notice of not only musical but also theatrical happenings of the story. It was amazing to be able to hear the tempo change, the timbre (tone color), and also identify the theme and variation. It was often difficult to understand the opera like approach to the play but all you needed was a good ear and total concentration. I found that I actually enjoyed Les Miserables and I wouldn't be too quick to say no to another one.

Wayne Dylan Essay

Wayne Dylan Essay Wayne Dylan Essay Lil Wayne Folk Artist According to Josh Tyrangiel, a writer for Time Magazine, â€Å" Lil Wayne has a smoke-scarred rasp that makes him sound like Redd Foxx covering Bob Dylan.† I completely agree with Josh in comparing lil wayne with the iconic figure Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan is a common favorite. No one looks askance or questions me when I name Dylan as one of my two favorite musical artists. However, when i mention lil wayne to my friends, I often find myself facing a mouth agape, a scowl, or an expression disbelief: â€Å"thats a joke, right?† Even those who accept my declaration of favor for Lil wayne often come back with, â€Å"Dylan and Lil Wayne? Thats an odd combination†. But it is not odd; not at all. First of all, they’re both superb lyricists, each with his own distinctive style. Secondly, both Lil Wayne and Bob Dylan are frequently charged with being opaque, non sequiturian, disingenuous, abstruse, silly, banal, indulgent and nonsensical. Both are accused of stealing lines, not just because people seek to tear down those at the top, but also because both are engaged in the folk tradition. Finally, they both have similar flows. Musically speaking, both Dylan and Lil Wayne use existing songs as scaffoldings on which to construct their own. Dylan draws from country, blues, bluegrass, folk, and early rock music, sometimes taking melody, harmony, rhythm and even many of the lyrics from an existing song and putting his own spin on it, inserting his own lines. According to ContactMusic.com, â€Å"Lil Wayne uses Karma Ann Swanepoel’s folk track once on his hit song I Feel Like Dying†. Wayne raps atop existing tracks from other artists and also samples from older pop and rock songs, especially on his mixtape. This is a clear extension of the folk tradition, modernized. Adding to being their own distinctive style, they both are charged with being opaque. According to Derek Askey, a writer for phoenixnewtimes, â€Å" Self Portrait is still a bad album.† Curiously, roughly ten years into each of their careers, both Dylan and Wayne released albums that were viewed as career self-sabatoge but that ended up putting hardly a dent in their careers: Dylan’s was called Self Portrait, viewed as rambling and lacking cohesion; Wayne’s Rebirth, viewed as a sophomoric attempt at Rock. According to Chris Deline, a writer for CultureBully, â€Å" The Price is Wrong, a song from Rebirth, has overly aggressive power chords used in the track translate as so completely empty that they’d hardly cut it with the worst bands existing in radio stations.† They have also shown appreciation for nursery rhymes, with Dylan releasing a whole album, Red Sky, that riffs on the structural forms of nursery rhymes; Lil wayne draws on the same struc tural forms and also alludes to existing nursery rhymes (Jack and Jill, for example, in â€Å"Cashed Out,† which also references other children’s characters like, again, Gremlins, Tom and Jerry, Mickey Mouse, Barney and Baby Bop). Lil Waynes song â€Å"Started† begins each verse with the same line, maintains a consistent (although not unbroken) rhyme scheme throughout, essentially consisting of groupings of four lines, like many nursery rhymes, with alternating or coupled rhymes at the end of lines. Besides being accused of sounding opaque, both lil wayne and bob dylan are accused of stealing lines. According to Andy Greene, a writer for Rolling Stone Magazine, â€Å" Dylan’s been lifting lines from other artists for his entire career- for one, huge chunks of his 1985 disc Empire Burlesque were based on Humphrey Bogart movies.† While Dylan pulls lines from antebellum era poets, Japanese novelists, early blues songs and the folk cannon, Wayne pulls lines from Sam Cooke, Paul Simon, Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Green Day, 2Pac, B.I.G., Eminem, Jay Z, as well as movies, television shows, ad campaigns, and even the ancient Greek historian Thucydides ( â€Å"the strong do what they will; the weak do what they must, or, as Wayne put it in â€Å"A Milli†. â€Å" I do what I