Metacharacter in the Theatrical Works of Stephen Sondheim : An Analysis

For the last half century, Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim has revolutionized the American musical with his introspective lyric writing and unorthodox song structure. This essay examines the theatrical consistencies of several Sondheim character archetypes, and links them to melodic and harmonic musical structures. Through analysis of the characters' through lines, these distinct personalities become re-evaluated as a single meta-character, a long form persona who's character arc develops over the course of several plays. Finally, an analysis of this single meta-character reveals possible autobiographical characteristics and personality traits. Metacharacter in the Theatrical Works of Stephen Sondheim was part of the analytical work of Robert Giracello's PhD dissertation in Music Composition for the University of California, Riverside.