Bernstein's Eileen And Maria: Characteristic Musical Roles And Performing Practice

In this thesis, by the concrete analyses of two female characters Eillen and Maria from Leonard Bernstein's two successful musicals "Wonderful Town" and " West Side Story" in the same period, try to understand the creative intention of the composer so that inspire performance for a better role.Chapter One, basically analyze the music features of the role Eillen. First, with the changeful rhythm type as the breakthrough point, Bernstein used plentiful and varied rhythm type in the different music elements, made the characters in the musical appeared distinct and full of dramatic implication. Secondly, ballads, same as aria in opera for the major characters in the musical are the important solo vocal music genre. This part also analyze the dramatic features in the creation of Eillen's aria. Chapter Two, basically analyze the musical features of the character Maria. By the research of the link between rhythm stress and intonation, the study highlights the important performance of drama by the perfect combination of rhythm stress and intonation. Besides, the dramatic performance of Maria is reflected by the liquidity in Bernstein's musical creation. It also promotes the drama to climax constantly by the creation of melody. Chapter Three, presents a comparison and analysis of the aria music and dramatic performance for the characters of Eillen and Maria. It makes a great guidance to actors especially actress to perform Bernstein's also other's works.