NMI’s RESOURCE CENTER for musical theatre writers

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

• Anapest:

  A three-syllable unit comprised of two unstressed syllables followed by an stressed accent. Such as:

  • Are you LONEsome tonNIGHT?
  • Do you MISS me tonNIGHT?
• Periphrasis:

  Substitution of a proper name as a descriptive (associated with that proper name). Such as:

  He was a Quixote of the fishing world, with delusions of catching a swordfish with a homemade fishing pole.
  The Herculean task of cleaning the garage.
  A Sondheimean rhyme scheme

• Accent – tonic:

  Tonic accents are a result of notes which are noticeably different in pitch than the notes around them: either higher or lower. A higher pitch may be perceived as emphasized; likewise, a lower pitch may be perceived as emphasized.

  • But as long as you love me so (let it snow)
  • Pop-u-lar
  • Here’s to the ladies who lunch; every body laugh.
• Neighbor exposition:

  Information exchanged between characters who know one another.  Compare to stranger exposition (below). The concept here is that characters who already know each other often can’t be used to deliver backstory/exposition, because they already know this information and wouldn’t explain it to each other.  Two people who know one another don’t have to reiterate information which they both know.  You don’t have to say to your father, “Hey, Dad, have you heard from my sister Stella, your youngest daughter?” or “Dad, we’re having a Fourth of July party to celebrate the Fourt of July, which is a national holiday which falls on the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the signing of America’s Declaration of Independence.”

• Collaboration:

  The process of two or more people working together to produce or create something. In musical theatre, this refers both to the writers of the musical, and later to the artistic team necessary to get the musical produced

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