The Creation of a New Musical - Part 4: Preproduction: The Writi

• The lyrics are written to a completed melody;
• A melody is written to completed lyrics;
• A potential phrase, a single verse or chorus, or even just a title -- is contributed to inspire the composition of a melody, with the complete lyrics added later;
• A melodic idea is contributed to inspire the writing of a lyric, with the completion of the composing to occur later;
• A lyric is submitted and the composer adjusts the lyric to accommodate changes necessitated by melodic ideas;
• and an endless variety of different combinations of the above.

Sometimes a composer will come up with a "dummy" or placeholder set of lyrics while writing. If he cares to share these with the lyricist some of these dummy lyrics may end up as part of the final, polished lyric. (On occasion, the composer's dummy lyrics may end up being used in toto. Recent postings in the Original Cast Recordings mailing list [CASTRECL: To subscribe, send email to the server address <LISTSERV@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> with ONLY the following in the email body: SUBSCRIBE CASTRECL Your-Name] have discussed this issue in a thread about giving credit in show credits.)

With individual composer/lyricists the music and lyrics may be written simultaneously or concurrently. The same may be true of a team of composer and lyricist who work in close quarters, with each contributing to the growing song.

Next week we'll add the Bookwriter into this volatile mix.

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