Sign me up for "The Music Theory of Disney Villains!"
Hello, fellow nerds!
Did you know that until 1989, Disney villains almost never sang?
For at least 500 years, musicality has been associated in the Western world with innocence and purity, while lack of musicality signifies evil and corruption.
This is why Snow White sings beautifully, while the Evil Queen never utters a note.
This is also why Cinderella's evil stepsisters, who do sing briefly, sing horridly (out of tune, roughly, with no expression) while Cinderella sings gorgeously.
And this is also why most villain songs from the 1950s-'80s are sung by choruses; villain solos were hardly a thing.
All of this changed with The Little Mermaid.
When Alan Menken wrote the terrifying and dramatic villain song "Poor Unfortunate Souls" for The Little Mermaid in 1989, he completely revolutionized the world of Disney villain songs.
Nearly every Disney villain from that point forward got their own powerful solo.
But unlike heroes, their singing is in many ways antithetical to Western musical standards: they blur the boundaries between song and speech; they have growly, unpolished voices; their melodies can be unpredictable and capricious.
But if all of this is true...
Then how do we explain sweet, innocent characters like Dopey (from Snow White) and the human version of Ariel (from Little Mermaid) who can't even talk, let alone sing?
How do we explain the villainous Hans (from Frozen) who sings with a smooth, polished tone?
And what does any of this have to do with musical anti-Semitism and transphobia???
In this engaging, 45-minute class, you'll dive into the music (and silence) of villains in Disney's animated musicals, from Snow White's Evil Queen (1938) to Moana's Tamatoa (2016).
You'll learn how approaches to composing music (and silence) for Disney villains has changed over the course of nearly 100 years, and how it's all fundamentally rooted in a long history of musical anti-Semitism and transphobia in Western music, theater, art, and literature.
By the end of this class, you'll have acquired new listening skills and insights that will transform how you hear Disney villain songs, not only in movies of the past, but in new releases as Disney continues to produce new villains and new villain songs.
This class is accessible to people of all levels, from total music theory newbies to professional music theorists.
So what are you waiting for? :-)
Let's start learning!
p.s. If you sign up now using this special discount link, then you'll get to watch my entire class for free... AND get a free 2-month subscription to hundreds of online classes at Skillshare.com! In case you haven't heard of it, Skillshare has been called "The Netflix of Learning" - basically, it's a platform for binge watching educational videos that teach you everything from how to draw cute animals to the psychology of human attention. Sign up now and get unlimited access to all of these courses, including mine, for the next two months!