Through-composed - Opera and Musicals

Opera and Musicals

The term through-composed is also applied to opera and musical theater to indicate the extent of music. In this case the term has nothing to do with a form devoid of repetition, which would be virtually impossible for a full scale opera. Instead, it indicates that the musicians continuously keep playing, as opposed to having a collection of songs interrupted by recitative pieces and dialogue. Examples of the modern trend towards through-composed works in musical theater include the works of Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. In musical theater, works with no spoken dialogue, such as Les Misérables are usually referred to by the term "through-sung."