Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Part I Before Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part II Being Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 3 The Sounds of Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 4 Getting to Know Them: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Co-creators
- 5 ‘That’s When They Take It to the Bank’: The Business of Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 6 Rodgers and Hammerstein, the ‘Integrated Musical’ and the Golden Age
- Part III The Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part IV Legacies
- Select Bibliography
- Index
6 - Rodgers and Hammerstein, the ‘Integrated Musical’ and the Golden Age
from Part II - Being Rodgers and Hammerstein
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 August 2026
By
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Musical Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Part I Before Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part II Being Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 3 The Sounds of Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 4 Getting to Know Them: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Co-creators
- 5 ‘That’s When They Take It to the Bank’: The Business of Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 6 Rodgers and Hammerstein, the ‘Integrated Musical’ and the Golden Age
- Part III The Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Part IV Legacies
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter interrogates the terms ‘integration’ and ‘Golden Age’ and how both relate to the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein. In addition to exploring how the terms came into practice and their various meanings, the chapter also analyses various tropes of ‘Golden Age’ musicals, including opening numbers for both acts, solo songs, duets (including the idea of conditional love songs), musical scenes and narrative ballets, a particular two-act structure in which the first is noticeably longer than the second and how the denouement is treated. The chapter also offers insights into the legacies of the ‘Golden Age’ musical and its integrated rhetoric in terms of nostalgia, revivals and the sung-through musical.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Rodgers and Hammerstein , pp. 83 - 98Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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