Alan Menken

Alan Menken is nearly synonymous with the modern-day Disney musical. With lyricists Stephen Schwartz (of Wicked fame), Tim Rice, David Zippel, Glenn Slater, and the brilliant Howard Ashman, he has written songs that have become classics. One may take songs such as "Under the Sea," "Beauty and the Beast," "Friend Like Me," "Colors of the Wind," and "I See the Light" for granted. But one need only listen to the cringe-inducing songs in animated features like Thumbelina, The Pebble and the Penguin, Quest for Camelot, and the direct-to-video Disney sequels to witness how difficult it is to write a musical-style song that does not induce vomiting. Menken and Ashman's songs for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin contributed immensely to the revival and subsequent domination of Disney animation in the early '90s. Menken worked with Schwartz on Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Enchanted where the songs became darker and more dramatically complex. Hercules (with Zippel) and Home on the Range (with Slater) emphasized Menken's lighter side, while Tangled (with Slater) represented a recent, glorious return to his '90s work. Yet though Menken's songs take the spotlight, it is his scores that show his evolution and maturity as an orchestral composer, some of them among the most emotional and effective in modern film music. Menken really hit his stride with Beauty and the Beast, deftly capturing the drama and glory of the film's finale. Enchanted combines lush, fantasy scoring, modern pop, and a massive choral finale. Tangled features the requisite dramatic emotional cues, but also features folk stylings and swashbuckling, heroic fanfares. But The Hunchback of Notre Dame may be Menken's masterpiece score, with intense chanting and a sense of darkness and even apocalyptic doom that is only found briefly in his other scores. Menken will always be the master of the animated musical, but his scoring can, in some ways, be even more impressive.

Aladdin

Beauty and the Beast**
Beauty and the Beast (2017)*

Enchanted*

Hercules

The Hunchback of Notre Dame**
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Stage Musical)**

The Little Mermaid
Mirror Mirror

Pocahontas*
Sausage Party* (with Christopher Lennertz)

Tangled