Alan Menken

Alan Menken

Born in New York on July 22 in 1949, growing up in suburban New Rochelle, was a budding instrumental talent, developing an early interest in Beethoven and Brahms, later taken by the new folk movement, all the while adding rock'n'roll, and virtually anything else his ever-expanding musical universe.

Alan Menken 是一位來自美國的紐約人，出生於1949年7月22日，從小生長在一個喜愛百老匯音樂的家庭中

"I showed an interest in piano at a very young age, but I hated to practice, so when my parents left the room I'd make up my own version of the piece. That's how I started composing", he says. He also took up violin and guitar, played in bands and "did the whole '60s experience, soup to nuts".

而他在很小的時候就展現出其對鋼琴方面的興趣，但他不喜歡練習，所以當他的父母不在的時候，他會自行彈奏他自己的樂章，這或許就是他作曲之路的開始。除此之外，他還會彈奏小提琴與吉他，逐漸地，他希望未來能夠成為一位嚴肅的音樂作曲家

"I wanted to be a serious composer, but as a very early age really thought that I couldn't do that because who becomes a composer? Chances were I'd be what every other Menken male in sight was: a dentist. My father was a dentist, my father's father was a dentist, my father's brother was a dentist, my mother's sister's husband was a dentist, my father's sister's husbund was a dentist. I thought that I was my fate".

他希望未來能夠成為一位嚴肅的音樂作曲家，但是這種想法在其心中打了個問號，因為， Menken家族中，幾乎人人都是牙醫，爸爸是牙醫，祖父是牙醫，伯父是牙醫，舅舅也是牙醫，他一度以為，當牙醫是宿命嗎?

After earning a degree in music from New York University, Menken worked under Lehman Ingram, the Music Director at the Musical Theater Workshop. He supported himself by writing jingles, accompanying ballet classes (he met his ballerina wife that way), and "musical directing" other people's shows. He also performed his own material in clubs, hoping to become "a singer-songwriter in the Peter Allen / Billy Joel / Elton John / James Taylor / Jackson Browne mode". Musical theater was not a priority. "I auditioned for the BMI workshop to please my parents", he says, referring to the innovative Manhattan-based program that has spawned so many gifted lyricists, composers and librettists. "Then I realized that I really like the challenge of writing for characters, adapting stories, being able to write an entire song score. I discovered I had a gift for writing accessible theatrical material that also had some kind of contemporary thing to it".

在紐約大學取得音樂學位後，他先是在一家當地的芭蕾舞團為其譜曲，也在這裡認識了他的妻子，另外，他還為許多廣告編寫廣告歌曲。後來，他加入了 BMI's Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop，並在這家公司展現其才華，一個機緣讓他踏入音樂界。



Composition (相關作品)

1986 Little Shop of Horrors (奇形奇花)
1989 The little mermaid (小美人魚)
1990 Rocky V (洛基5)
1991 Beauty and  the Beast (美女與野獸)
1992 Lincoln (林肯傳)
1995 Pocahontas (風中奇緣)
1996 The Hunchback of Notre Dame (鐘樓怪人)
1997 Hercules (大力士)
2004 Home on the Range (放牛吃草)

Video

Beauty and the Beast