The first question to ask when building an ensemble number is: what do you want to achieve with it? Are you using it to establish the world of the show? To develop character? To advance the plot? To create a big spectacle? Your answer will help you determine how many performers to include, how much choreography to feature, how long the number should be, and how best to pace it. For example, a show set during a high-energy time like the Roaring Twenties could have big, brassy opening and closing numbers, while a more subdued period like the Great Depression might call for something more low-key.
Ensemble is an example of one of the most fun and complicated songs you will have to write in musical theater: a song with a lot of characters. These songs are used to tell the story when your characters are all feeling the same way, are arguing, or you want to take a picture of what’s going on in your world at a certain moment. Though ensemble pieces can be exciting show stoppers, you should aim to write dramatic ensemble songs that, in their climax, ready your musical for its next dramatic change.
First, there needs to be a reason for the ensemble to sing together. It should reveal character dynamics or tensions that have come to a head at this point in the story, and what they sing should be something that can’t be expressed in a dramatic scene. Perhaps it’s a celebratory song about a minor win, a reveal of fractures within the group, a lament for a collective loss, a call to action in the face of a common danger, etc. Based on that purpose, you decide on a structure for the number. Maybe each person gets a verse, maybe it starts with separate ideas that overlap before folding into each other, maybe it’s a building wave before everyone comes together in agreement, or maybe it’s a breakdown into dissonance and division.
The result is that the music must create the drama through the use of texture, dynamics, and counterpoint. An effective ensemble will typically begin with just one or two people presenting the “main theme,” and other characters will be added whose music will either reinforce, contradict, or add nuance to that idea. The complexity of the rhythm may increase as the stakes are raised (e.g. going from straight rhythm to syncopation). The harmony may become more dissonant as things come to a head and then resolve as the issue is (or isn’t) resolved.
The timing and positioning of an ensemble is also vital. An early ensemble may articulate the terms of the community, or present a shared desire that is then developed or complicated in subsequent ensembles. An ensemble in the middle of the act may provide necessary relief and catharsis, or refocus the ensemble after various events have created a new sense of urgency and awareness. An ensemble that takes place near the end of the act may provide the dramatic culmination of the act’s conflicts and tensions, and may bring about irreversible change through consensus, the destruction of a fantasy, or recognition of an insurmountable impasse.
When all these factors are at play, ensemble songs are the highlights of a show that stick with audiences. They are when the overall picture is brought into focus, and when the theme of unity or discord or optimism or defeat is underscored through the combination of the many voices that speak as one. This requires a good blueprint, and an understanding of how humans interact in a crowd. It also requires scenes that not only push the story forward, but are etched into the memory of each person in the audience.
