'Pocahontas' Composer Teaches Songwriting Technique

The man who brought the music and lyrics of "Pocahontas" to the world brought students a solution to writer's block yesterday.

Stephen Schwartz, a four-time Oscar winner who has worked on projects including "The Prince of Egypt," "Godspell, and Disney's version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," offered a class on song composition for his audience of 100 in the Adams House Lower Common Room yesterday afternoon.

"The way to get over [writer's block] is to just send the editor to Aruba and force yourself to put something down, regardless of how terrible you may think it is," Schwartz told the audience. "We as writers have some writer and some editor in us, and sometimes you just have to send the editor away."

As part of his presentation, Schwartz critiqued the work of four undergraduates chosen beforehand by Harvard's Office for the Arts as up-and-coming musical theater, pop and classical composers.

He analyzed their work closely, offering feedback and advice, and garnering appreciation from the student composers in the process.

"He really encouraged us to pursue this stuff and not to be intimidated by the Harvard stigma against performance as a career," said David W. Liang '00, one of the four students chosen and this year's composer for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals' annual show.

The other students selected to showcase their works in the class were Ashley L. Filip '00, Lembit L. Beecher '02 and Massi Osseo-Asare '00. The four met with the artist earlier in the day to discuss music and careers in performance.

Though not all of Schwartz's feedback was positive, the students said they didn't mind.

"It's a fantastic opportunity. I am a big fan of Mr. Schwartz's work, and it is exciting to hear his feedback, regardless of whether it is criticism or encouragement," Liang said.

In response to an audience member's question about his knack for achieving popular appeal with his works, Schwartz pointed to heartfelt simplicity as the key.

"What I have learned is that the more honest and specific I am about what I am writing, the more it has universal appeal," he said. "All of us as human beings have some instinct for what is true and what is not, and we respond to what it true. It is universal."

The class served as the culmination of a longer visit to Harvard by Schwartz, during which he met extensively with members of the Hillel Drama Society, which will be putting on his most recent work, Children of Eden, in January.

Schwartz is a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University and attended Julliard while in high school.

He captured his first two Oscars in 1996 in cooperation with Alan Menken for their work on "Pocahontas" (1995). He took away two more on his own this year for "The Prince of Egypt" (1998). He recently released a CD entitled Reluctant Pilgrim, featuring 11 new songs Schwartz composed and sung himself.