Music composition comes naturally to Leeran Raphaely; writing and performing 30 songs for a musical is another matter. Raphaely, a Mercer Island High School senior, is attempting both. So far, he is more than halfway there.

As his senior culminating project, Raphaely is working with MIHS drama director Karen Campbell to compose the music for this year’s fall musical, “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui,” by Bertolt Brecht. The idea was a collaborative one.

Last spring, Campbell approached Raphaely, who had written a handful of pieces for Campbell in the past, asking if he would be willing to write the music for this year’s production. Raphaely, always eager to play around with music, readily agreed.

A jazz and marching band student, Raphaely is somewhat of a star in the MISD music department. He is a stellar piano player and just as good at saxophone. The senior jams with his friends on the weekends and has played a number of jazz combo gigs over the years. In his free time, Raphaely works on his own music, often writing down what he improvises while jamming. He says composition comes naturally to him. He barely considers it work. Composing music for a drama production, however, has challenged the flourishing artist in ways he did not expect.

“I’m fine with writing melodies and music — that comes natural to me. It gets significantly harder when you have to write a melody that goes to a text,” Raphaely said.

Writing music to the words of Bertolt Brecht, a philosophical Marxist of the 19th century, is especially difficult.

“The text isn’t written like a poem or verse with rhythm. Bertolt Brecht — it’s very thick,” he explained. “There’s a lot of meaning to every word and, because it’s dialogue, it’s really important for the audience to understand everything.”

Campbell also struggled with portraying Brecht’s dialogue in a meaningful way. The first challenge was translating his play from its original German. Hoping to maintain the play’s authenticity, Campbell took dialogue from two English translations. Over the summer, she would send the developing script, section by section, to Raphaely for composition. The senior would spend hours looking over the dialogue, composing music to the words as he went.

Most of Raphaely’s music follows the “feel of the characters” or the dialogue itself, he said.

“Mrs. Campbell adapted the script and highlighted lines that she wanted to be sung. I didn’t have the whole script, because she was adapting it as I was writing, but I thought it went really well.”

Today, less than two weeks before “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” premieres at MIHS, there is still much work to be done. Raphaely and Campbell are busy fine-tuning the music — all 30 pieces.

“All the songs are written in the ‘Key of Leeran,’ which he can sing them in,” Campbell said with a light hearted laugh. “He’s a baritone and most of our singers are tenors, so we had to change some of the keys.”

The actors also have their say.

“The kids are friends with Leeran, so they’re very proud to be a part of his music. They’re finding that, sometimes, there are challenges in the music, but they’re rising to the occasion,” Campbell said.

The style of music ranges from jazz to tango to modern. Each composition has its own flavor, making the show difficult to define as a whole.

“It’s in the truest form of musical theatre — a play with lots of songs that tell the story,” Campbell said.

She does not, however, define the show as a musical, per se. Not in the Broadway sense, at least.

“It’s closer to an opera in style than a Broadway show, but the music isn’t operatic. It’s of a very modern style, however, like in an opera the actors are talking to each other through song.”

Raphaely has spent far more than the required 50 hours of work on his culminating project. Over the summer, he sometimes spent seven hours a day composing music for the play. Today his afternoons and evenings are filled with the project. Yet it is something the senior is truly passionate about.

On Nov. 13, Raphaely’s work will come alive on stage, and he will be a part of it. In addition to composing all of the music, Raphaely will be performing the theatrical score with nine fellow MIHS music students. One of his biggest responsibilities will be arranging and orchestrating the band.

“I didn’t really get the scope of how much work this project would be when Mrs. Campbell gave it to me. It’s turning into a really huge thing,” the senior said.

Yet he is determined to pull the show off. After all, his work will be illuminated on stage — for the entire Mercer Island community to see.

“I’ve enjoyed this project a lot, and I feel pretty good about the music,” Raphaely said. “Now let’s see how the play works out.”

“The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” will show at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 13-15, 20-22, in the MIHS Auditorium. Advance tickets can be purchased at the MIHS main office before 3 p.m. on weekdays. Tickets at the door are $10 for students and $15 for adults.