 The score of Wicked is heavily thematic , bearing in some senses more resemblance to a film score than a traditional musical score . While many musical scores employ new motifs and melodies for each song with little overlap , Schwartz integrated a handful of leitmotifs throughout the production . Some of these motifs indicate irony – for example , when Galinda presents Elphaba with a " ghastly " hat in " Dancing through Life " , the score reprises a theme from " What is this Feeling ? " a few scenes earlier , in which Elphaba and Glinda had espoused their mutual loathing . 
