I love this exploration of songwriting. Rodgers and Hart songs are some of my favorites. Sondheim's great, but he's such a snob. Unphotogenic indeed. GTFO. As an avid, rhyming lyricist, I'm glad to read an exploration of the difference between lyric and poetry. I would add that lyrics are intertwined with music, while poetry is crafted to stand on its own. This is why I never submit to any lyrics contest. To continue with Sondheim's comparison, it's like submitting ingredients to a cooking contest.
I adore Sondheim and treasure these books but absolutely agree with your take. I'll only add that his inclinations as a songwriter, towards complexity and dialogic as you said, have an even more deleterious effect upon his dramaturgy.
His instincts just do not align with an effective structure of the dramatic story. Into the Woods, Merrily We Roll Along, and Sunday in the Park with George serve as particularly glaring examples of musicals whose neatly complex structure, ambivalent, complicated and cynical, absolutely undercut any satisfying dramatic experience for the audience, even when made up of several hummable songs. Sondheim isn't a book-writer per se, but surely most be held responsible for these type of story structures. I'd argue Being Alive and Send in the Clowns are exceptions that prove the rule, where a slightly more traditional story structure imbues those songs with an emotional heft that carries the audience through some of the exactitude of the songwriting. It's not for nothing that many of the most beloved Sondheim songs are First-Act'ers...though he's certainly not the only writer to struggle here.
Wonderful review and an instant subscribe from me.
I arrived at these songs from a different direction: Fred Astair et al musicals on TV in the late 1950s-1960s. Discovered the more arty versions later on.
I love this exploration of songwriting. Rodgers and Hart songs are some of my favorites. Sondheim's great, but he's such a snob. Unphotogenic indeed. GTFO. As an avid, rhyming lyricist, I'm glad to read an exploration of the difference between lyric and poetry. I would add that lyrics are intertwined with music, while poetry is crafted to stand on its own. This is why I never submit to any lyrics contest. To continue with Sondheim's comparison, it's like submitting ingredients to a cooking contest.
I adore Sondheim and treasure these books but absolutely agree with your take. I'll only add that his inclinations as a songwriter, towards complexity and dialogic as you said, have an even more deleterious effect upon his dramaturgy.
His instincts just do not align with an effective structure of the dramatic story. Into the Woods, Merrily We Roll Along, and Sunday in the Park with George serve as particularly glaring examples of musicals whose neatly complex structure, ambivalent, complicated and cynical, absolutely undercut any satisfying dramatic experience for the audience, even when made up of several hummable songs. Sondheim isn't a book-writer per se, but surely most be held responsible for these type of story structures. I'd argue Being Alive and Send in the Clowns are exceptions that prove the rule, where a slightly more traditional story structure imbues those songs with an emotional heft that carries the audience through some of the exactitude of the songwriting. It's not for nothing that many of the most beloved Sondheim songs are First-Act'ers...though he's certainly not the only writer to struggle here.
Wonderful review and an instant subscribe from me.
The Backlisted episode on this book is terrific.
Great post as always, and good call on the critic’s clumsy pastiche—I’d make it “front row seats for the next one written by”
I arrived at these songs from a different direction: Fred Astair et al musicals on TV in the late 1950s-1960s. Discovered the more arty versions later on.