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Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions [Second Edition]
0810874369, 9780810874367, 9780810874374

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Sondheim on Music Minor Details and Major Decisions Second Edition Mark Eden Horowitz The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham • Toronto • Plymouth, UK In Association with The Library of Congress 2010 Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.scarecrowpress.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2010 by The Library of Congress All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Cataloging in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Horowitz, Mark Eden. Sondheim on music : minor details and major decisions / Mark Eden Horowitz. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8108-7436-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-7437-4 (ebook) 1. Sondheim, Stephen—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Musicals—United States—Analysis, appreciation. 3. Sondheim, Stephen—Interviews. 4. Composers—United States—Interviews. I. Sondheim, Stephen. II. Title. ML410.S6872H67 2010 782.1'4092—dc22 2010016747 ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. ⬁ Printed in the United States of America Contents Preface to the Second Edition v Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii 1 Part I: The Interviews 1 Passion 2 Assassins 57 3 Into the Woods 81 4 Sunday in the Park with George 91 3 5 Interlude 119 6 Sweeney Todd 125 7 Pacific Overtures 155 8 Finale 9 165 Bounce (pre–Road Show) 169 10 Encore 187 Part II: Songs I Wish I’d Written (At Least in Part) 245 Part III: Song Listing, Discography, and Publishing Information 255 Explanatory Notes 257 Song Listing 263 iii iv Contents Primary Sondheim Recordings 485 Music Acknowledgments 551 Index 555 About the Author 567 Preface to the Second Edition Stephen Sondheim became my teacher long before we met. His work taught me about psychology, behavior, history, language, ambivalence, and irony. It helped me understand the world, gave me a vocabulary to discuss it, and provided music to accompany it and add emotional depth. The work itself was also an example of the notion that art is most effective when coupled with craft. Given the opportunity to interview Sondheim, I became his actual student, though I thought of myself as a surrogate for whoever might someday have access to the interviews in one form or another. This second edition of Sondheim on Music features two new interviews with Sondheim. Unlike the first set of interviews, which had not been conducted with any intention that they would be published, I hoped from the beginning that these would be, and the most recent interview was done specifically for this edition and is its primary justification. Combined, they add about sixty percent to the interview portion of the book. The “Song Listing, Discography, and Publishing Information” section has also been updated and expanded. The first new interview focuses entirely on the show Bounce (2003), which subsequently found its final form in the significantly altered Road Show (2008). The interview was conducted to inform an article I was writing for The Sondheim Review on the show’s evolution and birth. Based on the real-life Mizner brothers, Bounce/Road Show has a long and complicated history. Sondheim first considered musicalizing the story in the early 1950s, but abandoned the project when he learned that Irving Berlin was working on a musical on the same subject—a show that never materialized. When he took up the idea again, it was first realized as a reading v vi Preface to the Second Edition at the New York Theatre Workshop in the fall of 1999 under the title Wise Guys (directed by Sam Mendes). Work progressed slowly, until the show, now named Bounce—and directed by Harold Prince—had a limited run at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago in the summer of 2003. After a hiatus of a couple of months, that evolving production opened for a limited run at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 2003. In preparation for my article and the interview with Sondheim, I attended the production in Chicago and exchanged emails with him about that version. I also conducted interviews with John Weidman, the show’s author, and Jonathan Tunick, its orchestrator (a frequently rescheduled interview with Prince never took place). The interviews with Weidman and Tunick informed my interview with Sondheim, and excerpts from all three interviews were included in the article. I also attended the Sitzprobe in Washington on October 16—a rehearsal where the musicians and cast play and sing the show together for the first time (held in this case, as is typical, in a rehearsal hall)—and saw the second preview on October 22. The interview with Sondheim took place on the afternoon of October 29 in his rooms at the Watergate Hotel, and the show opened the following evening. It had always been my hope that the interview with Sondheim would someday be published in full, but it has taken several years for that to happen. The Bounce version of the show was not well received and failed to reach Broadway as its creators had hoped. After some time, Sondheim and Weidman returned to work on the show, to a degree reverting to an amalgam of earlier versions combined with the New York Theatre Workshop one, now with John Doyle as their collaborating director. I first approached Sondheim about publishing the complete interview in 2006, but as he was already in the throes of reworking the show, he felt his comments about the earlier version were no longer relevant; I think he also feared that publishing it then might confuse or mislead. So I let the matter drop. After the show reached its final approved version under the title Road Show, I reexamined the earlier interview and, though the show was indeed different, much of the score remained the same, and Sondheim’s comments struck me again as not only instructive and fascinating, but unusually revealing about the process of putting a show together. Of all the interviews I’ve done with Sondheim, this is the only one to catch him in the middle of working on a show, which gives his responses a rare immediacy. And since a commercial cast recording was made of the Bounce version of the score, readers can follow this interview with that recording. In November 2009, I asked Sondheim again whether I could include this interview in this book, and after a quick reread he said yes. At the time he was working on his own book, and my sense from his response was that Preface to the Second Edition vii he particularly appreciated the value of an interview that was contemporary with the work being discussed. When Scarecrow Press asked if I was interested in working on a second edition of Sondheim on Music, my immediate thought was, only if Sondheim would agree to a new interview. A comment I had received repeatedly from readers revealed some frustration that the book only focused on Sondheim’s later shows. There was a reason for that (explained in the original introduction), but it seemed this was an opportunity to at least partially correct that imbalance. Also, Sondheim, ever the generous teacher, always gave me the benefit of the doubt in our initial interviews, saying things like, “As you know . . . ” or simply assuming that I did. The reality is (I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit) I didn’t always immediately understand or appreciate the significance of everything he said. A new interview would be an opportunity to follow up on some of our earlier discussions, and, I hoped, benefit from a clearer understanding of how Sondheim worked. He agreed to a new interview in January 2009, and we ultimately scheduled it for the afternoon of May 13, again in his New York home. Preparing for the interview, as I had the first time, I solicited input and suggestions from several musicologists and musicians. This time, presumably because people now had a better sense of the notion behind the interviews, I received many responses. I also received additional scans of some of his manuscripts from his archivist, Peter Jones. This new interview, here titled “Encore,” is in some way the mirror image of the initial interviews. Those sessions worked backward from Sondheim’s then most current show, Passion, going as far back as a chapter on Pacific Overtures (1976). For reasons that mostly escape me now, I skipped over Merrily We Roll Along (1981). (I’m not sure it was entirely conscious, but I think I was concerned that Sondheim’s experience with that show had been so disappointing that I feared upsetting him.) This new interview works forward from Sondheim’s first Broadway show as composer and lyricist, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) and, with a bit of skipping around, even touches on his latest work, Road Show. Of course there are tangents, so not everything is strictly chronological. After transcribing the interviews and performing some modest editing, I sent them to Sondheim for his comments and corrections. In addition to a few specific corrections and clarifications, one telling suggestion he made was, “You might comb out a few redundancies.” I’ve tried to do that, but it is a painful task. One of the things I like about these transcripts of interviews is that they reveal a mind at work. One reader pointed out to me how often Sondheim begins a response one way, only to immediately begin the process of refining and rethinking his answer, sometimes viii Preface to the Second Edition to the point of coming to an opposite conclusion. The fact that he puts so much thought and internal debate into his responses will, I hope, make readers take them that much more seriously. The expansion of the “Song Listing, Discography, and Publishing Information” has mostly been in the discography. Not only have there been many new recordings of Sondheim works since the initial edition of this book was published, but recent Internet and other resources have provided hundreds of additional citations for earlier recordings or reissues that were missed. Readers should be warned that inaccuracies abound at some major Internet sites (particularly where programs seem to automatically assume that identical song titles indicate identical songs), but with the benefit of audio clips and other clues, I have attempted to verify and correct all entries. When I conducted the original interviews with Sondheim, I had no idea that they would one day form a book, and when the book became a reality I assumed its primary readership would be musicologists, conductors, scholars, and fans of musical theater in general and Sondheim in particular. But I have learned that it has found another readership that I had not anticipated, but that makes me happiest of all—songwriters and composers. I hope that its influence there will be significant. And though it is perhaps presumptuous for me to suggest what lessons others should take from it, I feel compelled to make some comments. I wish more people wrote like Stephen Sondheim. Not to sound like him or to copy him, but to invest their work with the same kind of care and intellect. Some of his approaches are overarching, such as his interest in experimentation with form and style and structure, and in trying and finding different ways to use music and lyrics in a dramatic context. Still, he believes in certain fundamental principles, such as “content dictates form,” “less is more,” and “god is in the details.” He believes in the power of the subconscious to make connections and provide solutions, and for that reason tries to limit his work to the universe of one score at a time. Some notions are very specific, such as using the natural inflection of language to inform the rhythm and shape of the melodic line. Some goals are opposites in tension—structure versus looseness, surprise versus inevitability, clarity versus subtext. Yet, though each score is unique, his unmistakable voice shines through. Not cluster chords, changing meters, wide-ranging melodies, or unusual rhythmic entrances—things that are typically (if misleadingly) parodied. Sondheim has a rare combination of talents, not only as a composer and lyricist, but also as a dramatist. Although he does not author his own librettos, his musical numbers are character- and plot-driven, imbued with subtext, conceived to be staged, and invariably serve a dramatic purpose. A few others are also unusually talented as both composers and lyricists, Preface to the Second Edition ix and to some degree dramatists (Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Frank Loesser, Meredith Willson, Jerry Herman, Stephen Schwartz, and William Finn come to mind), but none, I think, at as consistently an impressive level with all three aspects. While talent, even genius, must account for much of what makes Sondheim’s work special, it is the degree of craft and intellectual rigor he applies to the process that truly seems to set him apart. At the Library of Congress, I have been the archivist for collections that include the manuscripts and papers of Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, Oscar Hammerstein II, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Vernon Duke, Arthur Schwartz, Frederick Loewe, Leonard Bernstein, and Jonathan Larson, and have an intimate knowledge of several others, including Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Alan Jay Lerner, Burton Lane, and Harold Rome. All of them have impressed me, and I consider myself a fan of their works. However, none of them has shown evidence of the painstaking working out of ideas I have seen among Sondheim’s music and lyric manuscripts. For the music there are the long-line sketches; the page after page of accompaniment figures, alternative melodic lines, rhythms, and harmonic progressions to consider; the conceiving of themes and motives and how they might evolve or relate to one another. And though this book focuses on Sondheim’s work as a composer, it is worth noting that, while all lyricists seem to make lists of rhymes, lists of synonyms, and often generate page after page of draft lyrics, Sondheim’s lyric sketches also focus on the underlying ideas of the songs, their structures, and the psychology of the characters who sing them. Some might argue that this kind of attention to detail robs the works of spontaneity and tunefulness, but to this listener it creates scores of unparalleled depth and intensity. Whatever your purpose in reading this book, I suggest that you read it not just for the specifics—the how-tos and whys—but step back and read it for its view of a creative mind at work. Sondheim as a teacher provides guideposts not just for the writing of songs, but arguably for any artistic or intellectual pursuit. And how often do we have the opportunity to learn from the best? * * * There are additional acknowledgements and thank-yous to be made for this new edition. Many of the same people who were acknowledged in the first edition continued with their gracious assistance, but to be added to that list are the following. From Sondheim’s office, archivist Peter Jones provided invaluable guidance and scans of manuscripts. The most recent interview was recorded by sound engineer Ray Romano (recommended by my dear friend Amy Asch). At the Library of Congress, the current chief of the music division, Susan Vita, and the head of its acquisitions x Preface to the Second Edition and processing section, Denise Gallo, proved unflaggingly supportive and encouraging. From the Library’s publishing office, neither edition of the book would have happened without the support and attention of Ralph Eubanks, director of publishing, while Susan Reyburn acted as an enthusiastic editor of the new material, and my new editor at Scarecrow Press was old friend and previous colleague Renée Camus. Also with Scarecrow Press, my production editor Jayme Bartles Reed. Brian Eisenberg was the copyist for the new musical examples and proved to be extraordinarily careful and caring. Several people suggested questions that I might ask Sondheim. Some were unasked because of time constraints and others because they didn’t quite fit within the parameters of this project, but among those whose questions I was able to use or adapt were Stephen Banfield, Rick Freyer, Charles Joseph, Andrew Killick, Kim Kowalke, Paul Laird, Carol Oja, and Bruce Pomahac. Acknowledgments There are many people to thank—people without whom this book either would not have happened, would have been less than it is, or would have been less gratifying to work on. They include: My wife, Loie Gardiner Clark, for her constant love and encouragement, her extraordinary skills as a grammarian and editor, and her gracious relinquishment of the dining room table. My parents, judy and Terry Horowitz, for raising me with the arts, supporting me in my choices, loving me unconditionally, and exemplifying a good and meaningful life. Steve Clar for his efficiency, hospitality, and insight. Copyist, Chuck Gallagher, for his accuracy, ingenuity, and care. My musician friends, who helped, explained, suggested, and understood: Rob Fisher, Jon Kalbfleisch, Michael Lavine, Bruce Pomahac, Larry Moore, Jeff Saver, and Russell Warner. Many at the Library of Congress who in various ways made possible and supported this project: Abraham and Julienne Krasnoff, members of the James Madison Council, for the grant that made the initial interviews possible; James W. Billington, Winston Tabb, Diane Nester Kresh, Jon Newsom, Elizabeth H. Auman, and Vicky Risner for being far-sighted professionals who genuinely care about the work the Library does and believe in the importance of projects like this one; Iris Newsom for being both a careful and caring editor; my colleagues and friends Raymond White and xi xii Acknowledgments Loras Schissel who generously shared their knowledge and expertise; and Samuel Brylawski, a friend who has been my mentor at the Library a
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