The most eclectic of music theatre composers was not only a gifted wordsmith and lyricist, but also had a truly original compositional voic...
The most eclectic of music theatre composers was not only a gifted wordsmith and lyricist, but also had a truly original compositional voice.
Stephen Sondheim, who died at home on November 26 at 91, had a singular ability to craft a narrative in short, poignant moments, with constantly evolving, twisting and turning motifs in melodies and harmonies that signify, place, time, feeling, emotion and sensory experience.
He built a score by taking an idea – either lyrical or musical – turning it upside down and spinning it around to reveal a different view. It is clear Sondheim enjoyed the play of words, of motifs, of reinventing musical theatre to fit the changing perspectives of contemporary life. The audience in a Sondheim show revels in each character’s complexity.
Alongside his storied wordplay, exquisite melodies and complex harmonies, one of Sondheim’s greatest achievements was his ability to write women characters that actors want to play: complex women, women at the centre of a narrative, from Desiree recalibrating at the end of her career in A Little Night Music (1973) to the complicated Mary, her life revealed backwards in Merrily We Roll Along (1981).
Young writer
Sondheim’s first big break was as the lyricist on West Side Story (1957), after the...
