Addressing Sondheim

Well, I just did a search, and in over a year of blogging, the name “Sondheim” has only been mentioned in passing in 7 posts. I’m not sure why this is, considering that Stephen Sondheim is by far the most influential composer upon my aesthetic and even my choice of a career.

To catch up on that, rather than create a huge mega-post that no one will read, I’ve decided to do several normal-sized posts that no one will read. This one is just a little bit of background for starters.

When I was in my teens, I was interested in music and musical theater, but not in any focused way. Hearing the score of Sweeney Todd for the first time in the early Eighties changed all that forever. That was the first score that motivated me to learn how to read music properly, because I’d never heard anything like it, and I wanted to understand what made it tick. (After over 20 years, I’m getting closer to that goal )

Having quickly moved on to get familiar with other Sondheim scores, in particular Company, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures and Merrily We Roll Along, I began to explore some of the composers who were reported to have influenced Sondheim, but whom I hadn’t heard of. Starting with Stravinsky, I checked out an album at the public library, almost at random. Turns out it was the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto along with a bunch of what I now know to be fairly obscure works.

So, skipping ahead, by the time college-pickin’ time came around I already knew I wanted to be a composer. Of course, in college I was exposed to all sorts of other things, but I never stopped wanting to be Sondheim when I grew up. All of my music is influenced by him in one way or another, however remotely in some cases.

In recent years I’ve gone in and out of periods of oversaturation with Sondheim, and I’m just coming out of one of these now. During these periods I avoid listening to his music, because I’m just so familiar with everything already, and it just becomes sort of noise. But, at the moment, I’m in the middle of reading the new book How Sondheim Found His Sound, which has gotten me interested in listening with fresh ears. More on that coming up.

Sondheim Sings, Vol. II

The track listing for the next volume of Sondheim Sings has been announced. More information at Playbill.com .

These volumes consist of selections from Sondheim’s private collection of home recordings he made of his own songs over the years. Volume I , which was released earlier this year, consists of recordings made between 1962 and 1972, so there is a lot of familiar material on it.

Volume II is comprised of much earlier work, including a Christmas greeting for Oscar Hammerstein from 1943 when Sondheim was 13 years old. Many of the tracks are from his student works of the ’40′s and early ’50′s that pre-date Saturday Night and West Side Story. Being a crazed Sondheim lunatic myself, I had an opportunity a few years ago to hear Track 9, “A Star Is Born”, which he wrote in 1954 for some friends when they had a baby. The lyrics are dizzying, and you can’t believe anyone could come up with this stuff, let alone a 24-year-old.

It can be ordered in advance from Amazon.com.