Stephen Sondheim, composer, lyricist, and writer, was born in New York City on March 22, 1930. His father, Herbert, was a manufacturer, and his mother, Janet, a fashion designer. He graduated from the George School in 1946. He majored in music at Williams College, graduating summa cum laude in 1950. After graduation, Sondheim was awarded a Hutchinson Scholarship to study music. He studied musical composition for three years in New York under Milton Babbitt.
Sondheim began writing for the musical stage when he was at the George School. At the same time he began an informal apprenticeship in lyric writing under Oscar Hammerstein II. Having written a school show, he asked Hammerstein, who was a neighbor and the father of a friend, to evaluate the lyrics. With painstaking care Hammerstein examined them, introducing Sondheim to his approach to lyric writing. From Hammerstein, Sondheim learned such principles as “a song should reveal the character to the audience...” and “what counts is what you have to say. It can be said in the simplest rhymes--it has to be. Otherwise it's just cleverness. A lyric must have clarity of sound and clarity of thought.” Sondheim continued to submit his work, from college shows to professional musicals, to Hammerstein until the latter's death. As he acquired experience however, Sondheim developed an individual style. One commentator has pointed out that Sondheim's lyrics tend “toward colloquial, contemporary diction as opposed to Hammerstein's poetic manner.”
In 1953 Sondheim wrote scripts in collaboration with George Oppenheimer for the Topper TV series. In 1954 he was commissioned by Lemuel Ayers to write the music and lyrics for Saturday Night. The death of Ayers shortly thereafter halted production plans. Arthur Laurents, however, had seen Sondheim's work for the show and, liking it, asked him to collaborate with Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, and himself by writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957). Two years later Sondheim again collaborated with Laurents by writing the lyrics to Gypsy. William K. Zinsser has said of Sondheim's lyrics for these two shows: “It is because his lyrics so surely fit not only the moment but the total mood and character of the story that West Side Story and Gypsy have an extra unity, maturity, and dramatic strength.”
As a lyricist, Sondheim collaborated with Hammerstein's former partner, Richard Rodgers, for the musical Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965). Rodgers commented on Sondheim's style, “It has a curious way of making people sing as if they were talking.”
Despite these attainments, Sondheim said he did not especially enjoy writing lyrics. Instead, he preferred to write music. He wrote the incidental music for the play The Girls of Summer by N. Richard Nash (1956). He also composed the incidental music for Laurent's play, Invitation to a March (1960).
Sondheim made his Broadway debut as a composer-lyricist with the 1962 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Writing this score provided him with the opportunity to do what he called “pretentious work.” By this term, Sondheim meant “work that exploits pretence, that attempts to explore new territory.” In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum the music does not develop character, as it does in the Hammerstein-oriented type of musical, but rather the music emphasizes particular moments in the plot development.
Sondheim wrote both the music and lyrics for the 1964 musical Anyone Can Whistle, which was the product of another collaboration with Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book.
Stephen Sondheim lived in New York City. He was a member of the Council of the Dramatist's Guild, ALA, ASCAP, and WGA. Stephen Sondheim died on November 26, 2021.
