How Sondheim Found His Sound

How Sondheim Found His Sound

<div><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">“Steve Swayne’s <I>How Sondheim Found His Sound</I> is a fascinating treatment and remarkable analysis of America’s greatest playwright in song. His marvelous text goes a long way toward placing Stephen Sondheim among the towering artists of the late twentieth century!”</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">—Cornel West, Princeton University</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">“Sondheim’s career and <I>music</I> have never been so skillfully dissected, examined, and put in context. With its focus on his work as composer, this book is surprising and welcome.”</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">—Theodore S. Chapin, President and Executive Director, The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">“. . . an intriguing ‘biography’ of the songwriter’s style. . . . Swayne is to be congratulated for taking the study of this unique composer/lyricist into hitherto unnavigated waters.”</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">—<I>Stage Directions</I></P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">“The research is voluminous, as are the artistry and perceptiveness. Swayne has lived richly within the world of Sondheim’s music.”</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">—Richard Crawford, author of <I>America’s Musical Life: A History</I></P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">“Amid the ever-more-crowded bookshelf of writings on Sondheim, Swayne’s analysis of Sondheim’s development as a composer stands up as a unique and worthy study. . . . For the Sondheim aficionados, there are new ideas and new information, and for others, Swayne’s <I>How Sondheim Found His Sound</I> will provide an intriguing introduction into the mind of arguably the greatest and most influential living Broadway composer.”</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">—<I>talkinbroadway.com</I></P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">“What a fascinating book, full of insights large and small. An impressive analysis and summary of Sondheim’s many sources of inspiration. All fans of the composer and lovers of Broadway in general will treasure and frequently refer to Swayne’s work.”</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">—Tom Riis, Joseph Negler Professor of Musicology and Director of the American Music Research Center, University of Colorado</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">Stephen Sondheim has made it clear that he considers himself a “playwright in song.” How he arrived at this unique appellation is the subject of <I>How Sondheim Found His Sound</I>—an absorbing study of the multitudinous influences on Sondheim’s work.</P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%"> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%">Taking Sondheim’s own comments and music as a starting point, author Steve Swayne offers a biography of the artist’s style, pulling aside the curtain on Sondheim’s creative universe to reveal the many influences—from classical music to theater to film—that have established Sondheim as one of the greatest dramatic composers of the twentieth century.</P></div>