Library of Congress acquires Stephen Sondheim's papers and manuscripts
When Stephen Sondheim visited the Library of Congress in 1993, he saw something that stopped him in his tracks. Mark Horowitz, a senior music specialist at the library, had prepared a selection of historical scores from its collection – including works by Brahms and Rachmaninoff – to show the acclaimed composer and lyricist.
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'The last thing I showed him was Gershwin's manuscript for 'Porgy and Bess,'' Horowitz said. 'That's when he started to cry.'
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The Library of Congress announced Wednesday that it has acquired the papers of the late composer, who died in 2021. Manuscripts and documents charting the creation of some of the most iconic and beloved musicals of the past 50-plus years – including 'Company,' 'Into the Woods' and 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' – will now sit alongside 'Porgy and Bess' in the library's permanent collection.
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Sondheim's music and lyrics will be available for public viewing July 1, while the remaining letters, notes and more will be accessible later this summer. The treasure trove of notebooks, sheet music and letters illuminates the craft behind the eight-time Tony winner's relentless reinvention of the musical.
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'When it comes to theater makers in America in the last century, he's the Shakespeare,' said Matthew Gardiner, the artistic director of Arlington's Signature Theatre, which is known for its productions of Sondheim's musicals. 'It's so special to have these documents and lyrics and poems to see his process. [It's] a celebration of a life's work that changed an art form.'
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The library's acquisition of Sondheim's materials was decades in the making. Shortly after joining its music department, Horowitz arranged the show-and-tell with Sondheim, partially to persuade the composer to donate his manuscripts and letters to the institution.
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'After that meeting, he said he was going to change his will,' Horowitz said. 'He sent me a letter with a blowup of the language he put in his will about his papers coming to the library. I felt like, yes, I could breathe a sigh of relief now that [was] done.'
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Three months ago, boxes containing nearly 5,000 items began arriving at the library's Madison Building. The treasures included the program for 'By George,' a musical Sondheim wrote in high school, and documents from the creation of more celebrated musicals, such as 40 pages of potential rhymes for the song 'A Little Priest' from 'Sweeney Todd.' Even for a Sondheim fan like Horowitz, sorting through these notes and pages of sheet music was overwhelming. The papers, he said, illustrate the painstaking energy that went into a Sondheim composition.
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