Latest news with #Sondheim
CBC
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
A music librarian brought Stephen Sondheim to tears — and got him to bequeath his life's work
Mark Horowitz is quite proud that he made Stephen Sondheim cry. He's even more proud that, in doing so, he convinced the late musical theatre legend to bequeath his vast archive of manuscripts, sheet music, recordings, notebooks and more to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., for generations of Americans to peruse. "He's the entire reason I got into this profession, so this was a dream come true, really," Horowitz, a senior music specialist at the Library, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "To be able to affect him in that way was thrilling and gratifying." The Library announced this week that it has acquired more than 5,000 items from Sondheim's collection, which will be available to the public on July 1. The American composer and lyricist, widely hailed as one of the most influential figures in musical theatre history, died in 2021, and left his collection to the Library in his will. Playing the long game Horowitz started working on the acquisition in 1993, when he invited Sondheim to the Library to view a collection of musical ephemera he had personally curated to impress him. Horowitz — author of Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions and editor for The Sondheim Review — was well-versed on Sondheim's interests and inspirations. The personalized tour included original manuscripts from composers Béla Bartók, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky and Johannes Brahms. But it was American composer George Gershwin's manuscript for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess that moved Sondheim to tears, Horowitz said. "That was the thing that truly was the most emotionally moving to him," Horowitz said. "Watching him cry was thrilling. If you make somebody cry, you've won the game." After that meeting, Horowitz says, Sondheim changed his will to leave his papers to the Library. The pair remained in touch over the years, and Horowitz conducted a series of interviews with the legendary composer at his home in New York in 1997. Marginalia and unknown compositions In a press release, the Library's music division chief Susan Vita called the collection "a treasured addition" that will "honour and preserve Sondheim's legacy." It ranges from drafts of songs that never made it to first rehearsal, as well as a spiral music book titled Notes and Ideas that document some of his musical efforts while a student at Williams College. There are even compositions Horowitz never knew about — and he was pretty he'd known them all. Scrawled in the margins on the lyrics to A Little Priest from the 1979 musical Sweeney Todd Horowitz counted 158 examples of different types of people who could be baked into meat pies, the grisly fate of the murderous protagonist's victims. The vast majority never made it to the final cut "He was very good at killing his darlings," Horowitz said. "He never fell in love, I think, with something to the degree where he wasn't willing to excise it, if it would make the song better for any reason." Horowitz says it's a miracle the collection ever made its way to the Library. In 1995, a fire broke out in the office where Sondheim kept his papers. "I'd seen some of the manuscripts before the fire, and when I went back afterwards, if you lifted the manuscripts out of these cardboard boxes that they were sitting in, there were singe marks outlining where the manuscripts sat," Horowitz said. Beyond a small amount of smoke damage around edges, the papers survived largely unscathed. "You had paper in cardboard on wooden shelves, inches from a fire. And it's truly the closest thing I've ever seen to a miracle in my life that they did not go up in flames," Horowitz said. "It makes me believe in a higher power." 'Life-changing' musicals Sondheim's work, Horowitz says, made him believe in a lot of things, including the transformative power of musicals. "It wasn't just entertainment; it was life-changing and life-affecting in a way that I don't think I'd experienced in other musicals," he said. He thinks often of the lyrics from Move On from 1984's Sunday In The Park With George: "I chose, and my world was shaken / So what? / The choice may have been mistaken / The choosing was not / You have to move on." "I've known people who quit jobs, taken jobs, gotten married, gotten divorced after listening to that. It gave them the courage to make life choices," Horowitz said. "It's extraordinary." Horowitz says the Sondheim collection will inevitably draw academics studying the composer's legacy, and musicians looking to perform his pieces. "But I think my secret desire is that there will be young composers who come and want to learn from the master how to go about writing a song," he said.
National Post
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- National Post
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. Article content 'The last thing I showed him was Gershwin's manuscript for 'Porgy and Bess,'' Horowitz said. 'That's when he started to cry.' Article content Article content Article content 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. Article content Article content 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. Article content '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.' Article content Article content Article content 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. Article content '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.' Article content 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.
Vancouver Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
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. 'The last thing I showed him was Gershwin's manuscript for 'Porgy and Bess,'' Horowitz said. 'That's when he started to cry.' 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. Plan your next getaway with Travel Time, featuring travel deals, destinations and gear. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Travel Time will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 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. '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.' 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. '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.' 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. 'I'm staggered and stunned by how bloody much effort he put into everything – the craft behind it,' Horowitz said. 'He'll have a finished song, he'll have a complete piano vocal score for the song in his hand, and then there'll be 20 pages of typescripts of the lyrics. He's still refining it and still changing it every day. It's like he's never happy or satisfied. It's always, 'What can I do to make this better?' And it's impossible to make that better!' Many of Sondheim's collaborators and inspirations in the Broadway world have left their papers and manuscripts to the Library of Congress. The New York City native follows his mentor Oscar Hammerstein II, whose family bequeathed sheet music and other papers related to 'Oklahoma!' and 'The Sound of Music' to the library. Leonard Bernstein, who collaborated with Sondheim on 'West Side Story,' began donating manuscripts while he was still alive. 'There's sort of this fantasy that [when] we leave at night and lock the doors behind us, we think: Are these collections murmuring to each other? Are they saying 'Hey, Steve! How are you doing?'' Horowitz said. 'The most gratifying thing is for the researchers, because we know it makes their research richer, because they can come here and look at Sondheim but then see the relationships between the other people.' Despite his ubiquity as a composer for the stage, Sondheim was a cultural omnivore, as evidenced by some of the recently acquired papers. Notes for 'Sooner or Later,' an Oscar-winning number that Sondheim wrote for Warren Beatty's 'Dick Tracy,' sit in the library's collection next to sheet music for a jingle he wrote for 'The Simpsons.' For aficionados like Gardiner, the richness of the acquisition lies in the drafts of Sondheim's musicals. The composer's process is fully on display, whether it be in the various versions of 'I'm Still Here' from 'Follies' or a reprise that was cut from 'Company.' Gardiner, who has directed or choreographed productions of beloved works such as 'Passion' and Sondheim's only Pulitzer Prize winner, 'Sunday in the Park With George,' plans to visit the library straight away. 'They've already promised to let me come take a look,' he said. 'We're very lucky to have the resource so close. I'm sure we will use it many, many times to inspire new interpretations, deepen our dramaturgical insight and to honor Sondheim as best we possibly can. I know there will be a meaningful relationship with that collection.' There's a reason revivals and revues have kept Sondheim's work on stages across the country. 'He's changed the audience members' lives because he's done what all great artists do, which is capture the way we think and feel about things,' Horowitz said. 'He's able to put words and musical emotions behind these things [that] makes them universal in a way that they hadn't been before.'
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Stephen Sondheim's papers go to Library of Congress, offering a look into a Broadway genius
NEW YORK — Manuscripts, music and lyric drafts, recordings, notebooks and scrapbooks from Stephen Sondheim have been donated to the Library of Congress, offering the public a chance to see firsthand the creativity of one of musical theater's giants. The collection includes about 5,000 items, ranging from drafts of songs that were cut from shows or never made it to first rehearsal, as well as a spiral music book titled 'Notes and Ideas' that document some of his musical efforts while a student at Williams College. He died in 2021.
3 days ago
- Entertainment
Stephen Sondheim's papers head to Library of Congress, revealing Broadway genius
NEW YORK -- Manuscripts, music and lyric drafts, recordings, notebooks and scrapbooks from Stephen Sondheim have been donated to the Library of Congress, offering the public a chance to see firsthand the creativity of one of musical theater's giants. The collection includes about 5,000 items, ranging from drafts of songs that were cut from shows or never made it to first rehearsal, as well as a spiral music book titled 'Notes and Ideas' that document some of his musical efforts while a student at Williams College. He died in 2021. 'It's staggering,' said Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz in an interview. 'He's constantly refining, changing words or phrases here and there. It's like he never gives up on trying to perfect the things.' The cache includes drafts of variations on the lyrics to 'I'm Still Here' from 'Follies' and 'Putting It Together' from 'Sunday in the Park with George' that Sondheim wrote for Barbra Streisand at her request. The collection arrived at the Library in March. There also are lyrics for a reprise of 'Side by Side by Side' that never made it into 'Company' and 40 pages of lyric sketches for 'A Little Priest' — 'Is the politician so oily it's served with a doily?' go one of the final lines — from 'Sweeney Todd,' with lists of more than 150 possible professions and types of people who could have been baked into pies written in the margins. 'It seems like the older he gets, the more sketching there is,' says Horowitz. 'For the early shows, there may be three boxes of materials or four boxes. By the later shows, it eight or nine boxes. I don't know if it's because it became harder for him or because he became more detail-oriented.' The Library of Congress expects a surge in requests to view the collection when it becomes available this summer. Anyone over 16 with a driver's license or a passport can ask for access to the original pages. It becomes available July 1. Horowitz, the author of " Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions" and editor for The Sondheim Review, who has taught musical theater history at Georgetown, has been surprised by some of the items. One of them was a song Sondheim wrote as part of a public TV contest in the early 1970s. The winner wanted the Broadway icon to write a song for his mother's 50th birthday and Horowitz stumbled over their correspondences. 'I had no idea that existed,' he said. Horowitz convinced Sondheim to donate his papers to the Library of Congress in 1993 and the composer put it in his will. 'I'd seen his manuscripts to some degree in his home before, but nothing like the kind of in-depth page after page after page that I'm doing now.' Horowitz, who has been processing collections for 34 years, built a friendship with Sondheim and even found his own name a few times in the collection. "For large collections that I spend a lot of time on, I tend to feel the ghost of that person over my shoulder. But with Sondheim, it's the first time I can think of that I'm processing a collection of someone who I really knew." Six of Sondheim's musicals won Tony Awards for best score, and he also received a Pulitzer Prize ('Sunday in the Park'), an Academy Award (for the song 'Sooner or Later' from the film 'Dick Tracy'), five Olivier Awards and the Presidential Medal of Honor. In 2008, he received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement. The fact that Sondheim had anything to donate to the Library at all is a miracle. He suffered a fire in 1995 that started in his office, just feet from where the collection rested on wooden shelves and in cardboard boxes. But somehow it survived, albeit with some papers suffering scorch marks. 'There's absolutely no reason why the collection should not have gone up in flames. And it is truly the closest I've ever seen to a miracle, the fact that they didn't,' said Horowitz. The country's oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress was founded in 1800 under legislation by President John Adams and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan backing. It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, images and other artifacts and offers a vast online archive, and its contents span three buildings on Capitol Hill. It's not a traditional circulating library but is instead a research library. In his second term, President Donald Trump fired the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, amid criticism from conservatives that she was advancing a 'woke' agenda. The Library of Congress is already home to the collections of several Broadway icons, including Neil Simon, Arthur Laurents, Marvin Hamlisch, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.
