Testament to talent

REVIEW BY ANDREW MILNER

Sondheim earns a chapter in study of American song

thefrhp cover of Classic American Popular Song: The Second Half Century, 1950-2000 (Routledge, 385 pp, $34.95) perfectly illustrates what the book analyzes "songs from the theater, film and cabaret," state authors Davie Jenness and Don Velsey, in addition to "songs from the jazz realm; and stand-alone songs that got recorded." Given that Cook is one of Stephen Sondheim's great interpreters, it's no surprise that his work receives special scrutiny in this comprehensive volume. Jenness and Velsey's book is modeled on American Popular Song, Alec Wilder's 1972 classic in-depth study of approximately 400 songs written before 1950. The authors examine about twice as many songs, concluding that "classic pop songs of the thirty-year period following 1950 [were] comparable to invention and quality, as well as in surface 'style,' to those of the thirty-year period preceding that date." Among the theatre songwriters profiled are Frank Loesser, Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewc (or as the composer-focused authors invariably call them, Loewe & Lerner) and Cy Coleman, and pop songwriters from Alan and Marilyn Bergman to Johnny Mandel and Dave Frishberg. Sondheim is the only songwriter in the book who earns an entire chapter, a clear testament to his talent. "Sondheim, beginning about midcareer, had a very strong influence on younger songwriters in two ways," the authors argue. "First, in terms of his fundamental commitment to musieodramatie innovation and to finding a contemporary style for theatrical songs, he is not like Loesser but more like Kern and Hammerstein (with Sho-a- Boat) or Rodgers and Hammerstein (with Oklahoma! and Carousel). Second, his mature songs as songs have, as a group, a unique character that some have found so distinctive as to cause them to distinguish Sondheim from all other great writers in the tradition." The authors show how Sondheim's composing uncannily matches the behavior of the singer. "Take Me to the World," sung in Evening Primrose by a character tentatively trying to reach the outside world, "involves, to use a spatial metaphor, a pattern of rock and step. The first five notes and words are in an oscillating pattern, back and forth; then there is a step and a step, involving two longer notes; then, a return to the back-and-forth. Or one could think in terms of small steps and small retreats, then a more confident move, then a bigger

he photograph of Barbara Cook: on ho nViototirnnh Con

nhs^rvp "lias observe, "has a big range, a full octave and a fifth, which automatically gives it grandeur. The words are plain and moving, and yet their particular emotional impact is embedded in the drama. When Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote a concluding anthem of affirmation like "You'll Never Walk Alone' or 'Climb Ev'ry Mountain,' they took pains to come up with stand-alone songs. Sondheim, tellingly, doesn't." In a book of this scope, there are inevitably a few errors: the authors rely on Joyce Breach's recording of "With So Little to Be Sure Of" when quoting from the song. Sondheim's original version does not end with "... in this world is you." Sondheim's 1979 musical is mistakenly labeled Sweeny Todd, and "Night Waltz" from A Little Night Music, they erroneously assert, is "known by the title of the show." A greater shame is that the book ignores Assassins, in which Sondheim consciously wrote in the pop song vernacular ("Unworthy of \bur Love." "Everybody's Got the Right"). Of the 1990s generation of theatrical songwriters, Jonathan Larson is taken to task for "syntactically peculiar" lyrics in Rent, and the "greatly gifted" Adam Guettel is praised for his "ambitious" Myths and Hymns (which "has a mythic and mystic import, switching between American vernacular and a sort of Blakeian symbolism"). Guettel's score for The Light in the Piazza was created too late for inclusion in the book. Jenness and Velsey champion pop songwriter Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields who has said he was inspired to write his 69 Songs trilogy while listening to an evening of Sondheim cabaret for his "brilliant realizations of an anti-classic-pop stance," adding, "Virtually all of Merritt's songs overtly or by implication undercut or deconstruct the formulas and attitudes of the songs that this book celebrates." The writers' choices and assertions are occasionally idiosyncratic. They praise Moose Charlap's "good score" for the camp 1950s Broadway flop \Mioop-Up, while contrasting Burt Bacharach's "relaxed but venturesome" composing to Hal David's "lax and clumsy" lyrics. But they are in the tradition of authors attempting to rank the greatest baseball players or top movie comedies: It's to their credit that they're willing to start a few arguments. While probably best appreciated by those with backgrounds in music, the long overdue Classic American Popular Sojig should be a welcome read not only for Sondheim fans but also for enthusiasts of the entire "Great American Songbook." |TSR| ANDREW MILNER reviews books and CDs for the Philadelphia City Paper.

> and Vebev also contrast Sondheim . The anthvrrai^ "Sunday" George, ibey