Product Description

With thirteen Broadway musicals to his credit, Stephen Sondheim's career in the musical theater has outdistanced those of most of his contemporaries. Each of his shows has presented new challenges to audiences, and each has cast fresh perspectives on the nature and potential of the American musical, as well as probing deeply, often painfully, into the nature of our culture.
Sondheim's Broadway Musicals is the first book to take an in-depth look at Sondheim's work. Stephen Banfield examines each of Sondheim's musicals for Broadway, from West Side Story and Gypsy to the 1987 musical Into the Woods, and includes A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, Anyone Can Whistle, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Merrily We Roll Along, Sweeney Todd, and Sunday in the Park with George. Banfield also discusses Sondheim's other work, such as the 1991 show Assassins and his music for the 1990 film Dick Tracy--for which "Sooner or Later" won him an Academy Award for Best Song.
"Banfield seems almost to hear Sondheim's music with Sondheim's ears. This extremely valuable work discusses Sondheim's early training and subsequent career, his general compositional concerns, and his style. The meat of the book is a musical-dramatic analysis of his musicals . . . . For each musical, Banfield places the work and its components in a historical and typological text. He also treats in welcome detail the musical profile or universe of each show: Sondheim's use of generative intervals or interval complexes as source material, motifs that reappear in various guises in various songs, the sound world that defines the musical's emotional mind. The book will be as useful to those who are cool to Sondheim's work as to his fans." --Choice

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #385145 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 472 pages

From Library Journal
Banfield (school of performance studies, Univ. of Birmingham, England) has produced a thorough, scholarly work that emphasizes Sondheim's compositional process. The author spends a single chapter tracing Sondheim's background (including his close relationship with mentor Oscar Hammerstein), academic preparation, and various projects. Next is an academic study of each Sondheim musical for Broadway, from West Side Story (1957) to Into the Woods (1987). Much detail is devoted to scoring, specialty songs, and considerations inherent in each production, such as the Kabuki element in Pacific Overtures (1973) and the 19th-century period tone in A Little Night Music (1973). Banfield, who had his subject's full cooperation, includes an abundance of musical examples along with structure charts pertaining to lyric development or song placement. This outstanding work belongs in every academic library with 20th-century music or theater collections.
- Diane H. Albosta, Episcopal H.S. Lib., Alexandria, Va.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

An essential book for students of musical theater.
An important and seminal work for students of musical theater and/or Sondheim. Like Joseph Swain's "The Broadway Musical," this book applies serious compostional analysis to an area that has not traditionally been considered worthy of consideration from that point of view. Even if you are not able to completely comprehend everything in this book, it is a fascinating and rewarding read. Banfield has a lot of insight not only into Sondheim's compostional processes, but also into the dramatic stucture of his musicals. The biographical details included are sufficient but not excessive for a book with this focus. I may disagree with Banfield here and there, and there is an occasional factual error, but his overall grasp of Sondheim's work and why it is important makes any quibbles ultimately trivial. Highly recommended.

For musicians and Sondheim enthusiasts only
As a musical theatre composer myself, this book was dead on as far as its intricate dissecting of Sondheim's scores. However, non-musicians take note: This book may not be for you. Banfield employs deep theortical analasys of Sondheim's work, and most readers without a background in music theory will find some of this book difficult to understand. As far as Banfield's analasys goes, it is right on target. He explains the various schemes and tecniques Sondheim uses in his music to make it sound exactly like what is being expressed. Banfield also does an excellent job in explaning the various actions that drove Sondheim to write his shows and the reactions that came from the critics. All in all, this is a wonderfully written book.

Incredibly detailed analysis of Sondheim's work.
Banfield's text offers practically an autopsy of each of Sondheim's musicals. Very detailed and insightful. Helps if you know music and music theory. A must for any serious students of Sondheim's work