(no subject)
Nov. 26th, 2021 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Stephen Sondheim is dead. he was in his 90s, it was a good run.
few have been so great or influenced so many.
that's the thing - he was an artist's artist, making expensive and cerebral cult classics...it's difficult to lift any song from its context because they were so firmly woven into the scene and characters, and his shows rarely ran for long on Broadway. he was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II and he went on to mentor many others including Jonathan Larson and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
i always loved singing his music, which was full of uncommon rhythms and harmonies that flirted around dissonance. every story he told was bittersweet. i deeply admire him, and the news hit me hard.
he was the pinnacle of the "book" musical and we won't see his like again.
i was going to share some songs, but as noted above they're not the same out of context. i'll try anyway:
few have been so great or influenced so many.
that's the thing - he was an artist's artist, making expensive and cerebral cult classics...it's difficult to lift any song from its context because they were so firmly woven into the scene and characters, and his shows rarely ran for long on Broadway. he was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II and he went on to mentor many others including Jonathan Larson and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
i always loved singing his music, which was full of uncommon rhythms and harmonies that flirted around dissonance. every story he told was bittersweet. i deeply admire him, and the news hit me hard.
he was the pinnacle of the "book" musical and we won't see his like again.
i was going to share some songs, but as noted above they're not the same out of context. i'll try anyway: