David Pogue: ‘Stephen Sondheim, the Teacher’

David Pogue, writing for CBS News:

Stephen Sondheim may have been best known as one of the greatest composer/lyricists the theater has ever known. But he often said that he would have loved to have been a teacher — and he was an extraordinarily generous one to generations of young composers.

I was one of them. I came to New York right after college, full of ambition to write Broadway musicals. Somehow I met Sondheim, and for many years, he’d give me feedback on my songs, and I gave him computer lessons.

First of all, he always said, content dictates form. In other words, the kind of music you’re writing should depend on the character and the dramatic situation.

★ Wednesday, 1 December 2021