Stephen Sondheim and his musical legacy

Stephen Sondheim stands as one of the most revolutionary figures in musical theatre history, fundamentally transforming how stories could be told through song.

Born in New York City in 1930, Sondheim began his career as Oscar Hammerstein II]’s protégé, learning the craft of lyric writing under the master who had helped create the golden age of Broadway musicals.

However, Sondheim would go on to shatter the very conventions his mentor had helped establish, creating a body of work that challenged audiences intellectually while pushing the boundaries of what musical theatre could achieve.

His career began with the lyrics of West Side Story, and continued with Merrily We Roll Along, Into the Woods and Assassins among many others.

What distinguished Sondheim from his contemporaries was his sophisticated approach to both music and lyrics. His songs weren’t simply used to advance the plot of a story, they were intricate psychological explorations. And on top of that, they displayed an intellectual density rarely seen before, containing lots of wordplay and internal rhyme schemes. His melodies mirrored the psychological complexity of the characters and their stories, through his use of unexpected harmonic progressions.