Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
#1Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:13pmI think he's great at both, but my vote would probably be for lyrics.
#2re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:14pmMost will probably say lyricist. But his music blows me away. I love his lyrics and all the wisdom and rhymes he uses. But his music really does something for me inside.
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#2re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:15pmBoy, that's like asking someone to choose their favorite child.
#3re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:15pmHis lyrics. I know I'm in the minority on this one, as much as I try, I really don't care for his music.
#4re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:17pmLyrics for sure. Love his music, but his lyrics are amazing.
#5re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:18pmLyrics, his music is definitely inspired, but his lyrics are beyond sublime.
#6re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:20pmHe should've been a poet.
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
misschung
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/18/07
#7re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:23pmI feel like he uses his music as words too, though. It's so hard to isolate one or the other
#8re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:25pm
^ That's a really good point, Misschung.
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#9re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:26pmI would say music - his lyrics are always amazing, but they hang upon music that emphasizes the words in exactly the right places. Sondheim has written lyrics to other people's music, but have other people written lyrics to his music?
#10re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:32pm
For me, the diversity of his music is his real brilliance. No 2 of his scores sound a like. You have the patische of FOLLIES. The operatic pieces like NIGHT MUSIC and SWEENEY. His one and only pop score - MERRILY.There is the Japanese themed PACIFIC OVERTURES. You have PASSION which is like one big love song. And the list can continue.
Amazing.
Updated On: 7/24/07 at 10:32 PM
#11re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:33pmI like a few other's music more than his, but he is a definitive lyricist.
It was awesome. - theaterkid1015
#12re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:38pm
Music.
There's no other music like it and no other musical theatre composer's music makes you feel and think as his music does. His lyrics are equally wonderful, but I think he's a better composer.
pc1145N2
Broadway Star Joined: 5/28/07
#13re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:44pmLyrics. While his music is fantastic, it's those lyrics that are like no others.
#14re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:48pmI think it depends on the show. West Side Story has way better music than lyrics. Forum is the other way around.
#15re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:50pmHe didn't write the music to WSS. That was Leonard Bernstein.
TapTapTapioca
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/27/07
#16re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:53pm
. West Side Story has way better music than lyrics. Forum is the other way around.
Umm he did not write the music to West Side Story.
I vote lyrics.
#17re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:55pmI would have to say lyricist. His rhymes into the woods are like no other. Into The Woods is his greatest achievement as a lyricist, in my opinion. He obviously also has gorgeous music but, no one else can write as witty lyrics as Sondheim.
#18re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:56pmboth?
GovernorSlaton
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/14/04
#19re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:58pmMusic.
Clarinetbiter135
Leading Actor Joined: 6/16/04
#20re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 11:04pm
music. Some of his chord progressions, orchestrations, layerings, and complex harmonies send chills down my spine. And his music style is so unique that you can almost instantly recognize it as one of his pieces, yet no one can really say they sound similar.... *sigh*
but his lyrics are amazing too 
#21re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 11:04pmTough choice but I'm with everyone on else his music is never the same thing twice and it's always inspired. His lyrical storytelling just blows me away. He's a true poet.
SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#22re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 11:05pmI think lyricist, to be honest.
LostLeander
Broadway Star Joined: 3/18/05
#23re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 11:11pm
Both. I feel that in the shows that he's written both music and lyrics, the marriage is PERFECTION. Both elevate each other into a whole different level that no composer/lyricist has ever reached.
His lyrics when he's writing with a composer are great, of course. They're perfect, classic musical theatre lyrics (Except Cool, which I think is brilliant).
But Sweeney, Into the Woods, Sunday, Night Music, and so forth, are beyond brilliant.
misschung
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/18/07
#24re: Do you feel that Sondheim is a better composer or lyricist?
Posted: 7/24/07 at 11:14pm
perfect marriage of right and left brain, IMO 
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