Sondheim and After

Sondheim has been producing songs of quality for fifty years. We have waited to discuss his work, for several reasons. In a sense, his work brackets that of Frank Loesser's, with whom we opened chapter 4. Loesser was the first songwriter in the second half of the twentieth century to secure his place in the top echelon of classic American popular song creators, while Sondheim is the last composer indisputably to gain that rank. And each wrote both words and music.