In the past here, I've posted raves and Amazon links for the two collections of Stephen Sondheim's lyrics — Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat. Upon reflection, I would like to back off somewhat on my enthusiasm not for Mr. Sondheim's brilliance but for the presentation of it in these books. Initially I think, my delight at the idea of the project overwhelmed my common sense. I'm deciding that I like the contents of the books but don't much like the books themselves.
There is, of course, a problem with any book of lyrics. Lyrics are written to fit with the music. Remove the music and you force the lyrics to stand alone…something they were never meant to do. Sondheim himself has referred to this problem on many occasions. Often, he has noted that when Oscar Hammerstein wrote, "O, what a beautiful morning / O, what a beautiful day," he wrote something that appeared trite and hackneyed on the page…but once it was married to Mr. Rodgers' melody, it became a soaring, effective lyric. It could not be evaluated or appreciated without the tune affixed to it. And here, we have Sondheim's life's work offered up without the tunes affixed…and in the case of most of the cut tunes, unavailable even to those of us with every darned CD of his work.
Sondheim is fond of saying, "Content dictates form" but I don't think the content has dictated the right form here. It should have led to a smaller page format somewhat less than the 8" by 11" size chosen. Since lyrics are read as a series of short lines, the wide page meant a multi-column layout that I find distracting and confusing, especially due to the indents and offsets to differentiate lyrics from Sondheim's annotative interjections and also from the stage directions included. The quantity of content — the sheer number of lyrics — did not, alas, dictate a respectable font size. We got one that is legible, yes, especially to those of us with 20/20 vision…but there is a reason no hardcover novel is ever set in so tiny a typeface. It's not comfortable to the eye and in a sense, it diminishes the importance of the material it conveys.
The publisher would, I'm sure, argue that there was so much to be covered and that it was impractical to expand to three or four volumes…or more if they'd made the pages smaller. That is probably so but it doesn't make this presentation of the material any easier to read. There is a format that would have, however.
These books cry out to be released on Kindle and similar devices. They would allow the lyrics to be read in one column with the type size adjustable for the reader's comfort and with Sondheim's annotations presented in a differentiating font. Better still, this whole thing should be in some format for tablet computers that would allow the lyrics to be linked to recordings of the songs…so you could read the words, then at your option, click and hear the song performed. It would not have to be the original cast recordings; just performances that the author felt served his work well. I sure I'm not the only person who is referencing back and forth between the book and their CDs…or in the case of shows I know well, supplying the tunes as I read, mentally singing along where possible. It would be so much nicer to be able to click and hear Bernadette Peters and musicians instead of my rotten, non-professional voice a capella.
Since there is no e-reader format available, I wonder if that's because someone is working on it for future release. I hope they are and I hope it'll have the melodies somehow attached. That is the form that I think the content dictates.
One other gripe and I hate when publishers do this. It is now possible to order the two books in a boxed set…an option that was kept (or kept quiet) from us die-hard fans until after we'd bought the two volumes, sans box. We could reasonably have been expected to do this as soon as they were available…and now we could reasonably be expected to wish we'd waited. And maybe, it was unreasonably expected, some of us will be thinking of buying these books again to get the box. That's a premeditated strategy with DVD sets these days: Wait 'til a month or two after most of the orders are in on the last one and then offer the version the loyalest fans will want.
That said, the boxed set will make a peachy Christmas gift item for some. I may order it for myself and then give the books without the box away as gifts. I just wish they'd told us a few weeks earlier that a box would be available. (Before someone asks: No slipcase of any kind is planned for the Pogo series with which I am involved.)
Anyway, everything I said about the importance of Sondheim's words being collected like this still stands. I just wish the format served those words better. And I wish that when I ordered the second book on Amazon months ago, there'd been a little box that said, "Hey, we're bringing out a boxed set two weeks after this one. Wouldn't you rather order it?" Because I would have, especially if like those volumes of the O.E.D., they'd included a magnifying glass.