The Secretary of Stephen Sondheim’s music library brought tears – and caused him to inherit his life’s work

Mark Horwitz is proud to make Stephen Sondheim cry.

He is more proud that, when doing this, he persuaded the legend of the late music theater to inherit its wide archive of manuscripts, platelets, recordings, laptops, and more to the Congress Library in Washington, DC, for several generations of Americans.

“It is the complete cause of my entry into this profession, so this was a really dream,” said Horowitz, a great musician in the library. As it happens Host Nil Köksal. “To be able to influence him in this way was exciting and enjoyable.”

The library announced this week that it acquired more than 5,000 elements of the Sondheim collection, which will be available to the public on July 1.

The American composer and the lyric player, who was widely loosely as one of the most influential characters in the history of music theater, He died in 2021And he left his collection to the library at his will.

Play the long game

Horwitz began working on the acquisition in 1993, when Soundheim invited the library to see a group of musical Passover that he had personally sponsored to persuade him.

Horowitz – author of the book ” Sondheim on Music: Simple details and major decisions The Sondheim Review Editor was well aware of the Sondheim interests and inspiration. The designated tour included the original manuscripts of composers Bella Bartok, Sergey Rashmannov, Eugur Stravinsky, and Johannes Brahamz.

But the American composer, George Georchewin, was the 1935 opera manuscript Borgi only Horwitz said that Soundheim moved to cry.

“This was the thing that was really the most emotional move,” said Horowitz. “Watching it was crying. If you made someone cry, you won the game.”

After that meeting, Horwitz, Change Hayim says his will to leave his papers to the library. The husband remained in contact over the years, and Horwitz made A series of interviews with the legendary composer At his home in New York in 1997.

Marhhhi and unknown books

In a press releaseSusan Vita, head of the library’s music department, described the “Agreeed Add” collection, which will “honor and preserve the heritage of Sondheim”.

It ranges from drafts of songs that did not reach a rehearsal first, in addition to a spiral music book entitled Notes and ideas This document is some of his musical efforts during a student at Williams College.

There are even books that Horwitz never knew – and it was beautiful that he knew them all.

It is equipped with margins on songs Priest From 1979 music Sweeini Todd Horwitz 158 promised an example of different types of people who can bake in meat pies, the fate of the victims of the deadly novel. The vast majority did not reach the final match

“He was very good in killing his nerves,” said Horwitz. “I think he never fell in love, with something so much that he was not ready to install it, if that would make the song better for any reason.”

Horwitz says it is a miracle, and the group has made its way to the library. In 1995, a fire broke out in the office where Sondheim kept its papers.

“I saw some manuscripts before the fire, and when I returned after that, if I took out these cardboard boxes in which they were sitting, there were Single signs that determine the place where the manuscripts sat.”

Besides a small amount of smoke damage around the edges, the leaves have survived to a large extent safely.

“You had paper cardboard on wooden shelves, in bush from the fire. It is in fact the closest thing I saw in a miracle in my life they did not rise in fire,” Horwitz said.

“This makes me believe in a higher force.”

“Life change” musical plays

Sondheim’s work made him believe in a lot of things, including the transformational power of musical plays.

“It was not only the entertainment,” he said.

He often thinks about words from I continue From 1984 Sunday in the park with George: “I chose, and my world was shaken / what?

“I knew the people who left their jobs, took jobs, married, and expelled after listening to that. He gave them the courage to take the choices of life,” Horwitz said. “It’s unusual.”

The Sondheim Group will attract academics who are inevitably studying the heritage of the composer, and the musicians looking to perform it.

“But I think my secret desire is that there will be young composers who come and want to learn from the master how to write a song,” he said.

“I hope it affects generations of the authors of the upcoming songs.”