@@soufyanechafik2725 Hi. I'm a college music teacher and assist the voice teacher so I want to learn all about these fine points. Isn't antanaclasis a a sort of sub division of paronomasia?
@@magickitchen54 Antanaclasis is when a same word is repeated with different meanings. Here, wither is repeated twice (though in different grammatical categories of noun and verb, with a plural infection for the first). « With her » sounds (and looks) close but not identical to « wither » -> paronomasia.
Not a line from a song, but someone once challenged Sondheim to find a rhyme for silver and he replied "To find a rhyme for silver, or any 'rhymeless' rhyme, requires only will, verbosity and time" Will-ver, silver. The man is a genius.
In "A Little Priest", Mrs. Lovett tries to outwit Mr. Todd to find a rhyme. Tinker/pinker. Tailor/paler. Bulter/subtler. Potter/hotter. Then stymies him with "locksmith."
+musicaltheatremash i am shocked that "it's his father's fault that the curse got placed and the place got cursed in the first place" wasn't on this list
Can't disagree with your ST choice of "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd". However my all-time favorite lyric from any musical is the delightful line from A Little Priest: "we have some shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd on top!". The delightful rhythm in the phrasing contrasting with the macabre subject matter is just perfection.
That shepherd's pie lyric is close to the top of my list, and it was with great relish that I had shepherd's pie at a local Manhattan restaurant before seeing Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris in the revival of SWEENEY TODD.
“Do not put your faith in a cape and a hood. They will not protect you the way that they should, and take extra care with strangers, even flowers have their dangers, and though scary is exciting, nice is different than good.” Will always be my favorite
One of my all time favourite lyrics from Sondheim is the last lines of It takes two (Into the Woods) We want four, We had none. We've got three. We need one. It takes two.
I'm not totally sure if this lyric is particularly "WOW. SO DEEP!" but this segment from "Moments in the Woods" (from Into The Woods) speaks to me in a huge level. "Just remembering you've had an 'and' When you're back to 'or' Makes the 'or' mean more than it did before" INACCURATE RAMBLING WARNING: Choices have to be made in life, and you have to stick to these choices. You have to decide on one. Simply remembering that you've had a chance to have both of your options makes you appreciate what you chose a whole lot more BECAUSE that temporary bliss is only that. Temporary. What happened between the Prince and the Baker's Wife was a fleeting but memorable moment for the Wife, but she quickly shook it off as a 'moment' that will make her appreciate her husband more. She knows that her husband is not the Prince, nor is the Prince her husband.
My fav lyrics: 1.) "Maria! Say it loud and there's music playing. Say it soft and it's almost like praying." 2.) "I wish..." "I know." (such a powerful conveyance of emotion in 4 words) 3.) "Baby I'd die for you, even though I will always know... I am unworthy or your love" 4.) "A Jenny-ish Joanne" 5.) "I had a dream. I dreamed it for you, June. It wasn't for me, Herbie. And if it wasn't for me then where would you be Miss Gypsy Rose Lee?"
I would have to say my favorite Sondheim moment is the baker's last verse in "No More" from Into the Woods: "No more giants Waging war. Can't we just pursue our lives With out children and our wives? 'Till that happy day arrives, How do you ignore All the witches, All the curses, All the wolves, all the lies, The false hopes, the goodbyes, The reverses, All the wondering what even worse is Still in store? All the children... All the giants... No more." I find it profoundly deep. How do we live with all this hurt? How can we continue a story when this is what we face? Fairy tales should end at happy ever after... When will it come? Then the baker turns his thoughts to the choice between children and giants; Can he reject the children and flee from the giants? Well, no more.
***** Don't come at me preaching your biased religious nonsense. Anyone who subs this channel is perfectly aware of what I am implying. Sondheim is a musical genius. A God to many. I am sure you and I do not believe in the same God anyway. Mine does not hate, segregate or use either as a way to bigotry. Have a lovely day.
"Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd" is also one of my favourite lyrics. Hearing it in the final ballad of Sweeney Todd after all that has transpired in the story, especially the deaths of the final scene and Toby going mad, that line sends chills down my spine
My favorites: 1. "Everybody's got the right to some sunshine, not the sun but maybe one of its beams" from Assassins 2. The 'Ladies who Lunch' lyric you were talking about. 3. Every line in Side by Side by Side 4. "Damn my soul, if you must. Let my body turn to dust. Let them mingle with the ashes of the country" again, from Assassins 5. "Nice is different than good" into the Woods 6. One of the final verses of Roses Turn where she's asking what her actions actually gave her in the long run 7. Franklin Shepard Inc. The entire song is amazing. A ton more lol I'll probably remember later.
As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't get much better than "Sunday, by the blue purple yellow red water on the green purple yellow red grass, let us pass through our perfect park, pausing on a Sunday by the cool blue triangular water on the soft green elliptical grass, as we pass through arrangements of shadows towards the verticals of trees forever... by the blue purple yellow red water on the green orange violet mass of the grass in our perfect park, made of flecks of light and dark, and parasols… people strolling through the trees of a small suburban park on an island in the river on an ordinary Sunday."
My favorite: It's the fragment, not the day It's the pebble, not the stream It's the ripple, not the sea That is happening Not the building, but the beam Not the garden, but the stone Only cups of tea And history And someone in a tree
My personal favorite Sondheim lyric/musical composition moment is from Into the Woods, in No One Is Alone, and there's a story behind it. I played Cinderella in the junior (meaning no second act - NOOOO) version of Into the Woods, and while listening to the Broadway cast soundtrack I started to really like No One is Alone, and as I continued listening to it, I realized it could kind of be put together with the Witch's song, Stay With Me - I mentioned this to the girl who played the witch at the time. Because I was going to audition for an advanced ensemble in my high school in a few weeks, I decided to learn No One Is Alone because I loved it but didn't get to sing it in the actual play. I found the sheet music in one of my mom's music binders, and I tried putting it into a composition program so I could transpose it into a better key and make a backup track. While doing this, I noticed that when Cinderella sings "Sometimes people leave you..." THE PIANO PART IS PLAYING THE TUNE OF "Stay with me, the world is dark and wild." I will repeat that: Stay with me vs. sometimes people leave you. THEY CONSTRASTINGLY (contrastingly??) MATCH LYRICALLY AND ACTUALLY MATCH MUSICALLY. I kind of freaked out.
YES! Sondheim sneaks the "Stay With Me" theme (in different keys) into the show multiple times, he calls it the "Bean Theme". Check out the beginning of "I Guess This is Goodbye" when The Baker gives Jack 5 beans, and then the violins come in with the theme in different tempos/rhythms again. It's amazing :)
DoctorWhoBAMF It's also in Giants in the Sky multiple times. He weaves the "Bean Theme" in every second possible. It's basically going to underscore the entire movie.
I simply love 'Marry me a little' It's the perfect interpretation of modern day relationships, even though he wrote it in the 70s.. I wouldn't mind if my future husband proposed me with it!
I think the best part of ladies who lunch is that you don’t really see it coming. Joanne is this character who you expect to just be another one of the couples. But then she’s so complex
Great list! Sondheim is certainly the Shakespeare of musical theatre. My personal favourite is from Into The Woods' 'Moments in the woods': "Must it always be either less or more? Either plain or grand? Is it always 'or'? Is it never 'and'? That's what 'woulds' are for, for those moments in the woods."
My fave is "This one may be a bit stringy, but then again, it is fiddle player. "This isn't fiddle player, that is piccolo player" "How can you tell?" "IT'S PIPING HOT!" "THEN BLOW ON IT FIRST!"
All of mine come from Sunday in the park with George. “When the woman that you wanted goes you can say to yourself well I give what I give” I cry for that line every time. “No one is you George there we agree but no one is me, George, no one is me!” “The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not. You keep moving on”
"Well someone tell me, when is it my turn? Don't I get a dream for myself? Starting now it's gonna be my turn! Gangway! World, get off of my runway! Starting now, I bat a thousand! This time boys, I'm taking the bows!" Those lyrics are amazing😅
There are so many, but the one that always sticks out in my mind is one from Company, "when a person's personality is personable" "harder than a matador coercin' a bull" PERSONABLE - COERCIN' A BULL ? Brilliant!
Man Hattan: Although, to be fair (and this is coming from a HUGE Sondheim fan), some DO get pretty close. "So I'm the oldest and the wittiest, and the gossip in New York City is insidious..."
Yes -- this line comes at the end of "Maybe They're Magic" from INTO THE WOODS, and if I had to choose one single lyric line from all of Sondheim's work as my favorite, I think it would be this. It just says everything.
Not one of those five lyrics would have made my top five. Which is what I find amazing about Sondheim. He manages to capture audience's attention in so many ways. The first lyric that comes to my mind is "I am unfinished, I am diminished, with or without you" and while I'm pretty sure that would probably end up in my top five, I'm not certain. This is the man who wrote a song called "Every Day a Little Death" and the title alone tells you so much more than most songs in their entirety can. I enjoyed this video, and every choice you made was correct. I just love that I didn't agree with any of them, and yet that's okay too. What an amazing genius!!
Those are all excellent picks. I've always adored "A Weekend in the Country" from A Little Night Music, especially the lyric, "She'll grow older by the hour and be hopelessly shattered by Saturday night." I never realized until someone pointed it out to me how "shattered" is meant to rhyme with "Saturd-". Brilliantly written.
"then you career from career to career" is a good one. "The woods are just trees, the trees are just wood" is another one I really like. And of course the bitter irony of "don't bother, they're here" from send in the clowns is heartwrenching.
*me crying trying to learn all of act 2 of into the woods in one month before opening night because the act 2 witch dropped out* wow i love sondheim hes such a great composer but in all seriousness he is a great composer and i agree with all of these lyrics
I love Sondheim's work and think he's a brilliant lyricist, but for some reason, my favorite line of his (at the moment) is a simple little line from Being Alive that just gets me every time. And it's not the "But alone is alone, not alive" line, but the line right before it. "Vary my days." So simple, but so poignant and heartfelt. That and "Nice is different than good" are my favorites.
Such a good list! I never even thought of the double meaning of "attend the tale of Sweeney Todd." Also, I love the lyrics in Giants in the Sky, where Jack says "And you think of all of the things you've seen And you wish that you could live in between And you're back again, only different than before." SO. GOOD.
I like that second line in the Sweeney Todd song: "He served a wrathful and angry God." "Officer Krupke" in WEST SIDE STORY is another brilliant lyric! "They didn't want to have me, but somehow I was had..."
One of my favorite Sondheim lyrics is "There is no one in his life. Robert ought to have a women." I love how he sets you up for a rhyme there! The man's a genius!
Awesome list, Sondheim is fantastic. I really like this rhyme in "God, That's Good!" from Sweeney Todd, "Oh well, got her comeuppance/And that'll be thruppence". I think it's so inventive, who else would've thought of that? :)
One of my favorites is from Into the Woods. In "Your Fault, the witches states, It's his father's fault that that the curse got places and the place got cursed in the first place." Such brilliant wordplay!
My favorite Sondhiem show of all time is Assassins. I think Sondhiem does an amazing job writing melodies that fit the time period of that Assassin. Also, some of those lyrics in the ballads are genius.
"Am I not sensitive, clever, well-mannered, considerate, passionate, charming as kind as I'm handsome and heir to a throne? (You are everything maidens could wish for) Then why no? (Do I know?) The girl must be mad! (You know nothing of madness 'til you're climbing her hair and you see her up there as you're nearing her all the while hearing her AahAhAahAhAahAhAahAhAahAhAahAh!)
"Careful the wish you make Wishes are children Careful the path they take Wishes come true Not free!" I love it because, well, isn't it the truth? Then again, "Wishes may bring problems, such that you regret them. Better that, though, than to never get them." :p
The entire final number from Sweeney Todd is genius. Also, Being Alive is a glorious song that always gives me chills. And the entirety of Into The Woods is incredible.
"You're sorry grateful, regretful happy". One of my favourite lyrics in Company, as it shows the complex nature of love and marriage. But there's too many, I can't pick an actual favourite, you can't make me!!! :( ;)
I personally love the final line of Hello Little Girl in Into The Woods: "There's no possible way, To describe how you feel, When you're talking to your meal."
I find myself quoting Sondheim at least three or four times a day. My favorite, though, is whenever I see my friend Bobby. I can't greet him without saying "Bobby you're my hobby and I'm giving you up."
SO many brilliant ones (obviously!), but one of my favourites is "Mrs Lovett, what a charming notion; eminently practical and yet appropriate as always". I just love the lyrics and the rhythm of it! And the end of "Ladies who Lunch" - Look into their eyes and you'll see what they know: everybody dies." And "Popping pussies into pies" - such great alliteration. Aargh, this is way too hard, I can't.
Most of my most favorite Sondheim lyrics are in Sunday in the Park with George. "Don't worry if your vision is new. Let others make that desicion, they usually do. You keep moving on." "Stop worrying where you're going, move on If you can know where you're going, you've gone. Just keep moving on." And from Merrily We Roll Along: "It's called what's your choice? It's called count to ten. It's called burn your bridges, start again. You should burn them every now and then. Or you'll never grow!"
"Why did you do it boy, not just destroy the pride and joy of Illinois, but all the USA?" I love those never ending rhymes and coupled with my love for Assassins makes it a great and smart-sounding lyric.
MTM, how you transition into different parts is literally helping me figure out how to transition between different parts of my postgrad thesis more eloquently. You are awesome!
One of my favorites is "We diappoint, we disappear, we die, but we don't" mostly because of the meanings attached to it. But his tongue twister lyrics are amazing!
Couldn't really choose favorites--like choosing ones favorite from amongst their children. One that for some reason amuses me is "Throw a lonely dog a bone, it's still a bone." Also, from the same song, "She's tall enough to be your mother--Goliath!" But really, too many--they all fly around in my head. Don't forget SATURDAY NIGHT or FROGS or EVENING PRIMROSE--lots of good stuff there.
Absolute favourite: all the lyrics to 'A Little Priest'. 'Send in the clowns' is just magnificent in its contextual surrounding. I scratch my head when non-Sondheads say they can't work out what the song is about! However, what always gives me a chuckle in 'Into the Woods' is 'If the end is right, it justifies the beans'.
I thought "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" would have snatched the top spot "When a person's personality is personable/ He shouldn't oughtta sit like a lump/ It's harder than a matador coercin' a bull/ To try and get you offa your rump"
My musical theatre teacher was in the original cast of Company, and she's allowing me to do "Everybody Loves Louis" from Sunday in the Park With George, and by far my favorite lyric is "We lose things, and then we choose things. and there are Louis' and there are Georges. well, Louis' and George"
My introduction to the depth of Sondheim songs was the song “anyone can whistle” played and sung solo by Jeff Barnhart. It struck a deep chord in me because my youngest daughter, very beautiful and naturally clever was constantly bullied at school by pupils and even one teacher. She struggled to raise enough courage to go to school today, and to listen with any comprehension.
'Spend sleepless nights to think about you' from Losing My Mind, Follies. Just the precise choice of 'to' not 'and'. If you've spent nights like that, you'll appreciate that 'to'.
I know this is long past when this video was made or much of anyone will see it, but I have to mention one of my favorite Sondheim lyrics, the last line of "Giants in the Sky": "There are big tall terrible awesome scary wonderful giants in the sky." Those six adjectives are in exactly the right order for maximum impact. Everything about giants in the sky sounds frightening until you get to that last word: wonderful. Of course it's the last word in that series, because it's the most important reaction Jack has to his experience.
I love "When the Shogun is weak, Then the tea must be strong, My Lord... My Lord?" It's both funny and brilliantly echoes and underscores what is happening dramatically.
Currently, some of my favourite Sondheim lyrics are all from the same show: 'Assassins'! I just love it and all its songs, especially Another National Anthem. My high school is performing it right now and I'm playing Sara Jane Moore which is so much fun! Easily my favourite Sondheim show!
All of Sondheims music amazes me with its pure beauty (much like most of Webber’s music) I think one of my favorite lines is in ITW in the Children will listen Finale: “Careful the tale you tell That is the spell Children will listen”
In terms of joke lines I think "you don't have a gate" from Sweeney Todd is possibly my absolute favorite. It's so quick and buried in a cluster of overlapping lyrics so it's so easy to miss, and so absolutely delightful
One of my favorite things about Sondheim's Lyrics is that he can take a statement that seems ordinary, but set to his music and in the appropriate context, it's just shattering and game changing. The best example I can think of what I'm talking about comes in Follies during "Too Many Mornings." Sally sings "I should have worn Green... I wore green the last time" and it just MURDERS me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
My personal favorite is from A Little Night Music - " The hands on the clock turn, but don't sing a nocturn just yet. " Took my breath away, I swear. Absolute poetry wrapped in a gorgeously beautiful melody .
I love the lyrics to the version of "The Glamorous Life" that was cut from the stage version of "A Little Night Music." "Ordinary mothers thrive on being private, But ordinary mothers somehow can survive it. No, ordinary mothers never know they're just standing still with the kettles to fill while they're missing the thrill of the glamorous life." Fantastic!
What made me a Sondheim devotee was finding in his lyrics something that "stuck" in my mind afterward. There are lessons there. He makes observations about the way we behave toward each other and ourselves. His songs point out the delusions that we create and the lies that we are willing to live with in order to protect them. A touch of melancholy is just below the surface born out of the follies of the human race.
A few of my favorites off the top of my head (trying to judge just lyrics that stand on their own... not counting the ones that really require buildup or music to really hit): - "The sun won't set. It's fruitless to hope or to fret. It's dark as it's going to get. The hands on the clock turn but don't sing a nocturne just yet." - "I was watching him crawl back over the wall, when bang! Crash! The lightning flashed! And well that's another story. Never mind. Anyway..." - "Lucy is juicy, but terribly drab. Jessie is dressy, but cold as a slab. Lucy wants to be dressy. Jessie wants to be juicy. Lucy wants to be Jessie, and Jessie, Lucy. You see, Jessie..."
"Must it all be either less or more? Either plain or grand? Is it always 'or?' Is it never 'and?' That's what woods (woulds) are for. For those moment in the woods." Mind blown at the "woods/woulds" double meaning.
DUH! on me but, until i watched this,it had never even registered with me about "Attend the tale..", and you articulate the point so brilliantly . That's why i love this guy!!
I agree about "Ladies Who Lunch." As a musician/composer myself, what I like best about Sondheim is the way he unexpectedly twists and turns the melody around a very jazzy chord structure. The final product is closer to pop; it has to be to sell as a Broadway musical. Yet much of his music--not all of course--still retains a strong artsy, jazz influence. And it always, always informs the intention of the lyric.
I tend to go for the really crazy rhyme-y lyrics, like: She sits at the Ritz With her splits of Mums And starts to pine for a stein With her Village chums, But with the Schlitz in her mitts Down in Fitzroy's bar She thinks of the Ritz, oh! It's so schizo! (But on a sidebar and very pedantic, I wouldn't say that Joanne doesn't consider herself a lady who lunches, she very much does. That's why she's toasting them, because she's afraid if she doesn't no one else will and she'll become obsolete. "Too young for the old folks, but too old for the young folks." Which is why she finally comes down to the "girls who just watch," i.e. herself observing. My two cents, for whatever two cents can get you these days.)
RiganoSongbook I bought a gumball for two cents just the other day! I could talk for HOURS about whether Joanne considers herself one of the "ladies." Certainly, a big chunk of what makes her an interesting character is the exact struggle you describe. Point well taken. :)
My favourite Sondheim line (so far) isn't even a song lyric, it's a piece of dialogue spoken by Amy in Company, where she just says "I don't love you enough," to Paul. That line resonated with me so much and I wish it'd entered my life sooner than it did.
"While her withers wither with her" is more than alliteration. It's consecutive triple antanaclasis.
Jonathan Bontrager-Waite it’s actually a juste one antanaclasis and then paronomasia
Snoop dog does that with improvisation
My son in law does it all the time in ordinary conversation. He's a rapper too
@@soufyanechafik2725 Hi. I'm a college music teacher and assist the voice teacher so I want to learn all about these fine points. Isn't antanaclasis a a sort of sub division of paronomasia?
@@magickitchen54 Antanaclasis is when a same word is repeated with different meanings. Here, wither is repeated twice (though in different grammatical categories of noun and verb, with a plural infection for the first). « With her » sounds (and looks) close but not identical to « wither » -> paronomasia.
Not a line from a song, but someone once challenged Sondheim to find a rhyme for silver and he replied "To find a rhyme for silver, or any 'rhymeless' rhyme, requires only will, verbosity and time"
Will-ver, silver. The man is a genius.
In "A Little Priest", Mrs. Lovett tries to outwit Mr. Todd to find a rhyme. Tinker/pinker. Tailor/paler. Bulter/subtler. Potter/hotter. Then stymies him with "locksmith."
“Look, I made a hat where there never was a hat.” is maybe the most perfect distillation of the beauty of the artistic process that I’ve ever heard.
i really love the lyric "let the moment go, dont forget it for a moment though"
idk why that one just sticks with me
My favourite is from Into the Woods - "You may know what you need, but to get what you want, better see that you keep what you have"
Oh, I love that line!
Ditto!
I saw the title and I thought to myself "Good Lord, I can think of at least 10 from Into the Woods alone!"
LoL-
@@eventhorizon Into the Woods truly has a PLETHORA
i play the bakers wife and damn was that one hard to get for that transition.
+musicaltheatremash i am shocked that "it's his father's fault that the curse got placed and the place got cursed in the first place" wasn't on this list
James Algar Ha! At that point I'd feel tempted to just include ALL of "Your Fault." 😃
Musical Theatre Mash There's something similar in Sunday in the park: The one on the left is right for me so the one on the right is left for you
+James Algar How about that 'The woods are just trees, the trees are just wood', I love it so much for some reason.
+Bintaro wow sondheim loves reversing phrases for double-meaning...
Indeed. It could've been Top 25 Sondheim lyrics and it'd still have enough content.
Can't disagree with your ST choice of "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd". However my all-time favorite lyric from any musical is the delightful line from A Little Priest: "we have some shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd on top!". The delightful rhythm in the phrasing contrasting with the macabre subject matter is just perfection.
Don't forget this one:
Todd: "Don't you have general?"
Lovett: "With or without his privates?"
My personal favourite is "Well the trouble with poet is how do you know it's deceased, stick to priest", always makes me laugh!
David Wilson “Save a lot of grave,Do a lot of relatives favors.”
Really, most of the lyrics in Sweeney Todd are really good.
That shepherd's pie lyric is close to the top of my list, and it was with great relish that I had shepherd's pie at a local Manhattan restaurant before seeing Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris in the revival of SWEENEY TODD.
"You'll have to marry somebody, not just someBODY." from Company. So good
jacksonkamiska want something. want SOMEthing
“Do not put your faith in a cape and a hood. They will not protect you the way that they should, and take extra care with strangers, even flowers have their dangers, and though scary is exciting, nice is different than good.” Will always be my favorite
my favourite is "Has...had...HAS" from Sweeney Todd's A little priest
@Robert Lee, Countertenor the entire song is very genius but I love "How gratifying for once to know that those above will serve those down below"
For me - Sunday in the Park with George: "I chose and my world was shaken. So what. The choice may have been mistaken. The choosing was not. "
can we just talk about all of "not getting married"
Fearghalicious “not getting married” is the best thing ever”
True. Belongs a list of it's own:)
Yes!!!
It’s amazing
I came here to comment exactly this
One of my all time favourite lyrics from Sondheim is the last lines of It takes two (Into the Woods)
We want four,
We had none.
We've got three.
We need one.
It takes two.
I'm not totally sure if this lyric is particularly "WOW. SO DEEP!" but this segment from "Moments in the Woods" (from Into The Woods) speaks to me in a huge level.
"Just remembering you've had an 'and'
When you're back to 'or'
Makes the 'or' mean more than it did before"
INACCURATE RAMBLING WARNING:
Choices have to be made in life, and you have to stick to these choices. You have to decide on one.
Simply remembering that you've had a chance to have both of your options makes you appreciate what you chose a whole lot more BECAUSE that temporary bliss is only that. Temporary.
What happened between the Prince and the Baker's Wife was a fleeting but memorable moment for the Wife, but she quickly shook it off as a 'moment' that will make her appreciate her husband more. She knows that her husband is not the Prince, nor is the Prince her husband.
My fav lyrics:
1.) "Maria! Say it loud and there's music playing. Say it soft and it's almost like praying."
2.) "I wish..." "I know." (such a powerful conveyance of emotion in 4 words)
3.) "Baby I'd die for you, even though I will always know... I am unworthy or your love"
4.) "A Jenny-ish Joanne"
5.) "I had a dream. I dreamed it for you, June. It wasn't for me, Herbie. And if it wasn't for me then where would you be Miss Gypsy Rose Lee?"
I would have to say my favorite Sondheim moment is the baker's last verse in "No More" from Into the Woods:
"No more giants
Waging war.
Can't we just pursue our lives
With out children and our wives?
'Till that happy day arrives,
How do you ignore
All the witches,
All the curses,
All the wolves, all the lies,
The false hopes, the goodbyes,
The reverses,
All the wondering what even worse is
Still in store?
All the children...
All the giants...
No more."
I find it profoundly deep. How do we live with all this hurt? How can we continue a story when this is what we face? Fairy tales should end at happy ever after... When will it come? Then the baker turns his thoughts to the choice between children and giants; Can he reject the children and flee from the giants? Well, no more.
I love the rhyme pattern of 'curses' and 'reverses' in that part, but only recently twigged that 'even worse is' extends it further!
"Angry men don't write the rules, and guns don't right the wrongs." -Assassins
Hands down one of my favorite lines, perhaps in all of musical theater
The pitter-patter rhythm and lyrics of “Not Getting Married Today” from Company is probably my favorite.
Sondheim = God.
***** Don't come at me preaching your biased religious nonsense.
Anyone who subs this channel is perfectly aware of what I am implying. Sondheim is a musical genius. A God to many.
I am sure you and I do not believe in the same God anyway. Mine does not hate, segregate or use either as a way to bigotry.
Have a lovely day.
Milla Meiman Are you him? You know that for a fact? Sounds like religion shaming to me...
Milla Meiman I can recite lyrics for many venues but I will always be specific when doing so not to offend.
Pretty damn close
"Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd" is also one of my favourite lyrics. Hearing it in the final ballad of Sweeney Todd after all that has transpired in the story, especially the deaths of the final scene and Toby going mad, that line sends chills down my spine
My favorites:
1. "Everybody's got the right to some sunshine, not the sun but maybe one of its beams" from Assassins
2. The 'Ladies who Lunch' lyric you were talking about.
3. Every line in Side by Side by Side
4. "Damn my soul, if you must. Let my body turn to dust. Let them mingle with the ashes of the country" again, from Assassins
5. "Nice is different than good" into the Woods
6. One of the final verses of Roses Turn where she's asking what her actions actually gave her in the long run
7. Franklin Shepard Inc. The entire song is amazing.
A ton more lol I'll probably remember later.
Ava Edwards Franklin Shepard is so good!!
As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't get much better than "Sunday, by the blue purple yellow red water on the green purple yellow red grass, let us pass through our perfect park, pausing on a Sunday by the cool blue triangular water on the soft green elliptical grass, as we pass through arrangements of shadows towards the verticals of trees forever... by the blue purple yellow red water on the green orange violet mass of the grass in our perfect park, made of flecks of light and dark, and parasols… people strolling through the trees of a small suburban park on an island in the river on an ordinary Sunday."
My favorite:
It's the fragment, not the day
It's the pebble, not the stream
It's the ripple, not the sea
That is happening
Not the building, but the beam
Not the garden, but the stone
Only cups of tea
And history
And someone in a tree
My favorite lyric will always be, "Look I made a hat- where there never was a hat." It gets me every single time.
"Maria.... say it loud and there's music playing, say it soft and it's almost like praying" always melts my heart!
My personal favorite Sondheim lyric/musical composition moment is from Into the Woods, in No One Is Alone, and there's a story behind it. I played Cinderella in the junior (meaning no second act - NOOOO) version of Into the Woods, and while listening to the Broadway cast soundtrack I started to really like No One is Alone, and as I continued listening to it, I realized it could kind of be put together with the Witch's song, Stay With Me - I mentioned this to the girl who played the witch at the time. Because I was going to audition for an advanced ensemble in my high school in a few weeks, I decided to learn No One Is Alone because I loved it but didn't get to sing it in the actual play. I found the sheet music in one of my mom's music binders, and I tried putting it into a composition program so I could transpose it into a better key and make a backup track. While doing this, I noticed that when Cinderella sings "Sometimes people leave you..." THE PIANO PART IS PLAYING THE TUNE OF "Stay with me, the world is dark and wild." I will repeat that: Stay with me vs. sometimes people leave you. THEY CONSTRASTINGLY (contrastingly??) MATCH LYRICALLY AND ACTUALLY MATCH MUSICALLY.
I kind of freaked out.
YES! Sondheim sneaks the "Stay With Me" theme (in different keys) into the show multiple times, he calls it the "Bean Theme". Check out the beginning of "I Guess This is Goodbye" when The Baker gives Jack 5 beans, and then the violins come in with the theme in different tempos/rhythms again. It's amazing :)
DoctorWhoBAMF It's also in Giants in the Sky multiple times. He weaves the "Bean Theme" in every second possible. It's basically going to underscore the entire movie.
Oh man! I can't believe I didn't notice it Giants in the Sky - it's so much more obvious then now that I think about it!
It's also sung comedically in Agony. And it's not as dominate but the melody is sung again in Your Fault.
Wesley H It, and not the 4-note "Into the woods" descending theme, is the main musical motif in the show n my opinion.
I simply love 'Marry me a little' It's the perfect interpretation of modern day relationships, even though he wrote it in the 70s.. I wouldn't mind if my future husband proposed me with it!
I think the best part of ladies who lunch is that you don’t really see it coming. Joanne is this character who you expect to just be another one of the couples. But then she’s so complex
Great list! Sondheim is certainly the Shakespeare of musical theatre. My personal favourite is from Into The Woods' 'Moments in the woods':
"Must it always be either less or more?
Either plain or grand?
Is it always 'or'?
Is it never 'and'?
That's what 'woulds' are for, for those moments in the woods."
"And here's some shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd on top" .... Classic!!
My fave is "This one may be a bit stringy, but then again, it is fiddle player. "This isn't fiddle player, that is piccolo player" "How can you tell?" "IT'S PIPING HOT!" "THEN BLOW ON IT FIRST!"
All of mine come from Sunday in the park with George. “When the woman that you wanted goes you can say to yourself well I give what I give” I cry for that line every time.
“No one is you George there we agree but no one is me, George, no one is me!”
“The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not. You keep moving on”
"Well someone tell me, when is it my turn? Don't I get a dream for myself? Starting now it's gonna be my turn! Gangway! World, get off of my runway! Starting now, I bat a thousand! This time boys, I'm taking the bows!" Those lyrics are amazing😅
"The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not, I had to move on."
OMG yes this!
Your channel deserves much more attention, sir.
There are so many, but the one that always sticks out in my mind is one from Company, "when a person's personality is personable" "harder than a matador coercin' a bull" PERSONABLE - COERCIN' A BULL ? Brilliant!
I love that line too! It makes me happy every time I hear it.
+BrooklynBoy639 - There is no one to replace Sondheim...and that - perhaps - is how it should be.
Man Hattan: Although, to be fair (and this is coming from a HUGE Sondheim fan), some DO get pretty close. "So I'm the oldest and the wittiest, and the gossip in New York City is insidious..."
"Anything you do. Let it come from you. Then it will be new. Give us more to see." Always give me chills :)
"If the end is right, it justifies the beans!"-The Baker's Wife
Yes -- this line comes at the end of "Maybe They're Magic" from INTO THE WOODS, and if I had to choose one single lyric line from all of Sondheim's work as my favorite, I think it would be this. It just says everything.
Not one of those five lyrics would have made my top five. Which is what I find amazing about Sondheim. He manages to capture audience's attention in so many ways. The first lyric that comes to my mind is "I am unfinished, I am diminished, with or without you" and while I'm pretty sure that would probably end up in my top five, I'm not certain. This is the man who wrote a song called "Every Day a Little Death" and the title alone tells you so much more than most songs in their entirety can. I enjoyed this video, and every choice you made was correct. I just love that I didn't agree with any of them, and yet that's okay too. What an amazing genius!!
Those are all excellent picks. I've always adored "A Weekend in the Country" from A Little Night Music, especially the lyric, "She'll grow older by the hour and be hopelessly shattered by Saturday night." I never realized until someone pointed it out to me how "shattered" is meant to rhyme with "Saturd-". Brilliantly written.
+Aiwkid Also from Night Music, and one of my favorites:
The one who played the harp in her boa
Thought she was so a-
dept...
I scrolled through the comments just to see if there was anyone else who was with me on A Little Night Music. Thank you!
Could I leave you?
Yes.
Will I leave you?
Will I leave you?
Guess!
"then you career from career to career" is a good one. "The woods are just trees, the trees are just wood" is another one I really like. And of course the bitter irony of "don't bother, they're here" from send in the clowns is heartwrenching.
Another Hundred People has some amazing stuff in it
*me crying trying to learn all of act 2 of into the woods in one month before opening night because the act 2 witch dropped out* wow i love sondheim hes such a great composer
but in all seriousness he is a great composer and i agree with all of these lyrics
I love Sondheim's work and think he's a brilliant lyricist, but for some reason, my favorite line of his (at the moment) is a simple little line from Being Alive that just gets me every time. And it's not the "But alone is alone, not alive" line, but the line right before it. "Vary my days." So simple, but so poignant and heartfelt. That and "Nice is different than good" are my favorites.
Such a good list! I never even thought of the double meaning of "attend the tale of Sweeney Todd." Also, I love the lyrics in Giants in the Sky, where Jack says
"And you think of all of the things you've seen
And you wish that you could live in between
And you're back again, only different than before."
SO. GOOD.
I like that second line in the Sweeney Todd song: "He served a wrathful and angry God."
"Officer Krupke" in WEST SIDE STORY is another brilliant lyric! "They didn't want to have me, but somehow I was had..."
One of my favorite Sondheim lyrics is "There is no one in his life. Robert ought to have a women." I love how he sets you up for a rhyme there! The man's a genius!
Awesome list, Sondheim is fantastic. I really like this rhyme in "God, That's Good!" from Sweeney Todd, "Oh well, got her comeuppance/And that'll be thruppence". I think it's so inventive, who else would've thought of that? :)
Or FOLLIES - 'In the depths of her interior, Were fears she was inferior, And something even eerier, But no-one dared to query her superior exterior.'
"This is ridiculous!, what am I doing here?, I'm in the wrong story!"
One of my favorites is from Into the Woods. In "Your Fault, the witches states, It's his father's fault that that the curse got places and the place got cursed in the first place." Such brilliant wordplay!
My favorite Sondhiem show of all time is Assassins. I think Sondhiem does an amazing job writing melodies that fit the time period of that Assassin. Also, some of those lyrics in the ballads are genius.
"Am I not sensitive, clever, well-mannered,
considerate, passionate,
charming as kind as I'm handsome
and heir to a throne?
(You are everything maidens could wish for)
Then why no? (Do I know?)
The girl must be mad!
(You know nothing of madness
'til you're climbing her hair
and you see her up there
as you're nearing her
all the while hearing her
AahAhAahAhAahAhAahAhAahAhAahAh!)
The girl must be mad!
That's my favorite..'til you're climbing her hair..
"Careful the wish you make
Wishes are children
Careful the path they take
Wishes come true
Not free!"
I love it because, well, isn't it the truth?
Then again, "Wishes may bring problems, such that you regret them. Better that, though, than to never get them." :p
Love it so much! So basically Into the Woods is Sondheim’s masterpiece!!
The entire final number from Sweeney Todd is genius. Also, Being Alive is a glorious song that always gives me chills. And the entirety of Into The Woods is incredible.
"You're sorry grateful, regretful happy". One of my favourite lyrics in Company, as it shows the complex nature of love and marriage. But there's too many, I can't pick an actual favourite, you can't make me!!! :( ;)
+VioletWillowTree
Ah - isn't it all? But there it is. Was afeared someone would not recall it. Thanks.
I personally love the final line of Hello Little Girl in Into The Woods:
"There's no possible way,
To describe how you feel,
When you're talking to your meal."
I find myself quoting Sondheim at least three or four times a day. My favorite, though, is whenever I see my friend Bobby. I can't greet him without saying "Bobby you're my hobby and I'm giving you up."
SO many brilliant ones (obviously!), but one of my favourites is "Mrs Lovett, what a charming notion; eminently practical and yet appropriate as always". I just love the lyrics and the rhythm of it!
And the end of "Ladies who Lunch" - Look into their eyes and you'll see what they know: everybody dies."
And "Popping pussies into pies" - such great alliteration.
Aargh, this is way too hard, I can't.
Most of my most favorite Sondheim lyrics are in Sunday in the Park with George. "Don't worry if your vision is new. Let others make that desicion, they usually do. You keep moving on." "Stop worrying where you're going, move on
If you can know where you're going, you've gone. Just keep moving on." And from Merrily We Roll Along: "It's called what's your choice? It's called count to ten. It's called burn your bridges, start again. You should burn them every now and then. Or you'll never grow!"
"Why did you do it boy, not just destroy the pride and joy of Illinois, but all the USA?"
I love those never ending rhymes and coupled with my love for Assassins makes it a great and smart-sounding lyric.
“I chose and my world was shaken, so what? The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not.”
MTM, how you transition into different parts is literally helping me figure out how to transition between different parts of my postgrad thesis more eloquently. You are awesome!
Opening doors is absolutely amazing! Also your number graphics were awesome
RIGHT? I want to live my life like Opening Doors.
Musical Theatre Mash truth. ✌🏽️
One of my favorites is "We diappoint, we disappear, we die, but we don't" mostly because of the meanings attached to it. But his tongue twister lyrics are amazing!
Couldn't really choose favorites--like choosing ones favorite from amongst their children. One that for some reason amuses me is "Throw a lonely dog a bone, it's still a bone." Also, from the same song, "She's tall enough to be your mother--Goliath!"
But really, too many--they all fly around in my head. Don't forget SATURDAY NIGHT or FROGS or EVENING PRIMROSE--lots of good stuff there.
Absolute favourite: all the lyrics to 'A Little Priest'. 'Send in the clowns' is just magnificent in its contextual surrounding. I scratch my head when non-Sondheads say they can't work out what the song is about!
However, what always gives me a chuckle in 'Into the Woods' is 'If the end is right, it justifies the beans'.
"You know why I did it? Because isn't any Santa Claus!"
I thought "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" would have snatched the top spot
"When a person's personality is personable/ He shouldn't oughtta sit like a lump/ It's harder than a matador coercin' a bull/ To try and get you offa your rump"
My musical theatre teacher was in the original cast of Company, and she's allowing me to do "Everybody Loves Louis" from Sunday in the Park With George, and by far my favorite lyric is "We lose things, and then we choose things. and there are Louis' and there are Georges. well, Louis' and George"
I've found my home. Your videos are amazing. Thank you.
My introduction to the depth of Sondheim songs was the song “anyone can whistle” played and sung solo by Jeff Barnhart.
It struck a deep chord in me because my youngest daughter, very beautiful and naturally clever was constantly bullied at school by pupils and even one teacher.
She struggled to raise enough courage to go to school today, and to listen with any comprehension.
this is such wonderful list. Pretty nice mixing of words.
I think some of Sondheim's most brilliant lyrics are found in A Little Night Music - there's some fantastic word play going on in that production.
"Word."
"It's a very short road from the pinch and the punch
To the paunch and the pouch and the pension."
_ "In the Meanwhile" from A Little Night Music
'Spend sleepless nights to think about you' from Losing My Mind, Follies. Just the precise choice of 'to' not 'and'. If you've spent nights like that, you'll appreciate that 'to'.
I know this is long past when this video was made or much of anyone will see it, but I have to mention one of my favorite Sondheim lyrics, the last line of "Giants in the Sky": "There are big tall terrible awesome scary wonderful giants in the sky." Those six adjectives are in exactly the right order for maximum impact. Everything about giants in the sky sounds frightening until you get to that last word: wonderful. Of course it's the last word in that series, because it's the most important reaction Jack has to his experience.
Oh, ye of little faith!
"If the tea the Shogun drank will
Serve to keep the Shogun tranquil..."
I love "When the Shogun is weak, Then the tea must be strong, My Lord... My Lord?" It's both funny and brilliantly echoes and underscores what is happening dramatically.
How am I just NOW discovering your channel???
ME TOO I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I HAVENT FOUND THIS BEFORE!
mrharris222 Hi! A belated welcome!
Currently, some of my favourite Sondheim lyrics are all from the same show: 'Assassins'! I just love it and all its songs, especially Another National Anthem. My high school is performing it right now and I'm playing Sara Jane Moore which is so much fun! Easily my favourite Sondheim show!
“How the kind of woman willing to wait’s not the kind that you want to find waiting.” Is a personal favorite.
All of Sondheims music amazes me with its pure beauty (much like most of Webber’s music)
I think one of my favorite lines is in ITW in the Children will listen Finale:
“Careful the tale you tell
That is the spell
Children will listen”
In terms of joke lines I think "you don't have a gate" from Sweeney Todd is possibly my absolute favorite. It's so quick and buried in a cluster of overlapping lyrics so it's so easy to miss, and so absolutely delightful
One of my favorite things about Sondheim's Lyrics is that he can take a statement that seems ordinary, but set to his music and in the appropriate context, it's just shattering and game changing.
The best example I can think of what I'm talking about comes in Follies during "Too Many Mornings."
Sally sings "I should have worn Green... I wore green the last time" and it just MURDERS me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
My personal favorite is from A Little Night Music - " The hands on the clock turn, but don't sing a nocturn just yet. " Took my breath away, I swear. Absolute poetry wrapped in a gorgeously beautiful melody .
I love the lyrics to the version of "The Glamorous Life" that was cut from the stage version of "A Little Night Music."
"Ordinary mothers thrive on being private,
But ordinary mothers somehow can survive it.
No, ordinary mothers never know they're just standing still
with the kettles to fill while they're missing the thrill
of the glamorous life."
Fantastic!
Was this cut from the stage version? I thought it was written for, and it is actually in the movie version.
What made me a Sondheim devotee was finding in his lyrics something that "stuck" in my mind afterward. There are lessons there. He makes observations about the way we behave toward each other and ourselves. His songs point out the delusions that we create and the lies that we are willing to live with in order to protect them. A touch of melancholy is just below the surface born out of the follies of the human race.
A few of my favorites off the top of my head (trying to judge just lyrics that stand on their own... not counting the ones that really require buildup or music to really hit):
- "The sun won't set. It's fruitless to hope or to fret. It's dark as it's going to get. The hands on the clock turn but don't sing a nocturne just yet."
- "I was watching him crawl back over the wall, when bang! Crash! The lightning flashed! And well that's another story. Never mind. Anyway..."
- "Lucy is juicy, but terribly drab. Jessie is dressy, but cold as a slab. Lucy wants to be dressy. Jessie wants to be juicy. Lucy wants to be Jessie, and Jessie, Lucy. You see, Jessie..."
How 'bout a little "Assassins?"
".. we'd have been left bereft of F.D.R."
No "El Capitan." Sondheim is "El Jefe!"
Sunday in the park's "It's not so much do as you like as it is what you like what you do." is the best for me.
When I read your title I thought: Well, my favorite is Ladies Who Lunch. Brilliant.
"Better stop and take stock while you're standing here stuck on the steps of the palace" is another great one - really hammers home the triple meter.
What about ANY of the lines from Send in the Clowns?
"Must it all be either less or more? Either plain or grand? Is it always 'or?' Is it never 'and?' That's what woods (woulds) are for. For those moment in the woods." Mind blown at the "woods/woulds" double meaning.
DUH! on me but, until i watched this,it had never even registered with me about "Attend the tale..", and you articulate the point so brilliantly . That's why i love this guy!!
Meaning, Tommy. But also, of course, Ole Steve-oh
I agree about "Ladies Who Lunch."
As a musician/composer myself, what I like best about Sondheim is the way he unexpectedly twists and turns the melody around a very jazzy chord structure. The final product is closer to pop; it has to be to sell as a Broadway musical. Yet much of his music--not all of course--still retains a strong artsy, jazz influence. And it always, always informs the intention of the lyric.
Sunday In the Park is one of my favorite shows lyrically. That show is just...unf. Magic.
I tend to go for the really crazy rhyme-y lyrics, like:
She sits at the Ritz
With her splits of Mums
And starts to pine for a stein
With her Village chums,
But with the Schlitz in her mitts
Down in Fitzroy's bar
She thinks of the Ritz, oh!
It's so schizo!
(But on a sidebar and very pedantic, I wouldn't say that Joanne doesn't consider herself a lady who lunches, she very much does. That's why she's toasting them, because she's afraid if she doesn't no one else will and she'll become obsolete. "Too young for the old folks, but too old for the young folks." Which is why she finally comes down to the "girls who just watch," i.e. herself observing. My two cents, for whatever two cents can get you these days.)
RiganoSongbook I bought a gumball for two cents just the other day!
I could talk for HOURS about whether Joanne considers herself one of the "ladies." Certainly, a big chunk of what makes her an interesting character is the exact struggle you describe. Point well taken. :)
My favourite Sondheim line (so far) isn't even a song lyric, it's a piece of dialogue spoken by Amy in Company, where she just says "I don't love you enough," to Paul. That line resonated with me so much and I wish it'd entered my life sooner than it did.
So many favorites but mine is in GYPSY. "We always can use what they throw." Funny and speaks to Rose's determination and resiliency.