stephen sondheim – The Discerning Lyricist

Posted on June 26, 2015May 12, 2018 by A. Stefan Melnyk

Matilda and the Much-Too-Packed Lyric

Sondheim once wrote, “Many lyrics suffer from being much too packed,“ making the point that excessively dense lyrics fundamentally interfere with clarity and thus kneecap one of the main functions (I might even go so far as to argue the main function) of those lyrics – to convey events and ideas clearly and elegantly. And the moment I read that, the example that sprang most readily into my head was the musical adaptation of Matilda.

Posted on June 22, 2015March 3, 2019 by A. Stefan Melnyk

Sweeney Todd vs. Into The Woods: Two Approaches To Film Adaptation

I have been given to understand that I am somewhat outspoken in my love for the 2007 Tim Burton adaptation of Sweeney Todd. Whatever your complaints (and I‘ve heard them before, I guarantee it), I would like us to set them aside for a moment and consider the movie as an adaptation alone.

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Posted on June 16, 2011May 12, 2018 by A. Stefan Melnyk

The Necessity of Rhyming, or What Does It Get Ya?

Today I thought I might give a brief argument as to why perfect rhyming is essential in lyrics. Let’s think about musical dissonance for a moment; modern music is fully aware of dissonance, but is also smart enough to use it sparingly. The fully atonal composers saw dissonance as a style, rather than what it actually is: an effect. And any musical effect must be used intelligently and therefore intermittently if it is to maintain its efficacy over time. Thus, dissonance must be saved until the moment at which it will be most effective. At that point, it may be used with abandon.

Posted on June 7, 2011May 12, 2018 by A. Stefan Melnyk

Clever vs. Telling Lyrics, or The Gap Between Noel Coward and Spring Awakening

I posit that lyrics (that is to say, good lyrics) tend to fall somewhere between two polar ends: clever and telling. Clever lyrics can be found in their purest form in the work of lyricists like Noel Coward and W.S. Gilbert. No plumbing of emotional depths is even attempted in such lyrics, for they are dazzling feats of wordplay that tend to be sung either by the lyricist himself (as in Coward’s case) or by characters acting as a surrogate for the lyricist (as in much of Gilbert’s work). Simply put, the lyricist becomes the star.