Comment on Interview With Stephen Sondheim: ABC TV Sunday Arts 5 August 2007

USING NEW MUSCLES I enjoyed the interview yesterday with Stephen Sondheim because he had things to day that were relevant to my experience as a poet. I read several interviews of Sondheim on the WWW and then wrote the following prose-poem: In an interview in July 2005, when he was 75, Stephen Sondheim said: “Poets generally make poor lyric writers.”1 Sondheim, perhaps the best-known artist in the American musical theatre, with its niche status, made the point that this is generally the case because the language of music is too rich. Musical lyrics are over-enriched in order to drown listeners in words and sound. At the same time the lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on. This is particularly true in the theatre where you not only have the music, but you've got choreography, costume, story, acting, orchestra, a whole team of people trying to bring an experience to an audience. There's a lot for an audience to take in. “The whole idea of poetry in contrast,” Sondheim emphasized, “is denseness, concision, abutment of images.....You can't do that when you've got music going on and expecting the audience to take it in. –Ron Price with thanks to 1Stephen Sondheim, “Interview,” Academy of Achievement, Internet Site, 5/8/07. 1 For perhaps thirty years, from 1962 to 1992, when I played the guitar for therapy and sing- alongs, I tried to write lyrics. But I never felt even remotely successful. During those years I would never have called myself a poet, not remotely. But in the last 15 years(1992-2007), the assignation, the label, poet or prose-poet has become one I can wear. I am increasingly comfortable with this term. This is especially the case since retiring from FT work in 1999, PT work in 2003 and most volunteer/casual work in 2005. Although there is a certain music in my words, my writing, I do not associate my words with music, with lyrics or even, for that matter, with performance poetry. Attending a poetry reading has, for me, as much in common with reading a poem on the page as reading a screenplay has to do with seeing a movie. A poem performed in public is one thing; reading a poem in private is another. One can’t be too self-critical when you’re writing it down, as you say, Stephen. You’ve got to let it flow and tidy it up later. And you can’t let those critics, well-meaning friends, that panoply and pageantry of people at varied assignations-- with words on how to do things better, how not to do things— who don’t like what you do, put you in some sardine-can, some fishbowl of examination. As you say, Stephen, it’s best to try to use muscles you haven't used before, that's the fun of writing—building on what’s there; although, I must say, I often go over territory I’m familiar with in a new take--in the process of exploration one always learns.1 1 Stephen Sondheim quoted by Robert Berkvist, “Stephen Sondheim Takes a Stab at Grand Guignol,” New York Times on the Web, February 25, 1979. Ron Price 5 August 2007