The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein

by Frederick Nolan

The greatest partnership in the history of the musical, captured in print, wonderfully illustrated. For this new edition, the book has been completely rewritten and substantially expanded to include material on Rodgers' early career with Lorenz Hart as well as his later work, and also features recollections from such theatrical titans as Sheldon Harnick, Martin Charnin, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents. Also, a completely new appendix reveals the details of the continuing worldwide phenomenon of Rodgers and Hammerstein's work up to and including the 2002 centennial year for Rodgers.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 1978

About the author

Frederick William Nolan is an English editor and writer, mostly known as Frederick Nolan, but also using the pen names Donald Severn, Daniel Rockfern, Christine McGuire and Frederick H. Christian.

He was educated in Liverpool and Aberaeron, Wales. At the age of twenty one, he began the researches that established him as one of England's leading authorities on the American West. In 1954 he was co-founder of The English Westerners' Society.

Reviews

[Cathy Houston · Rating 3 out of 5]

important book on the development of the American musical

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read most of this.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a pretty well documented and complete account of the legendary composers lives before and after they came together. Rodgers story is told, including his fruitious partnership with Lorenz Hart, and Hammerstein's is as well, including his work with Jerome Kern and others. There's a good amount of detail given into what made them tick, what mattered to them, what they looked for in material, the success or failure of their projects and how well they handled their business matters. There are also interesting stories and accounts given by their peers and those who were associated with them at variosu stages. Some of the details of their movies aren't expounded upon greatly, but more often than not their careers are given a good assessment and in a pretty candid manner.