The first page of Stephen Sondheim’s manuscript for “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music (1973). Sondheim’s biggest hit, with more than 400 recordings, may have been the song he wrote more quickly than any other—within 24 hours.
A page from Stephen Sondheim’s lyric sketches for “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd (1979). This is one of approximately 40 pages. Marginalia include types of people and professions that might be baked into meat pies; Sondheim considered more than 150, based on other lyric sketches.
A page of Stephen Sondheim’s manuscript piano-vocal score for “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd (1979), the show’s act one closing number.
Stephen Sondheim would sometimes rewrite and adapt songs for specific performers or events. Here are manuscripts and sketches as he rewrote “I’m Still Here,” originally written for Follies (1971), and personalized it for Barbra Streisand to perform in 1993.
Stephen Sondheim wrote the song “Putting It Together” for Sunday in the Park with George (1984), describing the efforts of a visual artist. At the request of Barbra Streisand, he refashioned the lyrics for a recording artist, and the new version became the opening track of her acclaimed Broadway Album (1985). Shown here is a page from Sondheim’s score atop a page of his lyric sketches.
The first page of the manuscript for “Agony,” the witty song of sibling rivalry for the princes in Stephen Sondheim’s musical of reimagined and imaginatively intertwined fairy tales, Into the Woods (1987).
“Out of My Reach” was the working title (or underlying notion) for what would become the song "Agony” in Into the Woods (1987), in which sibling princes try to outdo each other in the throes of self-pity. On this page from Stephen Sondheim’s lyric sketches, a string of word choices fills the left margin.
The first page of the manuscript for Stephen Sondheim’s “Not a Day Goes By,” the haunting ballad from Merrily We Roll Along (1981). The song is heard in three iterations—as a love song, a song of unrequited love, and a torch song.
The cover of one of several music notebooks likely from Stephen Sondheim’s college days. This one is titled “Songs + Ideas” and signed faintly at the bottom left.
Collage of items from the Library of Congress’ Stephen Sondheim Collection.
Collage of items from the Library of Congress’ Stephen Sondheim Collection.
