Rodgers and Hammerstein's names are often seen together but, shockingly, they are not the same person. Each had lives and careers before they met each other and each had a different role in the musicals they collaborated on: Rodgers wrote the music and Hammerstein wrote the book and lyrics (except for The Sound of Music, for which Hammerstein wrote the lyrics only). Before meeting Rodgers, Hammerstein worked with Jerome Kern, most notably on Show Boat. Rodgers worked with Lorenz Hart on shows such as A Connecticut Yankee and Babes in Arms; after Hammerstein's death in 1960, Rodgers wrote a few more musicals, most notably Do I Hear a Waltz? with Stephen Sondheim. But together, Rodgers and Hammerstein were unstoppable, churning out the classics Oklahoma, Carousel, State Fair, South Pacific, The King and I, Cinderella, Flower Drum Song, and The Sound of Music. Even one unfamiliar with these musicals has almost certainly heard songs like "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," "Oklahoma," "Some Enchanted Evening," "I Whistle a Happy Tune," and "Shall We Dance?" Fans of the Liverpool football club (that's soccer to Americans like me) hold the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" near and dear to their hearts--but how many of them know that it's from Carousel, a musical that opened in 1945? Furthermore, how many of these hardcore fans know that the writers of that song also wrote "I Whistle a Happy Tune?" In any case, a football club with a Rodgers and Hammerstein song as its anthem is laudable, and can only add to Liverpool's merits.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's final collaboration was The Sound of Music, the film of which I must admit has a lot of nostalgia value for me. The exuberant songs "The Sound of Music," "Maria," "I Have Confidence," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," "My Favorite Things," "Do-Re-Mi," "The Lonely Goatherd," and "So Long Farewell" are almost frighteningly catchy and irresistible. They are topped off with the stirring "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" and "Edelweiss," the former a transcendent anthem and the latter, which is an original song by Rodgers and Hammerstein and not based on any Austrian folk song, a moving ballad haunting in its subtly graceful simplicity. Okay, so Christopher Plummer didn't like "Edelweiss" because he thought it was too saccharine--as Jiminy Cricket says, "You can't please everybody." If there is one criticism that malcontents have leveled at Rodgers and Hammerstein's songs, it's that they are too syrupy and schmaltzy. I suppose they are guilty as charged, but sweetness and quality are two different things. I'm sure many would prefer a superb, sweet song to an atrocious, gloomy one, but I may be attributing certain people with too much common sense. Rodgers wrote songs with indubitably exceptional melodies, and Hammerstein wrote the perfect lyrics to match them. Their legacy will be remembered not just by those who value phenomenal musicals, but also by everyday people who have been touched by the songs of these two great men.
The Sound of Music (Film)**
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