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Lorenz Hart, songwriter: Reference Sources

Overview and Commentary: Lorenz Hart

"Given that Larry Hart had to be practically locked up in a room to write a lyric, it's astounding that he and Rodgers wrote any shows at all. As it was they produced nearly thirty shows and some eight hundred songs in the twenty-five years (with additional "lost" lyrics still turning up now and then). At least fifty of those songs are among the finest American songs ever written" (Marmorstein, Hart, p. 7).

On the occasion of his parents' silver wedding anniversary, November 6, 1911 (the year "Alexander" was published), sixteen year old Larry Hart helped his father and mother celebrate by composing and performing his own words to Berlin's already enormously popular song "Alexander's Ragtime Band." According to Hart biographer Gary Marmorstein, Hart's "version probably qualifies as his earliest surviving lyric."

So clink your glass, Each Lad and Lass, For Max and Frieda's wedding day. Put on a Smile, Make life worthwhile-- Let each wrinkle shout hooray!

Marmorstein also notes that "in this anniversary song, Larry is already employing the tools he would use for the next thirty years: warmth . . . ; gallantry . . . ; repetition when it's called for; a reference or two to booze; [and] colloquial English and German that landed easily on the ear." (Marmorstein, p. 31).

He was a fast-talking, cigar-chomping, easy­laughing, profanity­spilling bon vivant who was fascinated with crime and the underworld. . . . He was also childlike and gentle. He was a concentrate of contradictions: an indefatigable workhorse who had to be yanked from bed in the mornings, a man-about-town who lived with his mother, an expensively tailored dandy forever in need of a shave, a soul-baring lyricist (“Why is my heart so frail, / Like a ship without a sail?”) who concealed his profoundest emotions even from intimate friends. . . . [a] celebrity who regularly shuttled in feted splendor from Hollywood to Broadway to London [but complained] of going unappreciated and unrecognized. ( from " American Songsmith ," a review of A Ship Without A Sail: The Life of Lorenz Hart by Gary Marmorstein, The New York Times Book Review , December 2, 2012).

Stephen Sondheim, though he admires Hart in some ways is a harsh critic, especially of Hart's lack of care when he writes; that is, making errors in various elements of lyric writing such as producing "mis-stressed syllables," "convoluted syntax," and "sacrifice of meaning for rhyme." Sondheim knows that criticizing Hart in this way may offend many, especially those who feel it is "heresy to criticize Hart for anything at all, but the fact is that Porter and Harburg and Fields and Loesser rarely indulge in these kinds of sloppiness, and the lyricists of my generation -- Sheldon Harnick, Fred Ebb, Lee Adams, Jerry Herman et. al -- almost never do. We take meticulousness for granted, a legacy from Porter and Harburg and Fields and Loesser, not to mention Hammerstein."

When Sondheim gets around to bestowing some praise on Hart, it includes the theme of his contradictory nature emphasized by Brad Leithauser. (See above). Sondheim writes:

Hart reveals himself more openly than any other lyricist except Hammerstein: in his case, jaunty but melancholy, forceful but vulnerable. There is a pervasive sweetness about him that comes through in even his most self-conscious work. He was verbally nimble, full of humor, and a lazy craftsman.

Cafe Songbook Music-Video Cabinet: Lorenz Hart


Rodgers and Hart
A Musical Anthology
Hal Leonard Publications, 1984
(foreword by Dorothy Rodgers,
music and lyrics for 73 songs,
indexes by show title and song title)

Research Resources: Lorenz Hart

Notes

Questions

What is Lorenz Hart, songwriter?

"Given that Larry Hart had to be practically locked up in a room to write a lyric, it's astounding that he and Rodgers wrote any shows at all. As it was they produced nearly thirty shows and some eight hundred songs in the twenty-five years (with additional "lost" lyrics still tu

How should Lorenz Hart, songwriter be cited?

Cite this page as "Lorenz Hart, songwriter: Reference Sources," Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/h_i_sws/hart_lorenz.html

Which Cafe Songbook pages are related?

Also read Cole Porter, songwriter (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/n_o_p_q_sws/porter_cole.html); E. Y. Harburg, ada YIp Harburg, songwriter (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/h_i_sws/harburg_yip.html); Dorothy Fields, songwriter (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/f_sws/fields_dorothy.html); Frank Loesser, songwriter (https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/l_sws/loesser_frank.html).

Cite this page: Lorenz Hart, songwriter: Reference Sources, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songwriters/h_i_sws/hart_lorenz.html