Richard Rodgers
Geoffrey Block(Author)
Yale University Press
Published on 11. December 2003
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-0-300-09747-4 (ISBN)
Description
Richard Rodgers was an icon of the musical theatre, a prolific composer whose career spanned six decades and who wrote more than 1000 songs and 40 shows for the American stage. In this book, Geoffrey Block examines Rodgers's entire career, providing rich details about the creation, staging, and critical reception of some of his most popular musicals. Block traces Rodgers's musical education, early work, and the development of his musical and dramatic language. He focuses on two shows by Rodgers and Hart ("A Connecticut Yankee" and "The Boys from Syracuse") and two by Rodgers and Hammerstein ("South Pacific" and "Cinderella"), offering new insights into each one. He concludes with the first serious look at the five neglected and often maligned musicals that Rodgers composed in the 1960s and 1970s, after the death of Hammerstein.
Reviews / Votes
"Geoffrey Block's book is perceptive, stimulating, sometimes provocative, and always interesting. By setting out to examine Rodgers's work rather than his somewhat dismal life, the author not only concentrates upon what is important about Rodgers but offers example after example of the composer's methods, enabling even the most musically unsophisticated reader to appreciate the subtleties of his work." Frederick Nolan, author of Lorenz Hart: A Poet on BroadwayMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Illustrations
24 musical examples
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 167 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
640 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-09747-4 (9780300097474)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Geoffrey Block
Richard Rodgers
E-Book
10/2008
1st Edition
Yale University Press
€62.49
Available for download
Person
Geoffrey Block is editor of the Richard Rodgers Reader and author of Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from "Show Boat" to Sondheim. Professor of music at the University of Puget Sound, he is also coeditor of Charles Ives and the Classical Tradition, published by Yale University Press.