Steven R. Swayne is an associate professor of music at Dartmouth College. He is the author of biographies about the musicians Stephen Sondheim and William Schuman. Swayne also plays the piano in concerts, and has performed with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He also has a Christmas CD called Holiday Twists and a Chopin CD. Swayne is a native of Altadena, California, and a graduate of Muir High School and Occidental College. He has graduate degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary (MA) and the University of California, Berkeley (MA, Ph.D.). Steve Swayne taught at UC Berkeley as a graduate student and worked as a pianist at Nordstrom.
How Sondheim Found His Sound Steve Swayne An in-depth look at the musical and dramatic influences in Sondheim's music, and the first book to provide an overview of his style About the Book Stephen Sondheim has made it clear that he considers himself a playwright in song. How he arrived at this unique appellation is the subject of How Sondheim Found His Sound mdash;an absorbing study of the influences on Sondheim's work not normally associated with musical composition, such as theater and film. The book also traces the development of Sondheim's musical language, showing how that language, forged before Sondheim had a successful Broadway show, appears throughout his career.
Taking Sondheim's own comments and music as a starting point, author Steve Swayne offers a biography of the artist's style, pulling aside the curtain on Sondheim's creative universe to reveal the many influenceslmdash;from classical music to theater to filmemdash;that have established Sondheim as one of the greatest dramatic composers of the twentieth century.
