Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein is a name for the "songwriting team", consisting of the composer Richard Rodgers and the songwriter Oscar Hammerstein II .
In the early 1940s, Richard Rodgers tried in vain to find his first partner Lorenz Hart to work on the later musical Oklahoma! to be interested. He looked for and found Oscar Hammerstein for this project, whom, like Hart, he already knew from his student days. After Hart died in 1943, Rodgers entered into his second artistic and business partnership with Hammerstein.
During their collaboration, they created many very successful musicals that were style-defining for their time. Their partnership lasted for almost twenty years until Hammerstein's death in 1960.
Musical play
Hammerstein continued with Rodgers the path he had already taken with Show Boat (1927). He didn't just want to entertain, he wanted to create some kind of American folk opera with serious historical material. In this context he was able to induce Rodgers to forego jazz elements (which he took up again after Hammerstein's death, e.g. in No Strings , 1962). In addition, repetitions (reprises) of the music numbers had to have a dramaturgical sense and leitmotifs create a musical connection between the music numbers. Dance routines should emerge from the plot. This deliberate distance to conventional musical comedy resulted in the genre of musical play that is characteristic of this duo .
Works
Show musicals
- 1943: Oklahoma! - Film adaptation 1955
- 1945: Carousel - film adaptation 1956
- 1947: Allegro
- 1949: South Pacific - film adaptation in 1958
- 1951: The King and I - film adaptation in 1956
- 1953: Me and Juliet
- 1955: Pipe Dream
- 1958: Flower Drum Song - film adaptation in 1961
- 1959: The Sound Of Music - film adaptation in 1965
Film work
- 1945: State Fair - First stage performance in 1996
- 1957: Cinderella - TV
Songs (selection)
- My Favorite Things
- Climb every mountain
- You'll Never Walk Alone
- Hello Young Lovers
- Soliloqui
- Shall we dance
- (The hills are alive with) The sound of music
- Surrey with a fringe on top
- Oklahoma
Films about Rodgers and Hammerstein
- 1996 Rodgers & Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies (TV documentary)
See also
Web links
- Biographies: Rodgers & Hammerstein The Guide to Musical Theater (English)
- Biography: Rodgers & Hammerstein The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization (English)