Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) & Lorenz Hart (1895–1943) · American Songwriters
Hart's lyrics cut deeper than almost anyone else in the American songbook — his words are by turns devastating, funny, bitter, tender, and achingly human. Paired with Rodgers' unfailingly graceful melodies, the result is a body of work that singers return to again and again, always finding something new in the language.
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart began their collaboration at Columbia University and went on to become one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships in American history. Hart, a small, restless man with a gift for internal rhyme and bittersweet irony, matched his words to Rodgers' cleanly structured, emotionally intuitive melodies with extraordinary results. From the 1920s through the early 1940s, they produced show after show — Babes in Arms, Pal Joey, On Your Toes, The Boys from Syracuse — each adding songs to the permanent canon of jazz repertoire.
This workshop brings together seventeen Rodgers & Hart songs, the largest in the archive. The range is extraordinary: from the radiant optimism of My Heart Stood Still and My Romance to the waltz-time melancholy of Falling in Love with Love, from the caustic wit of The Lady Is a Tramp to the devastating self-knowledge of Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered) and He Was Too Good to Me. Nobody's Heart Belongs to Me and This Funny World are among the most searingly honest songs about loneliness ever written.
Hart's lyrics reward close reading — they contain layers of meaning, unexpected rhymes, and emotional precision that repay any singer willing to take them seriously as poetry. This is a workshop for singers ready to go deep.
Each song includes lead sheet and lyric sheet in both a men's and women's key, plus a practice backing track. In addition, there are YouTube links to a variety of artist renditions to inspire you.