Oscar Hammerstein II, Lyricist
American Songwriter and Producer of Greatest Musicals
Hammerstein is an immortal name in the history of Broadway and the American musical theatre. With Richard Rodgers, the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership is synonymous with Show Boat, The Sound of Music, Carousel, and The King and I.
Hammerstein contributed to the evolution of the American musical entertainment to a sophisticated art form perhaps more than any other person.
Early Life of Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II was born in New York City on July 12, 1895 into a notable and prominent theatrical family. His grandfather and namesake, Oscar Hammerstein I, was an important innovative opera impresario. His uncle Arthur Hammmerstein was a Broadway producer, and his father William was the manager of a vaudeville theater, the Victoria, in Manhattan.
The family wanted young Oscar to become a lawyer, so he went on to get a law degree from Columbia Law School. Soon after graduation, his interests prevailed. He abandoned law for the theater, where he started his career as an assistant stage manager for his producer uncle Arthur.
Pre-Rodgers Collaboration
He became known as a writer of lyrics for musicals, at first, in the operetta style. His first big success came with Wildflower in 1923. He collaborated with an older writer Otto Harbach, and composers Herbert Stothart and Vincent Youmans. This was followed by Rose Marie (1924), again with co-lyricist Harbach with music by Stothart and Rudolph Friml.
Hammerstein's other collaboration with Harbach included Jerome Kern's on Sunny (1925) which introduced "Who," and the The Desert Song (1926), a classic operetta by composer Sigmund Romberg.
Jerome Kern
In 1927, Hammerstein teamed up again with Jerome Kern. He wrote the text and libretto of one of the very greatest musicals, Show Boat, considered his most passionate attempt at a story and song. He introduced such classic songs as "Make Believe", "Ol' Man River", "You Are Love."
Romberg and Harbach
Show Boat was followed by another collaboration with Harbach and Romberg, and again they produced a classic operetta genre, The New Moon (1928), which included "Lover Come Back To Me".
Jerome Kern Again
In the 1930s, although he did some outstanding musical work, his career did not seem fulfilling from its early promise. He worked with Kern on the show Music in the Air (1932), a Broadway show called Very Warm for May (1939), a flop that included the magnificent "All The Things You Are". Other songs with Kern were "The Folks Who Live On The Hill" and "I'll Take Romance". They won an Academy Award for "The Last Time I Saw Paris," included in the film Lady Be Good (1941).
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers teamed up with Hammerstein when his collaboration with Lorenz Hart broke down. Hart died in 1943. The same year, Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership was born. Their partnership began with a masterpiece, Oklahoma! (1943, Pulitzer Prize), that significantly advanced his goal of integrating all elements of musical theater into an artistically unified whole. This show included classic songs "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning", "I Can't Say No", and "People Will Say We're In Love".
They followed this with Carousel (1945), introducing "If I Loved You", "June Is Bustin' Out All Over", and the immortal "You'll Never Walk Alone". They won an Academy Award for the song "It Might As Well Be Spring" from State Fair (1945) and Allegro (1947.)
South Pacific came in 1949, winning them another Pulitzer Prize, and including "Bali Ha'i", "A Cock-Eyed Optimist", "Some Enchanted Evening", "Younger Than Springtime," and "This Nearly was Mine."
In 1959, with Hammerstein ill, they had their last smash hit and all-time favorite, The Sound of Music, which include "My Favorite Things," "Sound of Music," and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain."
Final Years of Hammerstein
Hammerstein was a mentor to Alan Jay Lerner and the young Stephen Sondheim.
His best lyrics are characterized by simplicity, full of inner feelings one can easily warm up to. Oscar Hammerstein II died of cancer on August 23, 1960 at Highland Farms, Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Related Link:
Source:
- Word Crazy: Broadway Lyricists from Cohan to Sondheim, by Thomas S. Hischak, Praeger, New York, 1991
