The legacy

Well, there's several, but obviously we're talking about Sondheim's legacy and where I fit into that tradition. For starters, this isn't about familial relations: my work got me in the door when I was 18, and my continued work is why the Americans took an interest. Portrait of a Knight could have easily been inept, but it was a competent film that had some touching moments. To draw on the well of history, Brahms sponsored Dvorak's early career, and was well-known for making anonymous deposits to young writers. I'm not sure if Steve was that generous, but he certainly answered a lot of fan mail. - 'it's like what he would have written' ... nobody could say that for certain, but it's definitely fair to say that The Perfumed Garden is following in the footsteps of Pacific Overtures. - The Merrily tracks were just demos, but I'd totally do it if I was offered the chance. - How does it really feel? Well, it's a bit weird. Since 2021, there really hasn't been much interest in Sondheim's music, presumably cos people spent the first twenty years of this century doing all those tribute concerts. As a young person, I'll still be alive long after all the people that knew him, so right now it's not really all that important, but there might be a sudden surge of interest when I'm a bit older. I think that I sound like my own person as a composer, but my scores have a lot of Sondheim references, incl. subtle ones that nobody gets, like the Desiree phrase at the end of If It Were Real. Wish he'd seen the trilogy, but These Words Are Meant For Someone was on the shelf until after he died. I put some Sibelius renders on YouTube, but didn't sing it until 2022.