The Sondheim Lyrics Chain

[KathyB]

You've been a preacher--
  Yes, I have!
You've been an author--
  Yes, I have!
You've been a killer--
  Yes, I have!
You could be an angel--
  Yes, I could!



I'm listening to this song right now from Anthony De Mare's Liaisons: Reimagining Sondheim from the Piano. An insanely good recording.

[scenicdesign71]

If only angels could prevail,
We'd be the way we were.


I've always assumed that this game works far better with Sondheim than it would with any other lyricist.  That's because I've always assumed he uses a significantly broader vocabulary, which might partly be related to his aversion to "extractable hits," instead tailoring each song to character and dramatic circumstance with uncompromising specificity.  (This is a randomly broad observation, apropos of nothing in particular.  But, just to link it loosely to the two lines above, Sweeney is written with far more attention to "period" diction — or at least to Sondheim, Wheeler and Bond's version thereof — than just about any other musical I can think of; the show's first three words, "attend the tale," place us in some fairly remote past, and for almost the next three hours, the slightly archaic word-choice and syntax never go away entirely, nor do they ever devolve into any insipid, Hollywoodish version of "olde-timey" language).

But I say I "assume" SJS's vocabulary is broader because, notwithstanding the many, many specific instances one could cite, I'm curious about the actual numbers.  How many of his more-exotic words are one-offs within his entire body of work ("ameliorate")?  How many are unique to him ("coercin' [a bull]"), and had the word "cupola" ever, in the nearly 500 years since it entered the English language, been set to music prior to Bounce?  And, in terms of overall breadth, how would a complete concordance of Sondheim's lyrics compare to one of, say, Jerry Herman's?  Again, I'm guessing it would contain "significantly" more entries — but just how significantly?  Is Sondheim's vocabulary, e.g., as much as twice the size of Herman's?  or even more??  How about Sheldon Harnick's?  Or Fred Ebb's?  Would the actual numbers prove Sondheim to be the wordiest B'way lyricist, in terms of the sheer quantity of words he's written, or the average word-length of his songs — and, if so, should that be factored into any assessment of their variety?  Such a concordance might make this game a lot less fun to play, but it would still be fascinating to peruse.

To return to the current target-word, prevail isn't terribly exotic, but it's not super-commonplace, either; still, SJS uses it at least twice that I know of.