pointedly meant as primers for a younger generation of songwriters; Oxford's former professor continues to teach. And if he sometimes sounds doctrinaire ("I've never come across a near rhyme that works better than a perfect one would"), his care and punctiliousness are steadily inspiring. Here he is discussing a rhyme from "Follies": "I had a similar moment when I paired 'soul-stirring' and 'bolstering.' The rhyme is not perfect, of course--the equal accents on 'soul' and 'stir' don't quite match the heavy accent on 'bol' and the lighter one on 'ster,' but I tried to mask that by leaping the melody up on each '-ing' to distract the ear."
from Brad Leithauser: The New York Times: Sondheim on Sondheim
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