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Sondheim's Love Songs

 "Troubling Love" is the name of an Elena Ferrante novel, but it could also be used for a Sondheim revue. Again and again, Sondheim looked at examples of unrequited love: Herbie, Sally Durant, Countess Charlotte, Mrs. Lovett, John Hinckley, Jr., Mary Flynn....


Another thing about Sondheim. He always enjoyed making use of a gerund. The "continuous present." A gerund implies a journey from A to B. "Being Alive," "Waiting for the Girls," "Finishing the Hat," "Getting Away With Murder," "Putting It Together," "Losing My Mind," "Not Getting Married," "Good Thing Going," "Growing Up," "Opening Doors."

"Loving You," from "Passion," is both (a) an unrequited love song and (b) a gerund/journey song. Disgusted by the thought of "toning down" her love, Fosca makes an observation.

Loving you is not a choice.
It's who I am.

Loving you is not a choice--
And not much reason to rejoice--
But it gives me purpose, gives me voice...
To say to the world:

This is why I live.
You are why I live.

Sondheim--who generally disliked reading books--had an innate understanding of grammar. His songs often capitalize on a tiny, tiny shift in syntax. "A good thing going--going--gone." "Finishing a hat--starting on a hat--finishing a hat...Look, I *made* a hat...." "We'll serve anyone--meaning anyone--and *to* anyone...at all..."

"Loving You" starts with a gerund, but it ends with a modifier. A gerund is the noun form of a present participle. "Loving you is not a choice." At the song's conclusion, Fosca herself becomes the subject. It's the one and only time she alludes to a sense of agency in this set of lyrics:

But, loving you, *I* have a goal
For what's left of my life.
I will live--and I would die--for you.

The language is simple--but the shift from gerund to modifier makes the end satisfying. Fosca is saying, "Go ahead. Pity me or find me baffling. I know who I am."

It's so strange that Sondheim chose to empathize with this character--to bring her to life. (And now Lea Salonga is pitching in, as well.)
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