Richard Rodgers was one of America's most prolific and best-loved composers. A world without "My Funny Valentine," "The Lady is a Tramp," "Blue Moon," and "Bewitched," to name just a few of the songs he wrote with Lorenz Hart, is scarcely imaginable, and the musicals he wrote with his second collaborator, Oscar Hammerstein—Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music—continue to enchant and entertain audiences.

Arranged in four sections, Rodgers and Hart (1929-19...