The Golden Age of the American Songbook Has Closed

Pianist and songwriter Burt Bacharach, who died on Feb. 9 at the age of 94, wrote the last chapter in the Great American Songbook. His 26-year partnership with the lyricist Hal David, who died in 2012, made them the heirs to earlier double acts such as George and Ira Gershwin, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Bacharach came from the golden age, and it ends with him.