Leonard Bernstein was a very extraordinary person. He was among the first conductors to be born and educated in America. A truly inspirational man, who accomplished an astonishing amount during his career. His achievements in conducting, composing and teaching helped establish American artists in a largely dominated European field. A true creator, Bernstein was able to achieve great success in many areas of music. His compositions varied throughout his life from; symphonies, musical theatre, ballet, chorales, solo pieces and song cycles.
He was a gifted teacher, using his talent to educate many millions of people through his television career, which was aided by his charismatic persona, charm, and his infectious love of all things musical. The first American born and raised conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein was an international star, guest conducting for the Vienna Phil. , London SO and Bavarian RSO to name a few. His contribution to American music is a colossal achievement, and he has left behind him a catalogue of work that will be loved, listened, studied and inspire others for generations to come.
Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA, on August 25th 1918. Bernstein was a celebrity in post world war II New York, and around the world. Conductor, composer, pianist, author, educator, Bernstein was truly an all round musical talent. Bernstein did not come from a musical family, his father was a successful business man, supplying beauty and barber shop supplies. He first developed an interest in music when his aunt’s piano was brought into the Bernstein family home.
The Essay on Foreign Born American Writers
American literature has changed and evolved from the early colonial days to develop characteristics that are unique and which identify it from other literary works. Several writers have contributed to the development of American literature. Some of these writers immigrated into the United States and their works were accepted into the American literary canon. Some of the notable foreign born ...
Bernstein played the piano by ear before his first noted piano teacher and later assistant Helen Coates began to teach him after Bernstein approached her then boss which she was assistant to, Heinrich Gebhard who was one of Boston’s most influential teachers and pianists. His family accepted there sons flare for music and embraced it even though it was looked on as an uncertain career. Bernstein had one of his first performances playing an advert for his fathers company on a local radio show.
Educated in the prestigious Boston Latin school before going to Harvard University to obtain his undergraduate and then moved onto the Curtis Institute were he studied further in conducting with Fritz Reiner, sight reading and transposition with Renee Longy-Miquelle and piano with Isabella Vengerova. Many people grew to love Bernstein through his “Young People’s Concert” series which graced the screens for fourteen years 1958-1972. This had a huge impact on American musical life. His series gained him critical acclaim in the television world winning Edison, Emmy, Peabody and Sylvania awards.
Bernstein’s personality, good looks, and love for music made this show the success it was, successful in the sense that it not only won awards and had a strong viewership weekly, but Bernstein successfully changed a generations opinion on classical music, inspiring children and adults to actively listen to composers such as Mahler and Beethoven. The “Young People’s Concert” series planted a seed, a seed that would never have been planted if it were not for the charismatic presenter Bernstein, which inspired many young Americans to pursue the study of music.
Bernstein worked as a teacher of conducting at Tanglewood for close to forty years. He was a university lecturer at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts in the 1950s and served as the school head for the creative arts for a short time. As mentioned previously Bernstein was one of the first American-born, raised and educated conductors that reached international fame and success. His debut in 1943, aged only 25, was partly due to luck, misfortune, and belief.
Homework: Music
In the world of music, there are many skilled singers, musicians and composers who have dedicated themselves to music in order to discover new types of music which will entertain other people. Moreover, composers are the main core of music. These composers are able to provide their listeners a form of music that will give entertainment to everyone. Furthermore, there are certain composers whom are ...
Luck came into play as the guest conductor Bruno Walter became ill, misfortune that Walter became ill because he was the student of Gustav Mahler who Bernstein had been excited to see, and then the belief of Rodzinski who hired Bernstein and gave him the opportunity to conduct in the absence of Walter. The opening night was such a success it made the front page of the New York Times, “Young Aide Leads Philharmonic, Steps In When Bruno Walter Is Ill”. This put America on the musical map so to speak, being the first American citizen to conduct the New York Philharmonic was an accolade to Bernstein’s musical brilliance.
His twelve years at the NY Philharmonic where filled with excitement and ecstasy, and gained the philharmonic a new generation of fans, that where treated to music from Nielsen, Sibelius, Shostakovich, Mahler and Stravinsky to name a few. It was due to the success of Bernstein and the Philharmonic that the “Young People’s Concert” series as mentioned previously were such a success. They toured America, South America, the Soviet Union, Europe and the Near East on sold out tours, which garnered Bernstein and the Philharmonic great success.
Bernstein’s compositional works included writings for Broadway, film, opera, small ensembles and symphony orchestras. He composed three symphonies; Symphony No. 1: Jeremiah, Symphony No. 2: The Age of Anxiety, and Symphony No. 3: Kaddish. Jeremiah was composed in 1939, after his graduation from Harvard. When listening to the opening of the second movement of Jeremiah we can hear the essence of Bernstein’s compositional skills, the very same essence, musicality and feeling that can be heard in Cool from West Side Story, which was composed eighteen years later.
Bernstein dedicated his Symphony No. 3 Kaddish to John F. Kennedy after his assassination. He was then asked by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to compose a piece to be preformed at the inauguration of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D. C.. Kennedy was one of Bernstein’s political and public figure idols, and to mark the occasion Bernstein composed a radical new work, his Mass. Said to be as “close to Bernstein’s spirit as any piece he ever wrote”.
The Essay on Musical Symphony Review Orchestral Components
On September 20 th, I attended the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra at Popejoy Hall and listened to a variety of classical pieces. I had never been to a symphony before, although I grew up in a musical environment and had been exposed to classical music for many years. I spent my childhood learning how to play the piano, violin, and the guitar. I even began composing my own music on the piano. ...
Composed for over 200 dancers, singers and instrumentalists, Bernstein with the help of Stephen Schwartz used the Roman Catholic Latin Mass, and created a masterpiece of collaboration between all the elements that Bernstein truly loved, music, pop, rock, classical, dance and theatre. We cannot talk about Bernstein’s contribution to American musical life without mention of his greatest success in musical theatre West Side Story. An adaptation of William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet, music by Bernstein, the libretto by Arthur Laurents, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and conception by Jerome Robbins.
The story focuses on two rival gangs in New York City in the 1950s, the Jets and the Sharks. This was a ground breaking musical at the time, as it ended both the first and second act with corpses on the stage. Bernstein put “everything he technically knew – a ‘Cool’ fugue with a 12-note row, high-rise chords in ‘Somewhere’, jazzcopations in ‘Jet Song’, Latin rhythm in ‘America’, a grand operatic aria in ‘Maria – yet knowledge was worn throughout with fetching humility. ” Written during the time of gangland crime in New York, it was a brave show, with brave new ideas. Bernstein’s career had a significant impact on musical life in America.
His celebrity life helped his career launch, but it was his sheer talent, and commitment to his work and being diverse in his creativity that established Bernstein as one of the great American musicians. His contribution to education has left us with books, and many recorded lectures and series that touched millions of people, which he will be remembered as one of “Americas most important musical educators”. His life was lived to the fullest potential and he is an inspiration to any young musician/creator that you do not have to stick to one area of creativity, but can be as diverse and creative as your mind allows.
