ABSTRACT
For a full-time musician, Leonard Bernstein wrote many words during his life, as may be seen best in the full list of his writings in the “Finding Aid” of the Library of Congress Bernstein web site, https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/bernstein/lbrelated.html" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/bernstein/lbrelated.html. Ahead is annotated a large representative sample of Bernstein’s published books and articles. Unlike the following chapters with bibliographic citations, Bernstein’s writings are arranged in chronological order.
64. “Forecast and Review: Boston Carries On.” Modern Music 15/4 (May–June 1938): 239–41.
For annotation, see Findings, 19–21 (Item 97a).
65. “Forecast and Review: Season of Premieres in Boston.” Modern Music 15/2 (January–February 1939): 103–06.
Bernstein reviews nine American premieres from the first eleven concerts of the Boston Symphony season, including works by Prokofiev, Mikhail Starokadomsky, Edward Burlingame Hill, and Sibelius. He briefly mentions other Boston concerts as well. Included are two musical examples from violin concertos by Prokofiev and a rather cheeky critique of Hill’s Symphony No. 3, a work by one of Bernstein’s Harvard professors.
66. “Forecast and Review: The Latest from Boston.” Modern Music 16/3 (March–April 1939): 182–84.
Bernstein reviews three works recently performed by the Boston Symphony: John Alden Carpenter’s Violin Concerto, William Schuman’s Symphony No. 2, and Roy Harris’s Symphony No. 3. Bernstein is quite critical of Carpenter’s work, but offers qualified approval for Schuman’s symphony. He highly praises the Harris, a work he later became associated with as a conductor.
67. “Young American—William Schuman.” Modern Music 19/2 (January– February 1942): [96]–99.
A brief critique of Schuman’s musical qualities with praise for his sincerity of expression. Bernstein attempts to explain what he sees as Schuman’s “long-winded” works and his “naïveté,” traits that he explains as arising from Schuman’s sense of conviction and love of musical sounds. The review includes Bernstein’s usual plain language and rich imagery, but it is too short to cover the topic. In an undated letter in the William Schuman Collection at the New York Public Library, Bernstein wrote Schuman, hoping that he was not offended by this article. He states that editor Minna Lederman altered his meaning in the editing process.
68. Program note for Symphony No. 1, Jeremiah, first published in New York Philharmonic Notes, 29 March 1944. Reprinted as part of the “Prefatory Note” in Jeremiah Symphony No. 1. N.p.: Jalni Productions/Boosey & Hawkes, 1992, [v].
Bernstein explains when he wrote the work, his limited inclusion of Jewish liturgical chants, and the piece’s program. Jack Gottlieb published more extensive notes in this edition (pp. iv–v), further explaining Bernstein’s use of Jewish chants.
69. “The Arts Belong to the People.” Christian Register 125/2 (February 1946): 77–78.
An article written in support of the New York City Symphony Orchestra, which Bernstein directed from 1945 to 1948. He calls for a new understanding of the Works Project Administration’s benefits during the New Deal and for additional government support for the arts. He believes his orchestra represents a new spirit of cultural institutions intended for the people and hopes that New York City will help fund the orchestra in addition to sponsoring it.
70. Program note for Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, first published in Rochester Philharmonic Notes, 28 February 1946. Reprinted as “Program Note” in On the Town (Three Dance Episodes). N.p.: Jalni Productions/Boosey & Hawkes, 1986, [iii].
Bernstein offers these symphonic excerpts from a Broadway show as “an experiment” and describes the place of each in the show.
71. “Neglected Works: A Symposium.” Modern Music 23/1 (Winter 1946): 3–12. Reprint: Perspectives of New Music 2/2 (Spring–Summer 1964): 31–34.
Ten American composers and musicians each were asked to name ten neglected contemporary works. Bernstein’s list (pp. 10–11): Stravinsky’s Perséphone and Les Noces, Berg’s Wozzeck and Lulu, Chávez’s Sinfonia India, Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Satie’s Socrate, Sessions’s Symphony, and Copland’s Ode and Statements. He notes the importance of careful performances and how difficult it is for an audience to accept twelve-tone works or Blitzstein’s theater works, the latter for social and political reasons.
72. “Jazz Forum: Has Jazz Influenced the Symphony?” Esquire 27 (February 1947): 46ff.
A pair of articles by Bernstein, who argues a qualified affirmative, and Gene Krupa, who takes a negative stance. Bernstein presents a brief history of the search for American musical materials similar to what he wrote elsewhere. Using Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat as examples, he cites the use of jazz materials but acknowledges the absence of jazz’s true essence. He asserts, however, that jazz rhythms have influenced American symphonic music, sending listeners to Copland, Schuman, and others for examples. Krupa argues that jazz has had no real influence on symphonic music because elements such as improvisation are missing from symphonic performances.
73. Program note for Facsimile, first published in Rochester Philharmonic Notes, 3 March 1947. Reprinted as “Program Note” in Facsimile: Choreographic Essay for Orchestra. N.p.: Jalni Productions/Boosey & Hawkes, 1988, [iii].
Bernstein’s description as to when he wrote the work and his explanation of the ballet action in each section.
74. “The Essence of Music Study.” Etude 65 (April 1947): 204, 233.
An essay on the nature of musical study and a musician’s most important attributes. Bernstein advises a prospective musician somehow to combine a university’s liberal arts education with the musical training of a conservatory and calls for more governmental support for the arts. He also muses on the lack of a single type of popular music in the United States from which a truly American style of concert music might emerge.
75. “The Negro in Music: Problems He Has to Face in Getting a Start.” New York Times (2 November 1947): Music Section/7.
Despite a flap over minority practices by the New York Philharmonic in 1969 (a case the complainants lost; see Peyser’s, Item 157b, 403–07), Bernstein was an advocate for the equality of African Americans. Bernstein notes the relative lack of African American musicians in orchestras, Broadway pits, opera companies, Hollywood studios, and radio studios. He blames this on a lack of access to first-class training because of racial prejudice and economic barriers, making African American musicians more likely to gravitate to the greater opportunities in jazz. Bernstein calls on music schools to offer more scholarships to African Americans.
76. “Music That Sings.” Theatre Arts 32 (February 1948): 14–16.
A review of five recordings: Bruno Walter conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor (Columbia MM718), Robert Shaw leading Bach’s Cantata, BWV 140 (RCA Victor DM 1162), an album entitled Alice in Wonderland starring Jane Powell with music by Carmen Dragon (Columbia MM713), works by Alan Hovhaness (Disc 876), and Aram Khachaturian’s Masquerade (Album 300). Bernstein reserves his most positive comments for the Mahler and Bach, disliking the remainder.
77. “A Note on Variety,” in Minna Lederman, ed. Stravinsky in the Theatre. New York: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1949. 228 p. No ISBN. ML410.S932L4.
Bernstein’s tribute to variety in Stravinsky’s music in terms of musical styles, levels of profundity, and orchestral sonority. Bernstein notes that several different programs of both symphonic and choral music could be fashioned with just Stravinsky’s music.
78. Program note for Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety, first published in Boston Symphony Orchestra Notes, 8 April 1949. Reprinted as “Prefatory Note” in The Age of Anxiety Symphony No. 2. N.p.: Jalni Productions/Boosey & Hawkes, 1993, [iv–v].
Bernstein’s oft-quoted explanation of the piece, including his attraction to W. H. Auden’s poem and the programmatic significance of each section. It includes Bernstein’s famous admission that “I have a suspicion that every work I write, for whatever medium, is really theater music in some way.”
79. “Music and Miss Stein.” New York Times Book Review (22 May 1949): 4, 22.
Bernstein’s review of Gertrude Stein’s Last Operas and Plays. He ruminates about Stein’s writing style, noting its musicality. He compares her influence on other writers to that of Virgil Thomson’s in music, noting how his use of triads and other simple materials in Four Saints in Three Acts and other works influenced Copland and others.
80. “Prelude to a Musical.” New York Times (30 October 1949): Section 2/1, 3.
Bernstein wrote this article to coincide with the Broadway premiere of Marc Blitzstein’s opera Regina, an adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play The Little Foxes. Bringing an opera to Broadway is a difficult task; here Bernstein sympathizes and tries to pave the way, in the process revealing some of his own feelings about problems of genre in musical theater. He praises the music as the “apex” of Blitzstein’s output, “the summation of what Blitzstein has been trying to do” (p. 3), providing specific references to the score. Blitzstein’s work, however, went the way of many operas on Broadway, playing only one month.
81. “Symphony or Musical Comedy.” Atlantic Monthly 194 (November 1954): 25–29.
An essay republished in The Joy of Music, 40–51. Annotation provided ahead.
82. “A Nice Gershwin Tune.” Atlantic Monthly 195 (April 1955): 39–42.
An essay republished in The Joy of Music, 52–62. Annotation provided ahead.
83. Program note for Serenade, after Plato’s Symposium, first published in Boston Symphony Orchestra Notes, 15 April 1955. Reprinted as “Program Note” in Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium). N.p.: Jalni Productions/Boosey & Hawkes, 1988, [iii].
Bernstein’s explanation of the programmatic significance of each section of the work.
84. “Colloquy in Boston.” New York Times (18 November 1956): Section 2/1, 3.
One of Bernstein’s “imaginary conversations,” this time between himself and his “Id” (“irrepressible demon”) concerning how Candide fits into the historical outline of the Broadway musical that Bernstein offered on his Omnibus broadcast the previous month (7 October 1956). Bernstein had emphasized the American nature of the genre, but his Id reminds him that here he works with a French story and writes in European musical styles. Bernstein counters, somewhat glibly, that the work is American because of the nationality of its creators and calls Candide an “operetta.”
85. The Joy of Music. New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1994. 315 p. ISBN 0-385-47201-3. ML60.B47 1994. [Originally published: New York: Simon and Schuster, 1959.]
Bernstein’s first book, like some of his later publications, is an anthology that cannot be considered easily in a single citation. The two major portions include three revealing “Imaginary Conversations” and seven scripts from Omnibus telecasts between 1954 and 1958. The book captures some of the excitement of those broadcasts, and this publication became an important part of Bernstein’s image. The book’s photograph section includes stills from the Omnibus shows.
85a. “Introduction: The Happy Medium,” The Joy of Music, 11–17.
Thoughts on speaking and writing about music and the search for the middle ground between “the music-appreciation racket and purely technical discussion.” This essay is an expansion of an article entitled “Speaking of Music,” published in The Atlantic Monthly 200/6 (December 1957): 104–06.
85b. “Imaginary Conversations: Bull Session in the Rockies,” The Joy of Music, 21–39.
Bernstein wrote several such fictional conversations during his career. Most are useful for those interested in his biography and character, illuminating his feelings on a variety of subjects. The setting for this conversation took place in 1948, when Bernstein, his younger brother, Burton, and British poet Stephen Spender drove together from Tanglewood to a ranch in Taos, New Mexico (see Burton Bernstein, Family Matters, Item 428, pp. 178–81). Bernstein wrote the piece later that summer. Through his three characters, Bernstein muses on the meaning of music, especially Beethoven. Serious music comments and unrelated asides are juxtaposed consistently.
85c. “Imaginary Conversations: Whatever Happened to that Great American Symphony?,” The Joy of Music, 40–51.
An imaginary exchange of letters and cables between Bernstein and a “Broadway Producer,” written in November 1954. The relative merits of composing symphonies and Broadway show scores are debated, certainly a question Bernstein often faced.
85d. “Why Don’t You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune?,” The Joy of Music, 52–62.
A conversation in a New York restaurant between Bernstein and a “Professional Manager,” written in April 1955. Included are pithy comments about George Gershwin and Bernstein’s musings on the difficulty of writing popular songs when one is also a composer of concert music.
85e. “Interlude: Upper Dubbing, Calif.,” The Joy of Music, 65–69.
Bernstein finished one film score in his career, for On the Waterfront (1954), directed by Elia Kazan. Here he candidly reacts to the process of sound editing, where some segments of his score were lost so other details of the soundtrack might be heard. The essay was written in May 1954. A version first appeared in The New York Times on 30 May 1954; Jon Burlingame (Item 601, p. 133) has shown that the two versions differ, with the book version being nearly seven hundred words longer and having a different ending.
85f. “Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony,” The Joy of Music, 85–105.
Bernstein’s first Omnibus show, broadcast 14 November 1954, was a comparison of Beethoven’s sketches with the final version of the Symphony No. 5. Although some of the show’s immediacy is lost in this printed version (with extensive musical examples), a musician is able to appreciate how Bernstein brought the compositional process alive for the non-musician.
85g. “The World of Jazz,” The Joy of Music, 106–31.
Bernstein’s explanation, again with many musical examples, of the melodic, rhythmic, instrumental, and improvisational aspects of jazz. The show was first broadcast on 16 October 1955. Script notes from this show were also printed in Vogue, 127 (15 March 1956): 103–05, 142–45 and Film Music 16 (Spring 1957): 20–24.
85h. “The Art of Conducting,” The Joy of Music, 132–63.
From a broadcast of 4 December 1955, Bernstein explicates the role of a conductor, basic beat patterns, communication of music’s emotional content, maintenance of tempo, and learning a score.
85i. “American Musical Comedy,” The Joy of Music, 164–91.
The script from a broadcast of 7 October 1956. Bernstein compares the American musical comedy to opera and then embarks on a brief history from The Black Crook (1866) through operetta and Gershwin to the greater integration of musical and dramatic elements seen in Oklahoma! and South Pacific. An example of the types of memorable moments that Bernstein devised for Omnibus is a side-by-side comparison of first-act finales from The Mikado and Of Thee I Sing. Bernstein concluded the broadcast by saying that what the American musical comedy needed was for a Mozart to come along and take the genre to the next level. At this moment his own Candide was to open in less than two months and he was hard at work on West Side Story; one cannot help but wonder if Bernstein saw himself as this master-in-waiting. Some of this material also appeared in “Leonard Bernstein Explores American Musical Comedy,” Vogue 129 (1 February 1957): 158–59, 208–11.
85j. “Introduction to Modern Music,” The Joy of Music, 192–235.
In a script from a telecast of 13 January 1957, Bernstein explores modern music, explaining tonality, the harmonic series, the presence of dissonance in nineteenth-century music, indefinite tonality in Wagner’s Prelude to Tristan and Isolde, atonality as heard in works by Schoenberg and Berg, and brief looks at music by a number of other contemporary composers. In the same manner that portions of scripts from these broadcasts appeared in other journals, this one did as well: “On Modern Music,” Gentleman’s Quarterly (Summer 1958): 76, 123ff. Gunther Schuller wrote Bernstein a long letter about the telecast from which this chapter came, taking him to task for the attitude that he communicated concerning Webern (see Simeone, Item 411, no. 373).
85k. “The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach,” The Joy of Music, 237–77.
An introduction to Bach’s music, first broadcast on 31 March 1957. He compares Bach’s music to that of later composers, noting aesthetic differences and the importance of counterpoint. He concludes with extensive discussion of the St. Matthew Passion accompanied by performed excerpts.
85l. “What Makes Opera Grand?,” The Joy of Music, 278–315.
A telecast from 23 March 1958 where Bernstein explores the emotional range of opera with performed examples, including a comparison between Shakespeare’s and Verdi’s versions of Othello. The major part of the script is spent on Puccini’s La Bohème. Much of this also appeared in “What Makes Opera Grand?,” Vogue 132 (December 1958): 120–21, 157ff.
86. “Preface” to John Mehegan. Tonal and Rhythmic Principles: Jazz Improvisation I. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1959. 207 p. ISBN 0-8230-2571-3. MT68.M47.
John Mehegan taught jazz improvisation at Juilliard in the 1950s and played in New York clubs. He was a good friend of Bernstein’s, who wrote a two-paragraph “Preface” for his series of books. Bernstein admits that jazz improvisation is a difficult art to explain but voices considerable confidence that Mehegan can do so.
87. “Introduction” to Heinrich Gebhard. The Art of Pedaling: A Manual for the Use of the Piano Pedals. [New York]: F. Colombo, 1963. 50 p. No ISBN. MT227.G4. Reprint: Mineola, NY: Dover, 2012. 50 p. ISBN: 0-486-48827-6.
Bernstein wrote an appreciation of his teacher in Boston for this instructional book, remembering a typical lesson with Gebhard and his teacher’s reaction when Bernstein first introduced him to Copland’s Piano Variations. The introduction was reprinted as: Leonard Bernstein, “My Teacher: Heinrich Gebhard,” Listen 1 (December 1963): 3.
88. “What I Thought … And What I Did.” New York Times (24 October 1965): Section 2/17.
Bernstein’s response to the newspaper’s request for a sabbatical report. “What I Thought” is in prose, including musings on the symphony’s future, coming Philharmonic seasons, and what questions music might answer. “And What I Did” is a poem, telling of Bernstein’s study of modern compositional techniques, his abandoned attempt at a Broadway musical, and composition of Chichester Psalms.
89. The Infinite Variety of Music. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966. 287 p. LC card number 66024038/MN/r85. MT6.B43 1966.
Bernstein’s second book, again for the most part directed at the general reader or young musician, but also informative about Bernstein’s thinking on a variety of musical topics.
89a. “Introduction,” The Infinite Variety of Music, 9–13.
Bernstein offers his feelings about the twentieth-century rift between composer and audience and sides firmly with tonality. He closes by assuring the reader that composer and audience would emerge from the time of “transition” and “crisis” with “a new idea of tonality.”
89b. “An Imaginary Conversation: The Muzak Muse,” The Infinite Variety of Music, 17–25.
A conversation with George Washington that Bernstein wrote in February 1962. Bernstein explains that he has enjoyed Washington as an imaginary traveling companion since he was a boy. This discussion covers the pervasiveness of music in the United States and the importance of music-reading being taught in general education. This article first appeared as “Nobody Listens Anymore, George,” Show 2/2 (February 1962): 93–94.
89c. “The Infinite Variety of Music,” The Infinite Variety of Music, 29–47.
The first of five television scripts in the book, this was first telecast on 22 February 1959 as part of the series Lincoln Presents. Here Bernstein explores how many different melodic and harmonic possibilities exist with twelve chromatic pitches, but then simplifies the problem by showing the huge variety composers have managed from the phrase “sol, do, re, mi,” the melody associated with “How dry I am.” As is the case with all of Bernstein’s published scripts, rich musical examples are included.
89d. “Jazz in Serious Music,” The Infinite Variety of Music, 49–64.
A Lincoln Presents script from a 25 January 1959 broadcast. Bernstein shows how elements of jazz and blues appear in works by Copland, Stravinsky, Milhaud, and Gershwin. The featured work is Rhapsody in Blue.
89e. “The Ageless Mozart (The New York Philharmonic in Venice),” The Infinite Variety of Music,. 65–81.
A script from a Ford Presents telecast of 22 November 1959 from La Fenice, Venice. Bernstein considers excerpts from a number of Mozart’s works, showing how they resemble music from Bach to Wagner.
89f. “Rhythm,” The Infinite Variety of Music, 83–109.
A script used in a Ford Presents telecast of 13 March 1960. Bernstein explains rhythm from its most basic concepts to twentieth-century complexities, culminating in a performance of Copland’s El Salón México, one of Bernstein’s favorite works by his mentor. See, for example, his fan letter concerning the piece written to the composer in October 1938 (see Simeone, Item 411, no. 25).
89g. “Romanticism in Music,” The Infinite Variety of Music, 111–36.
Bernstein, in a Ford Presents telecast from 22 January 1961, explains the importance of emotional content in Romantic works by Chopin, Wagner, Berlioz, Liszt, Verdi, Strauss, and Schumann.
89h. “A Sabbatical Report,” The Infinite Variety of Music, 139–46.
See annotation above (Item 88) under “What I Thought … And What I Did,” a New York Times article from 24 October 1965.
89i. “Four Symphonic Analyses,” The Infinite Variety of Music, 149–262.
Bernstein’s useful and witty analyses of Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, Eroica, and the first movement of Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. As is the case with all such essays by Bernstein, one must be a music reader to benefit fully from these analyses.
89j. “Something to Say …, ” The Infinite Variety of Music, 265–86.
A transcript from an improvised address given at the University of Chicago on 19 February 1957. The address concerns the compositional process, including the trance-like state that Bernstein tried to induce to compose. This is one of Bernstein’s largest statements on the subject.
90. Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts. Revised and expanded edition. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970. 233 p. ISBN 671-20664-8. ML3930.A2B55 1970. [Originally published: New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961.]
The translation of ten of Bernstein’s television scripts into print. These essays are not unlike the published Omnibus scripts found in The Joy of Music, but here the target audience is younger. Jack Gottlieb, Bernstein’s assistant at the time, prepared the book’s first draft. It includes many witty illustrations by Isadore Seltzer along with copious musical examples. In his foreword, Bernstein recommends that the book be used in conjunction with recordings of the pieces discussed or with the examples played at the keyboard, each presented here as simply as possible. The ten lectures are entitled:
“What Is a Melody?,” 10–35
“Musical Atoms: A Study of Intervals,” 36–61
“What Does Music Mean?,” 62–87
“What Is Classical Music?,” 88–117
“Humor in Music,” 118–33
“What Makes Music American?,” 134–49
“Folk Music in the Concert Hall,” 150–63
“What Is Impressionism?,” 164–81
“What Is Orchestration?,” 182–207
“What Makes Music Symphonic?,” 208–33
Reprint with additional essays: Pompton Lakes, NJ: Amadeus Press, 2005. 379 p. ISBN: 1-57467-102-2. ML3928.B49 2005.
“What Does Music Mean?,” 1–31
“What Makes Music American?,” 33–51
“What Is Orchestration?,” 53–73
“What Makes Music Symphonic?,” 75–101
“What Is Classical Music?,” 103–31
“Humor in Music,” 133–49
“What Is a Concerto?,” 151–63
“Folk Music in the Concert Hall,” 165–77
“What Is Impressionism?,” 179–97
“What Is a Melody?,” 199–223
“What Is Sonata Form?,” 225–43
“A Tribute to Sibelius,” 245–53
“Musical Atoms: A Study of Intervals,” 255–85
“What Is a Mode?,” 287–315
“Berlioz Takes a Trip,” 317–37
91. “An Introduction” (pp. xi–xii) to Charles Schwartz. Gershwin: His Life and Music. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1973. 428 p. ISBN 0-672-51662-4. ML410.G288S33.
Bernstein’s introduction to this study of Gershwin and his music presents Bernstein’s usual, ultimately pejorative, summation of his famous predecessor. He praises Gershwin’s brilliant natural talent and laments the “higher criticism” that did not allow him into the ranks of the best composers. He lauds Gershwin the composer of popular song and the wonderful themes found in his concert works, but notes that each of these works are “easily demolished by the higher criticism” (p. xii). He believes the true tragedy is not that Gershwin failed to “cross the tracks,” but that when he did, he did not have the time to develop himself as a composer of concert music.
92. “Jennie Tourel—1910–1973.” New York Times (9 December 1973): Section 2/19.
Jennie Tourel was a noted mezzo-soprano with whom Bernstein was a good friend and often performed. An article based upon the eulogy that Bernstein read at Tourel’s funeral. He speaks mostly of Tourel’s character.
93. The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976. 428 p. ISBN 0-674-92001-5. MT6.B45U6.
In 1973 Bernstein was invited to present the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, which he turned into a mammoth project. They included videotaped performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the six lectures eventually were made available as videotapes, phonodiscs, and in this book form. Bernstein applied Noam Chomsky’s linguistic theories to music, a controversial premise that nevertheless foreshadowed what is now an accepted method of musical analysis. The lectures show the wide breadth of Bernstein’s intellect and his uncanny ability to describe music verbally, but a number of his premises and assertions have been questioned by a variety of commentators. The lectures also demonstrate his commitment to tonality.
93a. “Musical Phonology, “ The Unanswered Question, 3–49.
An exploration of our musical sound system and the universality of music from different cultures, which Bernstein attributes to the harmonic series. This is an important theme in the lectures because he postulates that tonality is based upon the harmonic series, making tonality a “natural” phenomenon. Bernstein suggests that wide acceptance of various intervals in Western music occurred according to their order of occurrence in the harmonic series, from the perfect intervals of early organum to nineteenth-century chromaticism. Many of these ideas are then applied in an analysis of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.
93b. “Musical Syntax,” The Unanswered Question, 53–115.
Bernstein opens with the application of parts of speech to various parts of music, such as comparing a chord to a grammatical modifier. He then locates many of these structures in musical examples, finally in further analysis of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.
93c. “Musical Semantics,” The Unanswered Question, 119–89.
Bernstein searches for musical meaning in such diverse pieces as Stravinsky’s Petrushka, Brahms’s Symphony No. 4, piano sonatas by Beethoven and Mozart, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, and a Chopin ballade through the application of such linguistic processes as transformation and repetition. The “sad” sound of the minor triad is explained by how late a true minor third is found in the harmonic series.
93d. “The Delights and Dangers of Ambiguity,” The Unanswered Question, 193–259.
A wide-ranging exploration of harmonic and rhythmic ambiguity in works by Mahler, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Berlioz, Wagner, and Debussy. Bernstein’s consideration of nineteenth-century music here sets up the central conflict of the fifth lecture.
93e. “The Twentieth Century Crisis,” The Unanswered Question, 263–321.
Bernstein firmly divides twentieth-century composers between tonal and atonal camps, suggesting that Schoenberg creates too much ambiguity in his atonal and twelve-tone music for an audience to assimilate. He allows for Berg’s ability to move an audience because of the dramatic impact of a Wozzeck or the tonal aspects of the Violin Concerto. He concludes with the finale of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 after suggesting that the work’s tonal nature allows Mahler to illuminate our “century of death.”
93f. “The Poetry of Earth,” The Unanswered Question, 325–425.
Bernstein ranges through a number of Stravinsky’s works, with particular emphasis on The Rite of Spring and Oedipus Rex, positing that Stravinsky was a savior in twentieth-century music because he spent the majority of his career pursuing tonality. Given Bernstein’s own commitment to tonality, the thrust of his concluding lecture was probably preordained, but his exposition is nonetheless provocative.
94. “Introduction” to Geoffrey Stokes. The Beatles. New York: Times Books/Rolling Stone Press, 1980. 245 p. ISBN 0-8129-1007-9. ML421.B4S76.
Bernstein’s two-page “Introduction” to this illustrated history of The Beatles is dated 9 October 1979. He reminisces about discovering the group with his children on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 and writes loftily on how they continue to epitomize the 1960s. Bernstein praises the group’s intonation and “fresh lyrics,” and compares their musical invention to that of Schubert. He holds John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the most esteem as the primary songwriters of the group, but writes of Ringo Starr as “a lovely performer” and George Harrison as “a mystical unrealized talent.”
95. “A.C. (An Acrostical Sonnet, on his 80th Birthday).” Perspectives of New Music 19 (Fall–Winter 1980, Spring–Summer 1981): 9.
Bernstein’s poetic tribute to Aaron Copland in an issue dedicated to his mentor’s eightieth birthday. The content includes Bernstein’s memories of their first meeting on 14 November 1937.
96. Program note for Halil, Nocturne first published in Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Notes, 22 September 1981. Reprinted as “Program Note” in Halil. N.p.: Jalni Productions/Boosey & Hawkes, 1984, [iii].
A note about the work’s dedication and the conflict in the work between “tonal and non-tonal forces.”
97. Findings. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982. 376 p. ISBN 0-671-42919-1. ML410.B566A3 1982.
A collection of sixty-two essays, speeches, stories, and poems that Bernstein wrote between 1935 and 1980, many previously unpublished. The most important selections are described ahead, including Bernstein’s undergraduate thesis at Harvard, “The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music” (1939). Though the collection includes items of marginal interest, it must be consulted for a complete understanding of Bernstein the man. Notable themes include his dedication to his friends and mentors (especially Copland and Koussevitzky), his interest in issues beyond music, and his feelings about his work at various moments in his career.
97a. “New Music in Boston,” Findings, 19–21. [Originally published as “Forecast and Review: Boston Carries On.” Modern Music 15/4 (May–June 1938): 239–41.]
Bernstein wrote this review at age twenty for this important American musical journal. He writes about a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert led by Serge Prokofiev that featured his own works. Bernstein finds Peter and the Wolf the highlight. Bernstein also briefly considered other concerts, including one where Walter Piston’s Symphony No. 1 premiered. What Bernstein is willing to say about the work of one of his Harvard professors demonstrates his self-assurance.
97b. “The Occult,” Findings, 25–34.
Bernstein was influenced profoundly by his 1937 meeting with Greek conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. Many of his feelings about that event appear to be revealed in this story, dated 24 February 1938, written for an English composition course at Harvard. In the story a young musician, Carl Fevrier, meets a famous Greek conductor named Eros Plato. Details of the story are similar to what is known about Bernstein’s early friendship with Mitropoulos.
97c. “The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music,” Findings, 36–99.
Bernstein’s lifelong fascination with American music is seen in an early stage in this document from 1939, where he shows a fairly accurate sense of history and penetrating analytical abilities. He considers nationalism and the American composer and how American composers have used native elements. He deems as failures early twentieth-century composers who used Indian and Negro elements, reserving praise and the most attention for composers such as Gershwin and Copland, whom he believed absorbed elements of jazz and blues at a more profound level. The thesis includes 117 handwritten musical examples. Geoffrey Block has dealt with Bernstein’s thesis in significant detail (Item 429), and there is a revealing letter Bernstein wrote Copland on 19 November 1938 about his ideas for the work (see Simeone, Item 411, no 27).
97d. “Dialogue and … Encore,” Findings, 110–21.
In this imaginary conversation, written about 1948, Bernstein finds himself sharing a stateroom on the HMS Queen Mary with a French sociologist. During the voyage, Bernstein and his alter ego explore Bernstein’s role with the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, nationalism vs. internationalism in general and in the arts, the growth of nationalistic music in Palestine, and what constitutes American music. The dialogue is at times pedantic and includes ideas more effectively explored in Bernstein’s undergraduate thesis at Harvard, but it is an interesting autobiographical statement.
97e. “Excerpts from a West Side Story Log,” Findings, 144–47.
A fascinating, but brief, personal log published in Playbill and offering some of Bernstein’s feelings during the genesis of West Side Story, from 1949 until the opening in Washington. The log, often quoted, is crucial to the understanding of the show’s history, but it is not what it seems. Arthur Laurents (in his Original Story By, p. 347, Item 494) notes the following about it: “He also kept a journal in which he jotted down the progress of the work long after the events occurred.” When one consults this source in the Bernstein Collection at the Library of Congress, it exists in a drafted handwritten version on legal size yellow pages (including copious editing) and a final typescript of four pages. Bernstein certainly might have compiled the dates from his datebooks, but the actual entries seem to have been written simultaneously.
97f. “A Tribute to Teachers,” Findings, 178–208.
The facsimile of the original shooting script for the CBS broadcast of a New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concert on 2 November 1963. Included are all cuts, revisions, and additions. Not only is it a useful glimpse into Bernstein’s creation of one of the scripts—a process with which he was intimately involved—but also the topic is edifying. Bernstein speaks of the important teachers in his life, including Koussevitzky, Randall Thompson, Walter Piston, and others.
97g. “Mahler: His Time Has Come,” Findings, 255–64. [Originally published in High Fidelity/Musical America, 17 (September 1967): 51–55.]
An article that Bernstein wrote to correspond with CBS’s release of Mahler’s nine symphonies conducted by Bernstein, the first “complete” recordings of the works. Bernstein was an important figure in the renewal of interest in Mahler’s symphonies. He describes his philosophical and musical interest in Mahler, including his perception of the composer’s various dualities, Mahler’s role as a turn-of-the-century figure, and his position at the end of a Germanic tradition dating back to Bach.
97h. “Aaron Copland: An Intimate Sketch,” Findings, 284–91. [Originally published in High Fidelity/Musical America 20 (November 1970): 53–55.]
For the occasion of Copland’s seventieth birthday, Bernstein recounts meeting the composer in 1937, their subsequent friendship, showing many of his early compositions to Copland for his criticism, and his own debut with the New York Philharmonic on Copland’s birthday in 1943. Bernstein then describes Copland’s music and how he perceives that it was becoming unfashionable during the 1960s, concluding with a call for Copland to resume composing. (Copland was surprised to hear he had stopped, and there were other aspects of the article that disturbed him. See Copland and Perlis, Copland since 1943, Item 483, p. 368.)
97i.. “A Letter to Franz Endler: Beethoven’s Ninth,” Findings, 291–98.
A letter to the music critic of the Viennese Die Neue Freie Presse, dated 20 April 1970. Bernstein had conducted Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 six days apart with the Vienna Philharmonic and Boston Symphony. Here he muses about working with two different orchestras in different halls and opposite interpretations of the work. Written in typical Bernstein prose with flights of fancy and tangential remarks, the article demonstrates his varied approach to music and its analysis.
97j. “The Future of the Symphony Orchestra,” Findings, 338–50. [Originally published in High Fidelity/Musical America 30 (November 1980): 52–54.]
A keynote address presented to the American Symphony Orchestra League on 18 June 1980, the speech offers a review of the state of the American orchestra. Bernstein recalls the old days of conductors who were tyrants, such as Fritz Reiner and others. He touches on the orchestra’s history, concluding that in 1980 the institution served a dual role as a musical museum and as “fertile soil” for the growth of new music. He speaks to the various constituencies within the orchestral world, urging all to honor music first, and makes a plea to management to remember the American conductor. This article also appeared in German translation: “Die Zukunft der Symphonie-Orchester,” Das Orchester 39/2 (February 1991): 130–32.
97k. “Ni commencement, ni fins …, ” Findings, 351–53. [Originally published in French: Bruno Monsaingeon. Mademoiselle: entretiens avec Nadia Boulanger. Paris: Editions Van de Velde, 1981.]
Bernstein’s remembrance of his final visit with the great French teacher. He did not study with Boulanger, although this article seems to show his desire to be thought of as one of her disciples, a kinship he would have traced through Copland.
98. “The Truth about a Legend” in John McGreevy, ed. Glenn Gould by Himself and His Friends. Toronto: Doubleday, 1983, pp. 17–22. 319 p. ISBN 0-385-18995-8. ML417.G68A5.
Bernstein remembers Gould soon after his death, recalling their creative and public disagreement on the tempo for Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor in 1962 and memorable meetings in both New York City and Toronto.
99. “Bernstein on Bernstein at 70: Beauty and Truth Revisited.” New York Times (21 August 1988): H23.
The New York Times asked Bernstein for an article on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. He responded with this poem, a similar response to the verses he wrote when the Times asked him for a sabbatical report in 1965 (see Item 88). He muses on being a musician, a political man, a religious man, one blessed by luck and the gift of family, one infuriated by inhumanity, and with a final call for the power of love.
100. “Wagner’s Music Isn’t Racist.” New York Times (26 December 1991): A25.
An article published in the section of editorials and letters to the editor. Bernstein wrote these comments and filmed them in Vienna in 1985, but the film was never completed. Bernstein writes of the lack of specific meaning that music carries, one of his familiar themes. He also speaks of Wagner wrestling in a Freudian way with father figures in the opera Siegfried, but concludes that this means nothing in the music itself. Bernstein wonders whether, with both Wagner and the Third Reich buried in the past, it is possible for music lovers simply to embrace beautiful music.
