Background Information
Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25th, 1918, in Lawrence, Massachusetts and died on October 14th, 1990 when he was 72 years old from emphysema. He was a conductor and composer originally named Louis Bernstein, but at the age of 16 he changed his name to Leonard. Sam Bernstein, Leonard’s father, was a Russian immigrant who wanted to become a rabbi, but once he came to the Lower East Side of New York City where he worked as a fish cleaner and then by stocking wigs. He later built a beauty distribution business and taught Leonard that success can only be obtained through practical occupations. He was taught that music and art weren’t profitable jobs. When he was 10, Leonard learned how to lay piano due to the fact that his Aunt needed a place to store hers. Because of the lack of financial support, Leonard learned to play without a tutor and was a natural that impressed almost anyone he met.
He attended Boston Latin School and after graduation went to Harvard University to study music theory. Dimitri Mitropoulos conducted a Boston Symphony concert in 1937 that Bernstein attended and showcased his enthusiasm for the score by conducting with his bare hands with such vigor that later inspired him and his enthusiastic approach to music. In fact, Mitropoulos was in the audience to one of Bernstein performances and invited him to see his rehearsals. Later he studied for a year at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to improve his technical skills. After this, he realized that there is more to music that the mechanics of it and in 1940 was invited by the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood to join other talented students for a musical program over the summer and he became one of five students that were accepted into a class taught by Serge Koussevitzky.
After college, Bernstein had trouble finding a definitive job until, out of the blue, he was offered the position to be the assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. One day, when the guest conductor became sick, Bernstein was called to the reigns for the concert to which he received a very favorable article by The New York Times about his performance and became a hit overnight. During the mid 1940’s, he was the conductor of the New York City Center orchestra and was a guest conductor to many other orchestras around the world. A few years later, he married a Chilean actress, Felicia Cohn Montealegre, whom he had said to love despite ongoing rumors about his sexuality.
He founded the Creative Arts Festival at Brandeis University in 1952 and found his love for teaching along with it. He also was a fan of classical and pop music which led him to write his first operetta, Candide, only 4 years later. His most well-known work is his collaboration with Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, and Stephen Sondheim to make the highly loved musical West Side Story.
Socio-Economic and Cultural Influences
Leonard Bernstein enjoyed music since the day he learned to play the piano and became further in love with it after seeing a performance by Dimitri Mitropoulos and his mentor who became a father like figure to him, Serge Koussevitzky. He went through many conflicts with them along with his father and conflicts involving his sexuality. Around when Bernstein was in his 20’s, World War II was going on in Europe, but after the war, Bernstein began to become popular around the world, especially through his performances in Israel. Due to the fact that Bernstein was Jewish, his dealt with anti-semitism in his childhood along with opposition from his father about getting a job that involved art or music due to its instability and low rates of success. Because of his lack of satisfaction with his marriage, in part due to his homosexuality, he wrote a one-act opera, during his honeymoon, named Trouble in Tahiti, which was about the troubled marriage of a young couple. The songs used in the opera show that beneath the discourse of the couple there was longing for love in each that was contrasted with happy consumerism and displayed by a shift in music. His discontent with his marriage is portrayed in the young couples discontent with each other.
Leonard Bernstein and much more of an impact on the musical society and those surrounding it during his years as a conductor and composer and even after his death in 1990. He was famous for his part in West Side Story and for his enthusiastic hand gestures when conducting. The music in the show was influenced by different classical, jazz, and popular styles that Bernstein had listened to.
Seminar Themes
Leonard Bernstein was the son of a Russian immigrant and was raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He married an actress due to speculation about his sexuality and wrote an opera depicting his discontent. The opera, Trouble in Tahiti, connects with the seminar theme of Meaningfulness.The name of the work, Trouble in Tahiti, is also said to be an intro into the satirical nature of the opera. Tahiti is supposed to be a vacation for the couple, but in fact, they are more troubled than they were before. In the fact that the opera shows, through the main couple, how one can interpret it as Bernstein’s marriage with the actress, Felicia Cohn Montealegre, is filled with the longing for love for one and other, but failure to do so because of inability to communicate with each other. Bernstein attempts to convey his inner thoughts about his marriage and frustrations with dealing with his sexuality through this opera and to show how not everything is perfect beneath the surface in life. His marriage may have seemed perfect in the beginning, but shortly after started to crumble. This work also connects to the theme of Morals and Norms since Bernstein was also dealing with determining his own sexuality as well as being considered a minority due to his religious preference.
Bibliography
“Leonard Bernstein.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 2 Apr. 2014, www.biography.com/people/leonard-bernstein-9210269.
“Leonard Bernstein at 100.” Works | Works | Leonard Bernstein, leonardbernstein.com/works/view/32/trouble-in-tahiti.
Botstein, Leon. “PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY OF A MAESTRO.” The New York Times, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/08/nnp/peyser-bernstein.html.
Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/bernstein/aa_bernstein_influenc_3.html.
Keathley, Elizabeth L. “Postwar Modernity and the Wife’s Subjectivity: Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti.” American Music, vol. 23, no. 2, 2005, pp. 220–256. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4153033.
December 14, 2017 at 11:09 pm
Leonard Bernstein was a conductor and composer. He taught himself music at a young age and graduated from Harvard University. He conducted music passionately and used his bare hands vigorously to demonstrate his enthusiastic approach to music. Bernstein was like an animated conductor who had an intense facial expression to illustrate his passion for music. At first, he struggled to find a job, but then he was offered the job as a conductor for the New York Philharmonic. He was gay and was in the LGBTQ community for which many people questioned his sexuality. Bernstein wrote his first operetta Candide in 1956. He dealt with anti-Semitism as a Jew and his father’s opposition to his musical career. His music was influenced by classical, jazz, and popular style. His opera that he composed, “Trouble in Tahiti” was a trouble getaway that reflects back on his problems of corrupted marriage with his homogenous identity. He also did outreach to children concert to empower young children to pursue a career in classical music.
December 17, 2017 at 4:50 pm
Although I have done the movie assignment regarding West Side Story, I did not do a lot of research about Leonard Bernstein who composed for it. In your clip of him conducting one of the songs from West Side Story, you could see his passion for leading in his flamboyant movements. It seems like he is having fun which makes it entertaining for the viewers too. Additionally, I thought how it was fascinating that Bernstein incorporated events from his own life into his movies. Despite his struggles, he still continued his career and became successful which is an important lesson for many.