Leonard Bernstein: The Harvard Years, 1935-1939 [1 ed.] 096480834X, 9780964808348

Citation preview

x)rR.

PUBLISHED IN CONJUNCTION WITH

LEONARD BERNSTEIN THE HARVARD YEARS 1935-1939 PRODUCED BY THE EOS ORCHESTRA JANUARY

28,

1999

This

book

is

made

possible in part by support from The

Nathan

Cummings

Foundation a

:

(

:

Ps

The Eos Orchestra Jonathan SHEFFER

Artistic

Director’

1999 The Eos Orches All rights The

tra’

reserved

Published: by Eos Orchestra,

NY

“ Designed by Bureau; NY Printed, by Studley Press|

_ ISBN) 0-9648083-4-x -

TABLES

OR

CONTENTS

Foreword

JONATHAN

The

SHEFFER

Bernstein at Harvard and the Escape Artist

Artist

DAVID

An

ee

WRIGHT

18

Interview

with Vivian Perlis LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Boston Carries on LEONARD BERNSTEIN Music BERNSTEIN

LEONARD

“Dear a

letter

from

Helen...”

LEONARD

B.

34

Chronology

Leonard

Bernstein

at

Boston

Latin RON

Lenny

at

Harvard

(Reminiscence)

HAROLD

Composing

(for

a)

School

SHAPERO

Philosophical

BERNADETTE

A.

Comedy MEYLER

“Not So Much New Deal as Old Howard” Leonard Bernstein and Aristophanes’ The Birds TIMOTHY

W.

BOYD

and

38

GWIAZDA

CAROLYN

HIGBIE

Contributors

Credits

Se

DOSSII

FOR. E WOR

D

Jonathan

THE

IDEA

EMERGE,

THAT

A

however, graduated

FULL-FLEDGED

MID-CENTURY,

IC ENVIRONMENT

their

training,

AN

IS SOMETHING

Harvard

conductors

FROM

MAESTRO

AMERICAN OF

are

University

in

differentiated

nationality,

times,

This,

Bernstein.

1939.

from and

COULD ACADEM-

A PARADOX.

is the story of Leonard

from

hand,

SHEFFER

On

one

who

the

one

another

their

world

by

view;

music-making at its best is the product of a unique personality—the while

more

nuanced,

universities

endless

are

aesthetics,

the

other

of music.

hand,

harboring

like many

oth-

for fostering “accepted” modes of thought

often

bolstered

posed of like-minded

Bernstein's

On

environments

possibilities, departments

ers, are notorious

and

the better.

expansive

career

by teaching

faculties

com-

scholars.

and

personality

defied

convention.

Though they differed in the details, Bernstein was Gershwin's successor

as an

iconoclastic

American

composer

of inclu-

sion. Both took the raw materials of their training and added everything

of interest

together serious

study

they encountered.

throughout

Gershwin

patched

his life and, armed

with

the sounds of immigrant song and jazz, gave concert music a virtuosic,

new, and unforgettable

sound.

Born a generation

later, Bernstein was of the same stock: but the crucial difference

between

the

two

composers

lay in

their

education.

Gershwin's was of the street (though one with a shul on it): if

Bernstein

seemed

to long for the street,

his insatiable

sion for learning made him a standout at even institutions.

He

garnered

numerous

the most

scholastic

prizes

paselite at

Boston Latin School (1929-1935); at Harvard, he composed and performed while receiving a liberal arts education of breadth and depth. From 1939-1941 he mastered piano and conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, where he was the star pupil of Fritz Reiner, perhaps the most demanding teacher the art of conducting has known. Still, the pathway academia; much

even

to the priesthood of music rarely traverses today, conservatories

may be lost in the more

professional importance

school.

Bernstein

the rule, though

intellectual life of the

believed

of a liberal education

throughout his to thought and ture played an a polymath is

are

narrow

profoundly

for musicians,

in the

and

tried

life to bolster music's impact by connecting it overt emotion. Indeed, philosophy and literaenormous role in his musical life. That he was well-known: his youthful grounding in lan-

guages (Hebrew, Latin, German, Italian, French, and Spanish)

granted him wide exposure to the classics of world literature in their original forms. wrote

his own

texts

His love of poetry, the fact that he

for songs

and

symphonies

alike,

and

even the texts he chose to set all reflect a passion for words and their power. Everything Bernstein read had the power to transform his thought: that he could be as engaged by prose and poetry as he was by studying orchestral scores is an indication

of his deep connection

Musical life at Harvard ognizable generation erence with study

in the late 1930s would not be unrec-

to the Harvard

composition has

students

of the mid-70s,

for the written

attention

and

always

been

of today, or even

for that matter.

word

has

its tools

given to musicology

study lagging somewhat.

to the word.

dominated taking

and

course

second

theoretical

predominant,

to my

A steadfast

with

place.

revstudy. The

composition performance

Harvard did not add instruction in

music until the third century of its existence, when it began il

teaching the

Protestant

rudiments

church

of “Devotional

music.

John

Services’—applied

Knowles

Paine,

one

of the

country's first chaired professors of music, had introduced composition Harvard Thomson,

Mannes.

studies

students Walter

For

in

the

prior Piston,

these

1860s.

to

The

generation

Bernstein

Randail

musicians,

included

Thompson,

institutions

and

of

Virgil Leopold

like

the

Glee

Club, the core of a powerful choral tradition at the college,

provided

the best

music-making. performing

opportunity

arts survive

ricular orchestras, of every Like

Yo-Yo

Ma

and

contact

life, music and

productions, amateur

with

and

all

extra-cur-

theatricals

the lifeblood of future artists.

forty

fed

plant

in this environment,

opera

kind become

Harvard,

for practical

But, like stubborn

years

later,

his consuming

Bernstein

passion

thrived

for writing

at and

performing music with thorough academic studies. He graduated in 1989 cum laude in musica, but had not failed to immerse

ies.’

himself in philosophy, art history, and literary stud-

As an

undergraduate,

composers

Harold

with

standout

three

Burlingame

were

under

its music

Koussevitzky

admired

premiered

and

professors,

Hill and Walter

works

Bernstein

Shapero

two

and

fellow

student

Berger

studied

of whom—William

Piston—were

regularly

director

and

Arthur

composers

by the Boston

new-music

whose

Symphony

enthusiast,

Serge

[see Pages 15, 36-37]. (However much Bernstein

these professors,

he was

never

crippled

by adula-

tion: In the late 1930s he gave a distinctively qualified review to a Piston/BSO

premiere

in Modern

Music, where

he fre-

quently contributed criticism! [see Dessier]) But it was with a third professor,

Arthur Tillman Merritt, with whom

he stud-

ied counterpoint, that he formed perhaps the strongest bond, as

he frequently did with teachers from Helen Coates to Renée Longy, Reiner, and Koussevitzky. Merritt's letters to Bernstein, collected in the Library of Congress, and signed iii

“Tillman” or just “Till cover forty years of friendly correspondence from the teacher, as he witnessed the dizzying career of a prized pupil and the fruits of his teaching. There is a wealth of material in the Library from this period in Bernstein's

and

life:

German.

Form,

papers,

There

received

poems,

is poetry

a thorough

fessor. He may occasionally to his classroom page

from

work,

a lecture

grammar

as well:

exams

one

os

2

Still, much

dressing down

from one proindifferent to his precocious talent: one

due

course

on

music

history

former.

of Bernstein's

undergraduate

Music’)

characteristics

of American

in great

concert

for the Harvard

Aristophanes’ Orchestra composer

ancient

The

festival

Birds that

(1939;

depth

music—in

Classical

occasioned

the

racial

other words,

music.® His inci-

Club

production

reconstructed

working to create music

Greek

fed into

writer, and per-

Absorption of Race Elements

explored

the jazz strain that ran so deeply in his own music

the

stupid dull

initiatives

of the mature composer,

His senior thesis (The

American

dental

contains

empty

2

the preoccupations

into

Italian

“Sonata

have been somewhat

phrase (echoing Hamlet's despair) “hollow uninteresting.

in

effort,

for the

this volume)

reveals

that takes its cues

theater, 20th-century jazz, Indian

of Eos a

from

ragas, and

Stravinskian austerity. This protean work contains the seeds

of several later compositions, including ideas that would be developed more fully in Facsimile and Symphony No. 2 (The Age of Anxiety). He won the right to compose the score over a recent Harvard graduate, Leroy Anderson (whose score for

Wonderful Town Bernstein would replace during the New Haven try-out ten years later). The artfully staged production of The Birds April

1939,

and

premiered

at the Sanders

is remembered

Theatre

as a success.

It was

on

21

even

reported by Life magazine, which featured a photograph of the elaborate costumes and masks [prate x1]. No doubt the iv

Poet singing Greek words in the style of Louis Armsirong raised a few eyebrows: the title of his song alone “Jazz Poet"—shows

what

Bernstein

was trying to do in this music.

This song would be recycled later in “Come Up To My Place’ from On The Town. Synthesis was to become Bernstein's hallmark,

as well as one

composers

of the major aesthetic

of this century.

Clearly, a new

was being heard in this work: Aaron the young made

Bernstein

Copland, who

in New York at a recent

dance

for

voice

had met concert,

the trip to Cambridge just to hear it. Bernstein's stag-

ing of Mare Blitzstein’s The Cradle duced York

challenges

important

in Cambridge premiere,

Bernstein:

gave

shortly the

Will Rock, which

he pro-

after the much-publicized

first

taste

of the

New

entrepreneurial

his direction, conducting, and lighting (!) received

high praise and a lot of press, for a college production.

There is much to savor here, as the early lives of great artists

are like road signs that cannot be read in their own Samuel

Bernstein

said

of his son

years

later,

time. As

“How

did

|

know he was going to become Leonard Bernstein?” His early years at Harvard were formidable—an early chapter in an unfolding American

1. The English

thriller.

courses

Bernstein

Literature,

took

Introduction

at Harvard to Art

include:

History,

Harmony

(Merritt), Aesthetics, Shakespeare, History of Music (Davison), Advanced Harmony (Piston), Counterpoint (Merritt), Instrumentation and Orchestration (Hill), Political Theory, Fugue. 2. The materials cited here are in the Leonard Bernstein Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.

3. Reprinted in full in Leonard (New York, 1982).

Bernstein,

Findings

“ONE SPRINGBOARD

DIDN'T

KNOW

HE WOULD KNEW

FROM DIVE,

THERE

A HELL

“AT THE ANOTHER HE WAS

A STAR

REAL SPEAKING AN

INNATE SON

ABILITY

AND

SENSE

OF

AND

|! MEAN

OF THE

THAT

WAS

JUST

BUT

| KNEW

THAT

IN THE I'M NOT

SIMPLY

HAD

HERE

WAS A

PER-

WHATEVER

SCHUMAN

BE

A SPLASH.”

WORD.

EXTRAORDINARY HE WANTED

ACCOMPLISH

WILLIAM

ONE

ONE

ABSOLUTELY THAT

OF

KID

BUT

WOULD

LENNY

CHARISMA.

FEELING OF

TIME

HARVARD

WHICH

TO

HE WOULD.”

BERNSTEIN

aT THE

HARVARD ARTIST

and THE David

THE

ARTIST

WRIGHT

BOSTON

GREW

THE

ESCAPE

UP

IN

WAS

UNITED

WHICH

THE

LEONARD

“SERIOUS

BERNSTEIN

MUSIC”

CAPITAL

OF

STATES. Other cities had their orches-

tras, ballet companies, and opera houses, but it was in Boston _

that, beginning symphonic Although

in the

1870s,

composers most

School’—the

composers

the first school

arose

composers

in

“First” denotes

of a century

to

rival

this

of American

those

“Second

of Europe. New

England

the hymnodists and psalm-tune

earlier—received

their training

in

Germany, they returned to Boston to write, teach, and develop music

schools

This group

and

university

is also known

that suggests conservatism,

music

departments.

as the “Boston classicists.” a term the academy, and even a kind of

banned-in-Boston prudishness. In fact, the first generation of ‘classicists’ were a lively and diverse collection of Romantic composers who were inspired not just by Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms, but by contemporary

Liszt, Wagner, and especially American

French music,

folk literature and

songs. And this diversity only increased in the second gener-

ation

of New

England

taught Leonard

The

granddaddy

(1839-1906), phonies

and

composers,

including

the ones

who

Bernstein.

of this

a native other

orchestral

/ ences to patriotic rapture.

stylistically much

group

was

of Portland,

beyond

John

Maine,

works

Although

moved

Paine

two

Boston

symaudi-

Paine did not advance

Mendelssohn 3

Knowles whose

and Schumann,

lis-

teners

were

concert

thrilled just to hear such vigorous

music

Harvard

from

an

American

composer.

University invited Paine to found

and skillful

In 1863, when

its music depart-

ment, he became the first professor of music at any American uniy ersily. He was as much “musician in residence’ as profes-

sor, giving widely-attended lectures and organ recitals and composing often for campus shows and the glee club. Almost was

as large a presence

George

at the New

Whitefield

as Paine

Chadwick

England Conservatory

who

scene taught

and served as its director

30 years,

credited

with elevating the school to the place of national

phonies,

music

and

went

that

from

parlor songs

turn

of

the

American

composers

and

One

could

part-time

mention

is

ones,

Around

among

the

models

in this

the contributions

case

of other

such as Edward

Foote, but the two Through

of future

to melodies Americana,

tunes.

was

in his

the first

to more

the

pre-

and Chabrier.

Bostonians

Arthur

dozens

banjo

for skill

Moreover,

thanks

from German

French

of Dukas

Paine form.

flavor,

Chadwick

to turn

poetic

Paine and Chadwick. passed

Chadwick

nineteenth-century

to pentatonic

easygoing

and

to surpass

national

evoke

century,

Impressionism

on

handling symphonic

has a distinctly rhythms

3each, and

until his death.

it still occupies today. Inspired by Paine’s sym-

Chadwick

orchestration and

1896

the Boston

for over

prominence

from

on

(1854-1931),

Bostonians

MacDowell.

Amy

real progenitors

are

their studios and classrooms

professors,

composers,

and

critics.

At least one of these later luminaries studied with both men:

Edward

Burlingame Hill (1872-1960), composer, professor of

music at Harvard,

the

early

Concert

In

with

and teacher of Leonard

1960s—during the New

York

a

televised

Philharmonic 4

Bernstein.

Young

People’s

titled, “What

Is

American

Music?°—Bernstein

New

England

view

of them

The

show's

School, at that

but time

Romantic

took rare notice of the Second

only

to repeat

as a coterie

the conventional

of uninspired

darkness-to-triumph

scenario

snobs.

called

for it to begin with a rather turgid, unrepresentative passage from

Chadwick's

what

third-rate

had

been.

Melpomene Brahms

Overture

wannabes

of 1887, to illustrate

the old-time

Luckily, by the end of the show,

composers

American

music

had been rescued by Gershwin, Copland, and boogie-woogie. This scenario

hadn't just occurred

to Bernstein

A quarter-century

earlier, Chadwick

been

of

the

villains

Absorption

of

lengthy essay

his

Race

senior

into

tune surrounded music.

which

native

spirit

(like

relies your

“support

i know

not

on

music,

of other

folk and

can

and hear so little American

Bernstein

grew

up,

distant

as

learning

more

about

his own

home

town. The encounter

Harvard

‘lessons,

which

old—quite

‘famous Leonard's

years.

own

among seattered

tance to encourage

who

most

young

would

people

peoples

traditions,

have to wait until

there

would

and

were

was

grow

interests

his musical ambitions.

do,

than about

with Boston

things.

5

a

and

stuff.”

other

if

on

Harris’

in America

until Leonard

late for somebody

pianist,

in the

but

| get hold of it?...You see,

meantime,

begin

American

where you can help, if you

lands and

In the

did not

Aaron

etc.” He intend-

maybe

‘through Professor Hill and others, would

his

Music’—a

material

composers

my point. and where

Leonard

American

development.

Sessions—I don't know)....This is music

had also

Harvard—*The

at the time to

“that there is something

newer

would—what

at

reveal the invalidity of an Indian

by Teutonic

ed to demonstrate

wrote

that week.

the rest

thesis

Elements

that, as Bernstein

Copland, would “ruthlessly

and

This

piano

ten years up to bea

reflected

his father’s

reluc-

Samuel

Bernstein,

student

of the Talmud, would gladly have seen

the family business was

a self-made

or become

for the downtrodden

a living any

other

teenage Leonard

businessman

devoted

his son join

a rabbi; in his mind,

klezmer who

way.

when

and

That

was

couldn't

what

Sam

saw

they were at their summer

the lake in Sharon, Massachusetts,

music

scratch out

in the

house by

where the boy organized

all the neighbor kids in parody performances of Carmen, the girls playing the male roles and vice versa, with new lyrics by L. Bernstein, who also presided at the piano, when he wasn't onstage in the title role. If made good summer Sam

thought, but a man

couldn't

support

fun,

a family on it.

As Leonard got better at piano playing, he had to find betteachers. One of them, recommended by the New England Conservatory, tried to teach him by the old “ball in the hand” method, which called for extreme finger curvature, and nearly ruined his technique. With each change, the price went up, causing renewed resistance from his father. Leonard Bernstein's legendary charm and persua-

ter

sive

powers

were

honed

in

these

confrontations.

At

age

twelve, he applied to Boston’s most illustrious -piano teacher, Heinrich Gebhard (1878-1963), who referred him to his young assistant Helen Coates. Coates, awed by Leonard's ability to read and memorize music, fed him a steady diet of the classics, from Bach through Beethoven and Chopin to Malaguefia by Ernesto Lecuona. This was Bernstein's

It wasnt

first systematic

until he was

fourteen

first concert. The Boston benefit concert

musical

sponsored

indoctrination.

that

Pops, with

Leonard

attended

in part by the Bernstein

temple, and father and son attended played

his

Arthur Fiedler, gave a family’s

it together. The Pops

Ravel's Boléro. Sam Bernstein liked its Middle fastern-sounding theme, and he found something intellee6

tual in its variation form that reminded studies.

Leonard

was,

him of his Talmudic

quite simply. in ecstasy. Soon

there-

after, the two of them attended a recital of Sergei Rachmaninoff playing late Beethoven, a more austere event that did not add much to the musical father-son bonding. But

Leonard

became

a confirmed

concertgoer,

was an adept mimic, able to entertain at the piano

with

variations

on

any

and

a roomful theme,

soon

of people

in the style of

Bach, Chopin, Stravinsky, Gershwin, you name it. One night in Symphony was

Hall, however,

‘jealous’

Symphony's course,

of

power

conductor,

Serge

in just a few

years

“Kouss” at Tanglewood Sam

Bernstein

schools

and

businessman

or

prep

were

Boston

and_

skill

of

Koussevitzky.

become

one

the

Boston

He would,

of

of the favorites

of

[see Pages 36-37].

insisted

attend

schools

he admitted to his date that he

the

that

his

the best

rabbi.

son

stay

possible

Since

off-limits

the

out

schools

exclusive

to Jews,

of

music

for a future

New

England

the clear choice

Latin School, which was open to all comers

was

by com-

petitive exam. The oldest public school in the nation, Boston Latin

was

founded

in

1635,

(Coincidentally, Leonard in

the

300th-anniversary

Later in life, Bernstein

a

cheerless

although

Symphony that

place

his

with

administrator there.

and

year

before

Harvard.

celebrations

of

both

schools.)

liked to characterize Boston

classmate

“instruments

provided”

a

Bernstein participated as a student

no

facilities

Leonard

and

for

music

whatever,

Burkat

(later

a

program

rehearsal

Nevertheless,

Latin as

annotator)

rooms...were Boston

Latin’s

Boston

recalled

generously curriculum

was rigorous, and gave Bernstein's intellect quite a workout.

Harvard was Leonard's next stop, again mandated by Sam. The young man looked around him and saw mostly grinds and

nerds,

or as

they were

and 7

are

called

there,

“wonks.”

(This writer

was

told by a Harvard

undergraduate

1960s that “wonk” was “know” spelled backward,

eood Harvard

explanation

ished

more

for

found

it bizarre

Building for two pers.” Of course,

After

than

“one

hours

its derivation.)

could

and

was all on a blackboard almost

for a word that has been cher-

its sound

that

walk

never

music

department

his

freshman

year

at

musie

in Philadelphia,

notions

about

Bernstein

in hushed

il

whis-

in the country.

Harvard, school,

Bernstein

the Curtis

made

Institute

but his father put a stop to any

transferring

between

got

and

finally

Music

because

have had a similar experience at

university

of Music

the

hear a note,

any

inquiries at a practical

Bernstein

through

or being discussed

he could

in the

which is a

his wish

schools.

attended

When

Curtis

after

graduating from Harvard, he found himself competing with fellow students who had been groomed for professional music careers since infancy. He then decided he didn't think much of these narrow-minded people who hadn't even read Joyce's Ulysses. Suffice it to say that Bernstein's

high 1.Q. and verbal ability made it possible for him to benefit from rigorous academic programs, and to expand his intellectual horizons, while al the same time seeking out the students and faculty who

would

feed his appetite

Harvard, musie

it was

fan,

to talk about

a charismatic

David

Prall,

Bernstein

supporter

Bernstein

also organized

attic of a freshman could music,

exchange Bernstein

than

who any

our

recalled.

“We

music.

professor

a

the

music

professors.

club,

v-hich

met

Edward

own

music

played

more.

At and

of

a music

and

make

became

adviser named

views

and

philosophy

stalwart

in the

Ballantine. and

hear

Stravinsky's

“We new Sacre

du printemps arranged for four hands....somebody came in with a record of Alban Berg's Lyric Suite and we all listened

to this amazing sudden,

new

new

thing like a cabalistic society.

worlds

were

open

In retrospect,

at

music

in the Harvard

any

teachers

benefit

from

ideas that were were

least.

All of a

to me.”

Bernstein

spoke

years.

the old “classicists.” fresh off the boat

glowingly

If he denied

he eagerly

from

of his deriving

embraced

France.

And

there

a lot of them.

In his freshman

year,

Bernstein

the piano class of Heinrich piano

instruction,

Like

Walter

nor

of French

other

In

their lessons

in an

bathed

in the glow

ishment

at the golden streams the

no

courses.)

German-born

a noted exponent

when

Gebhard

finally

opus. The Art of Pedaling. Bernstein

“All was

ol Beethoven,

a

into

offered

music

was

1963,

accepted

(Harvard

“applied”

Gebhard

impressionism.

about

finally

the Rhine’ and became

published his magnum wrote

any

Gieseking,

pianist who “swam

was

Gebhard.

introduction

of wonder,

fevered

of Chopin,

imaginings

to the book:

of constant

aston-

the subtle

might

of Schumann,

the

cooler images of Debussy....1 never once left that studio on my

own

two

Harvard's

too.

feet: I floated

music

out.”

professors

Even

E.B.

Hill,

Chadwick,

also

spent

some

Widor.

A

Charles-Marie

University collected 1924.

of Strasbourg in a

Bernstein

book, took

senior year. Bernstein

all

trained

time series

and

Modern

master

loved

connections

by

Paine

and

in Paris

studying

with

of

his

elsewhere

lectures

at

in France

Music,

orchestration

the

were

published course

later recalled him—not

of orchestration,

Debussy.”

French

Boston

French

Hill's

considering Hill's teachers—as a

had

in

in

in his

surprisingly,

“not a first-rate genius but

a salty

New

Englander

who

Arthur

Tillman

Merritt

(1902-1998)

studied

in Paris

with

Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger. The latter introduced him to the then little-known went

on

to make

the Renaissance. dents

to

that

works

his mark

He awakened

period

of Monteverdi,

as a musicologist

and

Merritt

specializing

generations of Harvard

of music,

including

Bernstein,

in

stuwho

later recalled that “we would sit and play and sing and cry with joy....My God, I will never forget the first time we sang

Orfeo and played it four-hands together!” If, as some analysts have suggested, Bernstein compositions such as the finale of the Jeremiah Symphony

and “It Must

Candide

flavor, one

have a neo-Renaissance

Be So” from

might find the

roots of that music in these sessions with Merritt. Bernstein

may or may when

not have learned something else from

he received

a C in the

course.

Years

later

Merritt, Merritt

recalled, “I never graded students on their talent. If he didn't do the work, why should | give him an A?° Another

was

Maine-born

the nearest

composer,

thing on the Harvard

professor of composition.

dent,

earned

Piston

had

a John

Knowles

he was

Piston

faculty

(1894-1978),

to an actual

In his own days as a Harvard

conducted

study in Paris with Dukas

his return,

Walter

the

Paine

student

Traveling

stu-

orchestra

and

Fellowship

for

and Boulanger [see Page 15]. On

to Koussevitzky

by E.B.

Hill, beginning a fertile association with the Symphony Orchestra that lasted over 40 years.

recommended

Boston

Piston was greatly admired for the elegance and technical polish of his compositions. In fact, he literally wrote the book on harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration: his textbooks were widely adopted at other colleges and music schools. When Bernstein, still an undergraduate, asked \aron Copland for composition lessons, Copland wrote back, “Pll be delighted to tell you all 1 know. 10

But be sure to

learn a lot about Piston

counterpoint

at that.” Writing

first. No-one

in 1977, Bernstein

[sic] can

beat

paid somewhat

muted tribute to Piston: “Everything he taught me has stuck—especially the example of his highly refined ear, and his non-pedantic

approach

fugue....1 loved his own not say

that

(as | was

| was

to such

particularly

influenced

by Copland)—except

standards

of craftsmanship

As this comment

academic

subjects

as

music (and still do) although I canby it stylistically

in the matter of the highest

and clarity of sonic intention.”

suggests, in Bernstein's mind his academ-

ic experiences paled alongside his extracurricular activities. At Harvard, Bernstein did not hesitate to put his academic obligations on hold when pursuing something more stimulating. His own account of his first meetings with his hero Aaron Copland—who American product of elsewhere

in this book

was,

incidentally, the very first “Boulangerie’-—appears

the

Paris

lsee Dosster—Perlis

Interview.

Bernstein's 20-year relationship with the conductor

Dmitri

Mitropoulos

passed

up studying

[erate ti] began for exams

in order

for the maestro,

who

with

Symphony

the

Boston

when

the young

man

to play piano at a reception

promptly and

invited then

him

to rehearsals

to lunch

afterward,

pronouncing the undergraduate “a genius-boy.” In the spring of his senior refused

permission

Blitzstein’s

year,

when

for a downtown

militantly

pro-labor

the Boston

performance

piece

of musical

The Cradle Will Rock, Bernstein defiantly vowed

police of Mare

theater,

to produce

it on campus, which he did in two weeks, with himself presiding and narrating at the piano. The critics loved it and so did Blitzstein, who exchanged several mutually admiring letters with the young Harvard man [prate wt]. Blitzstein was yet another Boulanger pupil; in The Cradle he had deft11

ly

woven

American

folk

Mussorgsky,

Offenbach,

that thrilled

Bernstein

material

Mozart,

and

with

parodies

Beethoven

and surely helped shape

of

in a way the latter's

1956 satirical operetta, Candide.

Clearly, young magnetism

Bernstein's

were

so

strong

artistic abilities that

grown

and

men,

personal

even

distin-

guished men, were falling for him right and left. He basked in their attention, Mitropoulos preferred

cement

suffered

when

they neglected

did after leaving for Minneapolis),

to

move

on

to

another

these relationships and

or artistically.

Academic

have a natural

term: when

conquest

him

(as

and

often

rather

than

build on them,

personally

relationships, on the other hand, the semester

is over,

so is the

course. In the less glamorous but more structured environment of Boston Latin and Harvard, Bernstein accomplished

much.

Among

other

things, he studied languages. Though he play the piano and put on shows, the young Bernstein nevertheless also learned French, German, and Latin in schoo!, and always regretted not learning Greek as well. Characteristically, he found the next best thing to do: he composed the incidental music for a production of an ancient Greek drama, performed in Greek. And not just any Greek drama, but a play by the comic iconoclast of the ancient world, Aristophanes—The Birds, in which an Athenian neer-do-well persuades the birds to set him up as the godlike emperor of a kingdom in the sky, “Cloud-Cuckoo-Land.” It was sheer luck that the Harvard Classical Club was producing that play in that year, 1939. The significance of the ancient play to young Leonard Bernstein—the eternal upstart, always looking for his chance to snatch power from the gods—is plain. Bernstein made his conducting debut in that performance, lived

mainly

to

12

with Helen Coates and also

created

addressing pears

music

Aaron Copland

that

a broader

in his score

he could

audience:

in the audience.

draw

some

for the Jerome

upon

of The Birds

Robbins

ballet

Free, and as “Do Do Re Do’ in the Broadway sion of the same

was.

of successful

the

musical

Copland,

Blitzstein,

Comden,

even

Koussevitzky

ver-

Gustav

was

reading

the young reviews

“Kouss

wasnt

wonder

Bernstein

sole

of

wrote

his

was

of an

idol

or

a

youth—Gershwin,

based

and Betty

in New

and

reported

in those

something

shows

Adolph Green

exception,

Bernstein's

he

with Gotham

York Philharmonic.

Mahler—were

the

concert

idols

Mitropoulos,

it’s what a Lawrence,

Broadway

long and brilliant tenure with the New all

musical

years tell us anything, guy this native of

His indelible association

is not just a matter Nearly

reapFancy

story, On the Town.

If Bernstein's Harvard New York kind of Massachusetts

He

later when

one

remarks

days

York.

wonders, and

[see Dossier].

of convenience.

so hard on Chadwick,

the if

No

and so tepid

in his praise of Piston: through no fault of their own, they symbolized grew

that

restrictive.

up in, the cocoon

he could

fly free over

New

SLO7USR

CIES

Bernstein,

Burton.

the Kids

(New York,

Bernstein,

Burton,

disciplinarian

he would

Leonard.

Humphrey.

York

Family

Sam-world

have to rip open and the world.

Matters.

Sam,

Jennie,

and

1982).

Findings

Leonard

13

(New York,

Bernstein

1982).

(New York,

he

before

1994).

The New and

Grove

viduals

named

Peyser,

Joan.

Pollack, his

Dictionary

New York,

(Metuchen,

1994).

of American

Entries

on

Music

Boston

and

(London many

indi-

in the article.

Bernstein.

Howard.

Students,

Secrest,

1986).

Harvard

from

N.J.

Meryle.

and

Elliott

A Biography

Compcsers. Carter

London,

Leonard

(New York,

Walter

to Frederic

1987).

Piston

and

Rzewski

19982).

Bernstein.

A Life (New York,

ior

@

DOSSIER

AN INTERVIEW with VIVIAN PERLIS xe

made

THE

FOLLOWING

VIVIAN

PERLIS

WITH

TRANSCRIPT

FROM

LEONARD

PREPARATION PERLIS,

YorRK

ON

FOR

BIOGRAPHY

VIVIAN

1984.

AN

HistTORY

AT HIS

ARCHIVE,

YALE

1900

1988,

| OF

COPLAND

AND

THROUGH

1942,

NEW

IS IN THE

MUSIC,

MUSIC

IN

OF VOLUME

MATERIAL

OF

IN FAIRFIELD,

22,

AMERICAN

SCHOOL

BY

CONDUCTED

HOME

COPLAND~AARON

UNEDITED

EDITED

SHE

PUBLICATION

COPLAND

THE

BEEN

SEPTEMBER

THE OF

HAS

INTERVIEW

BERNSTEIN

CONNECTICUT

HER

BabaRoNes: GB) LIN

ORAL

AT THE

LIBRARY.

2

TWO

VERY

MUCH

GOOD

MORE

SOPHOMORE DENTS;

FRIENDS

ADVANCED YEAR

OF MINE THAN

AT HARVARD

I. I THINK

AT HARVARD.

THEY

I WAS A LITTLE SOPHOMORE.

ARTHUR

BERGER,

THE

VERY

PART OF THE GROUP THAT INCLUPED MEMORY—I

MORE

MY

BERGER

ADORED

AGE.

IT WAS WHO

VARIATIONS,

BY

MUSIC

STORE,

COULD

HEAR

HEAR

THIS,”

VARIATIONS COURSE,

HIM—AND

ARTHUR

WHERE THINGS,

ME

THAT

AND OLD

AND

I WENT

CLOSE TO WAS

WHO

BUT

THING.

ABOUT

&

PIANO OUR

WHERE

YOU

YOU

OUGHT

PLAYING

HIS

RECORD.

IT

THERE

WAS

ARTHUR

BRIGGS,

BOOTHS

“I THINK

COLUMBIA

18

MY STU-

THAT

SHAPERO,

BRIGGS

AARON

CRAZY

VERY

CLOSE.

OLDER.

LITTLE

HE SAID,

OLD

GRADUATE

ME TO THE COPLAND TO

HAD

WAS

A 78, SCRATCHY

WAS THERE?

IN

THEY

WHICH

ON

WAS

INTRODUCED

VERY BE

IRVING FINE, OF BLESSED

HAROLD

BERGER

TAKING

WERE

I BECAME

COMPOSER,

WERE

IT WOULD

WAS

THIS PIECE.

NO

TO

PIANO

WAS,

OF

LP YET,

ENTER DAVID PRALL, MY GREAT PHILOSOPHY PROFESSOR, WHO WAS A MUSIC FAN, AND WITH WHOM A BUNCH OF US HAD DEVELOPED A KIND OF PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP; HIS ROOMS WERE A PLACE FOR US TO GO, AND WE KNEW THERE’D ALWAYS BE A WARM ATMOSPHERE, AND WE COULD TALK ABOUT ANYTHING WE WANTED. THERE WERE PEOPLE FROM THE LAW SCHOOL, AND PEOPLE OF MY AGE AND OLDER. DAVID PRALL BOUGHT ME THE SHEET MUSIC OF [COPLAND’S VARIATIONS] BECAUSE I COULDN’T AFFORD IT, AND HE ALSO BOUGHT HIMSELF A LITTLE PIANO, SO THAT I COULD PLAY IT FOR HIM. I WROTE A PAPER IN THE AESTHETICS COURSE WHICH I TOOK WITH HIM, ON THE VARIATIONS. NOW, THERE’S A THIRD

IF YOU

REALLY

GRADUATE HOUSE. BEEN,

PERSON

STUDENT,

AND

WHO

THE

WAS

IN THE BEGINNING,

BEGINNING,

THE

WAS

I. BERNARD

HOW

LONG

HIM—I.

B. HAD

DEPARTMENT

FRIEND

THIS LITTLE STUDENT, ANYONE

OF MINE.

BEEN

AT

WHY,

SOPHOMORE

WHO IN

EVERYTHING

KNEW

AND MORE

THE

WORLD,

THAN

ANYBODY

DUCED

ME

TO

PICASSO

TIME,

PEOPLE

DIDN’T

THE

AND

HEAD

I DON’T KNOW, ABOUT

ISAAC

WHO

HE

HAD

HISTORY

BECAME

OF

A

VERY

BECAUSE

I WAS

HE WAS THIS FANCY AND

A

ELIOT

B.,” WE ALWAYS

OF THE

HE

WAS

OF

COHEN.

NOoW—“I.

HARVARD.

THERE

LIBRARIAN

NAME

CALLED

HIS

INVOLVED.

TO KNOW

FOR I DON’T KNOW

SCIENCE

GOOD

WANT

GRADUATE

NEWTON

THAN

MORE

ABOUT

KNEW

IN THE WORLD.

HE HAD INTRO-

TO

STEIN—AT

GERTRUDE

AUTOMATICALLY 19

KNOW

WHAT

THAT WAS

CALLED

“MODERNISM”

JOYCE

WAS

STILL

copy OF ULYSSES. COULD

IN

IMITATE PICASSO

MIDDLE

I READ

HE COULD

OF A BULL. HE COULD I. B. HAD

THE

BANNED.

AND

LATE

ULyssesS—I.

DO WONDERFUL

DRAWINGS.

[ HAVE

THINGS,

TALENTS.

ME

A

LIKE HE

ONE SOMEWHERE—

ALSO DO MIRROR WRITING.

EXTRAORDINARY

THIRTIES—

B. COT

HE

HAD

I REMEMBER

A GREAT

LOVE

FOR MUSIC AND POETRY, AND HE WAS MY KIND OF GUY—-I MEAN HE WAS A MENTOR. ONE.

EVENING

WE

FOUND

OURSELVES

IN

JORDAN

HALL

IN

BOSTON, ATTENDING THE OUT-OF-TOWN

DEBUT, A PREPARATION

FOR

OF A DANCER

THE

ANNA

NEW

YORK

SOKOLOW,

THE COMPOSER,

DEBUT

WHO

WHO

RECITAL,

WAS

THEN

WROTE

TO

MADLY

IN LOVE

BEEN

GET

HER WITH

SUPPLYING

BECAME UNKNOWN

FANS

THEN.

WE

WAS TERRIBLY

MOVED,

DEBUT

IN NEW

YORK,

1937,

AND

A

WHOLE

TIME—I

IN THOSE

BUSINESS. WAS

A

SCHMARVARD, ERED

THERE

CONCERTS,

I REMEMBER

AUTOGRAPH—WE HER—AND OF

THIS

WENT

BACK

WHO

FOR

BACK-

HAD

FALLEN

NORTH,

WHO

WE ALSO

GIRL,

IF YOU

DAYS

LOVED. WAS

AND

SO HAD WE

COMPLETELY

AUTOGRAPHS,

CAN,” WHICH

FOR

I DIDN’T

SUCH

HAVE

THINGS

YOU

THE

BOSTONIAN;

A THING

AND

SHE

14 NOVEMBER

YEARS

MONEY, | MEAN,

YORK

WAS

NOR

THE

HARVARD

SINCE I HAD DISCOV-

AS A WORLD

COULD 20

WAS

ME TO GO TO NEW

IT WASN’T SO MANY

AND

NORTH

AND SAID, “OH, YOU MUST COME TO MY

PROVINCIAL

WAS

CALLED

ALEX

WE WENT

BOTH

MET ALEX

THE MUSIC, WHICH

REAL

TO

ALL THE MUSIC FOR HER DANCING

AND WAS PLAYING IN THE WINGS. STAGE

MARRIED

GO TO, AND

OF MUSIC THAT

AND

PEOPLE

COULD

BUY

RECITAL THE

AGE

BEFORE CIAL

A TICKET

AND

GO

SYMPHONY

HALL.

OF

FOURTEEN,

AND

THAT.

ONE

HOW

WAS, BY

MY

AMAZING

THING

HOW

HAVE

CASE,

I. B. CALLED

MURIEL

RUKEYSER,

THEY

WERE

VERY

HER

TO PROCURE

THE

SOKOLOW

TOOK

THE

THE

DEBUT.

TRAIN

AND

FIRST BALCONY

IT WAS

JUST

SO WE WERE

WE

REPERTOIRE,

THE ONES WHO

BORS OR TO MURIEL, WE

EVERYBODY

WERE

THE

IN NEW

HE

GOOD

ONE

WAS

I SAVED AND

WITH

GOING

TO

UP, AND

WE

FOUND

OUR-

CALL IT. WHERE

WAS IT, I

[GUILD THEATRE].

WERE

OLD

HANDS,

SEE,

WE

WE HAD SEEN THIS IN BOSTON,

COULD

SAY, “OH,” TO OUR NEIGH-

EXPERTS

ON

ALEX NORTH

ANNA

WHISTLES,

SOKOLOW,

AND

ELSE IN THE FRONT ROW OF THAT BALCONY INTEREST

WE TOO.

ARRANGED

SHE

YORK

YORK

DAYS

“WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THIS ONE, THIS IS

NEWS, AND SO I GUESS WE WERE OF BEMUSED

IT’S AN

OR THE

THE KILLER, THIS IS THE ONE WHERE ETC.”

GHETTO

US.

OF THE MEZZANINE,

YOU

THE THEATER

WONDERFUL.

KNEW THE WHOLE

AND

TO NEW

OR WHATEVER

YEARS

IN THE

HIS

VERY

SO WE WENT.

WENT

A

PROVIN-

IN THOSE

BECAUSE

SELVES SITTING IN THE FIRST ROW CAN’T REMEMBER

OF

A

FRIENDS,

TICKETS, AND

WAS

FIVE HOW

AROUND

POETESS.

AND

PLAY AROUND

OF.

A FRIEND

POET,

CLOSE TWO

ONE

OUT

THE

ABOUT

TO THINK

ME—OR

BUSTED

NAMED

°

ONLY

I MEAN,

AROUND

IN ANY

“POETESS.”

RACHMANINOFF I DISCOVERED

RESTRICTED

FATHER TO

HEAR THAT

THAT’S

AMAZING.

AND

CREATED

SAID,

TO

IN

BY THE 21

LOOKED OTHERS,

AT WITH SOME BECAUSE

WE

FOR

IT WAS SORT

SEEMED

TO

KNOW

SO MUCH

ABOUT

ANNA’S

REPERTOIRE.

AND

I THINK

MURIEL WAS SITTING ON MY LEFT, AND I. B. TO HER LEFT, AND ON

MY

AND

RIGHT

SAT THIS

A GIGGLE

AND

DESCRIBED,

AARON

COULD

HAVE

BECAUSE,

AND

AND

THAT’S

LEARNED

THEM

OF

PIECE

I HAD

TURED

AS

THE

IN TWO

THOMSON

AND

LITERARY

PEOPLE,

KRAFT,

AND

THEN

COMES

A PARTY

IN

I COULD

THE

PAUL

BOWLES,

MUSICIANS,

WAS

AMONG

THERE

WERE

AND

WHOM I PIC-

THEM, GIRLS

ZH}

OR

IT HAPPENED WHICH

AARON. SMILING,

TO BE. AND

WERE

ALL SORT

INCLUDING

EDWIN

DENBY,

AND

OF

VIRGIL

POETS

AND

THE

PHO-

BURCKHARDT,

TOO,

COURSE

WOMEN.

WALT

THAT’S WHAT

YOUNG-LOOKING,

RUDY

ROOM,

THIS WONDERFUL

WAS NOT THAT

RUKEYSER,

A

I HAD

ON, LENNY,

EMPTY

COPLAND,

IN THAT ROW,

MURIEL

AND

FACT,

A MOSES-LIKE

BIRTHDAY

IN THE

BY PLAYING THEM

BY PLAYING

BY AARON

I

AWAY—

A LOVER

SAY, “OH, COME

PATRIARCH,

WHOSE

LIKE

TOGRAPHER,

BERGER

BE

THAT

SITTING.

BLOWN

BECOME

TO MEET THIS VERY

EVERYBODY

PEOPLE

MANY

TEETH TO

FOUND

I WAS

WAS

VARIATIONS.

BUT THIS AARON

FELLOW,

HE INVITED

NOT

FIGURE, WITH A BEARD, BECAUSE

SAYS.

I WAS SHOCKED

ARTHUR

MINUTES,

OF

BUCK

WHOM

I HAD

WOULD

AND

WITH

A CHARM

TO HIM, AND

TO

PIANO

PEOPLE

A SORT

THE MUSIC

WHY

JUST LEARNED

WHITMAN-LIKE

OF

OF

AWAY—I

AND SPOILED

WHEN

GUARANTEED,

NEXT

PRALL,

SOMETHING.”

GIGGLING

PERSON,

NOSE,

BLOWN

DAVID

LOVER

AT PARTIES

COPLAND

BEEN

FANATIC

PLAY

BIG

BUT I WAS INTRODUCED

IT WAS

STORY,

UNKNOWN

A

I DON’T

VICTOR KNOW

HOW

MANY

ING

A PARTY

IN THE THIS

OF THOSE FOR

ROW,

JUST

PARTY.

YORK,

AND

IT WAS THAT

AND

KNOWS...”

THIS

STAYED

RAN

TO

OUT

HAD

“YOU

NO

AFTER

GUEST

THAT,

NEW

OF MONEY.

ANOTHER STORY.

FEW TO

LOOK

COULDN’T

3

23

TO THIS

NOT

COME SO

FOR

PAY

FOR

OF

THE

COURSE,

BOSTON

CAME

TO NEW

HE

WHICH

I

WE SAW

YORK

WE

IN ’39 AND

DIDN’T

A MEAL.

FOR

AND

HOUSE,

SCHOOL

A JOB.

IT.”

PARTY.”

EMPTY

TO BOSTON

I CAME FROM

TO

HE

HE CAME

PLAY

MORE.”

OF ELIOT

TIMES

I GRADUATED

YORK

AND

PIANO

PARTICULARLY—

IT DID

TO

NEW

BUT...” BECAUSE

“NOT

MORE,

THE

RELATIONSHIP,

HAD

TO

AT HARVARD

YOU

PARTY,

AND

US

ATTEND

DISCOVERED

I KNEW

ALL—AARON

QUARTERS

AND THE

AARON

HE SAID,

GIVOF

COMMUNITY.

“I DARE

“MORE,

HE

WAS ALL

BARREL—TO

A JUNIOR

YOUR

IDEA.

HE

INTRODUCTION

DO?

SAID, AND

BUT

INVITED

THAT

A PERSONAL

OTHER.

HE

ARTISTIC

AND

FOR HIM. WHENEVER

OTHER, EACH

OF

IT’LL RUIN

STRONG.

SOON

IN THE

ARRANGED

WENT

SAID,

SO HE

I HAD

VERY

SOMETHING

EACH

HE

HE

LOFT,

AND

REAL

FAN,

KEPT YELLING,

AND WAS

MY

EXPERIENCE.

THEY

AARON THAT

STOCK

IT, AND THEY WERE

DROP-JAWED. ROOM.

HIS

LOFT.

IN CONVERSATION,

“YEAH.”

So I PLAYED

AT

HIS

SORT

GREAT

I SAID, “WELL,

I’D HAD

SAW

WAS

ELITE

THAT,

THIS

VARIATIONS, AND

IT

THE

THERE

I WAS

UP

AT

ALL—LOCK,

AND TO

WOUND

HIMSELF

FIND

ONE.

BUT THAT’S

I

oe DOSSIER e

“BOSTON t

CARRIES

re

Leonard

THIS

REVIEW

WAS

REVIEWS

FOR

WAS

BERN

FIRST

IN ITS May-JUNE

HARVARD,

ON”

+e

S

PUBLISHED

EDN

IN MODERN

1938

!1SSUE.

WHILE

BERNSTEIN

BEGAN

WRITING

THE

NEW

DEVOTED

YORK-BASED

TO

Music

A JUNIOR

AT

REGULAR

JOURNAL,

CONTEMPORARY

WHICH

MUSIC.

~@—

BOSTON

HAS

JUST

RECOVERED

FROM

A

SECOND

PROKOFIEFF. THAT INCREDIBLE MAN, WINDING AMERICAN

TOUR

IN

THIS

SYMPHONY

ORCHESTRA

COMPARED

RATHER

DONE

BY

WITH

CONDUCTED

IN AN ALL-PROKOFIEFF

FAVORABLY

IN JANUARY

BRILLIANTLY

CITY, WITH

THE

KOUSSEVITZKY.

A SUITE

FROM

HIS

ATTACK

OF

UP HIS BRILLIANT THE

BOSTON

CONCERT WHICH

PROKOFIEFF

THE

WORKS

CONCERT

BALLET

OPENED

CHOUT,

WHICH

STRAINS THE WORD “CLEVERNESS” TO A SNAPPING-POINT.

IT IS A

VERY WELL WRITTEN

ONE IS

WORK,

WITH

GENIALITY

TO SPARE.

THANKFUL THESE DAYS FOR A CONCERTPIECE THAT HAS A FINALE ONE CAN WHISTLE CONCERTO,

WHILE LEAVING THE HALL. THE FIRST PIANO

PLAYED

BY THE COMPOSER,

LY IN THE LIGHT OF ITS PREDECESSOR. A GOOD

PIECE.

PASSAGES

WHICH

CAN SIZE

REALLY OF THE

TUNE

IS WORKED

TO DEATH

WAS

IN D-FLAT);

IT LACKS

THE

STUDENT

WORK

THAT

BE

AND

HEARD

(ESPECIALLY, CONTINUITY, IT IS.

24

WHEN

IT IS NOT

BRILLIANT BECAUSE

ORCHESTRA;

“WHY?”

UP WRETCHED-

TRUTHFULLY,

IT IS FULL OF DIFFICULT

UNPRETENTIOUS

ASKED,

SHOWED

BUT

ITS ONE

I? SEEMED, AND

PIANO OF

SINCE

IT SOUNDED

IT WAS

THE REAL

OVER,

IT

LIKE YOU

BUT

THEN

HE

REDEEMED

TALE, PETER

AND

THE

Iv PURPORTS

TO TEACH

TO LITTLE RUSSIAN

BIRD

OR

THERE

WOLF

VO, FOR

MAKES

AND

“BITS” CAN

TO PETER,

THE

THE CONCERT

LITTLE

LONG

TOO

VERY

BEST

PERHAPS

LY

TRAGIC

BEAUTY,

MUSIC

SADNESS THAN AND

IF YOU

SEEMED EVER,

FELL

VERY

WALTER UPON

SHORT

BETWEEN

ITS MUSICAL A

BEAUTIFUL JUST

CREPANCY

FORGET

SUITE FROM

WORK,

A A

CURIOUS

RESULT

IS TRYING

INDEED.

THE

SUCCESS LENGTH

OF

TO WRITE PROFOUNDTO

IT WAS

PICTURE MORE

THAN

ITS “PROGRAM”

OF

HIS BAL-

SERIOUS

WELTSCHMERZ; IT WOULD

WHOLE

WORK,

BECAUSE AND

THE

GENTLE

OF

HAVE HOW-

THE

DIS-

EXTENSION

AND

MATERIAL.

IMPORTANT PISTON,

FOR

OF MUSIC].

IS THE

GRAVE.

ITS GREAT

THE

OF IT HAS

GRIEF; MORE POIGNANCY

COULD

VERY

HE

OF

IS ASSIGNED

SOME

IS UNABLE

AT JULIET’S

FALLS

A SUITE.

WHICH WHO

THOUGH

OF ROMEO

THAT

IS A MORE

FOR

RECITATI-

PIECE

DESCRIPTION

WITH THE SECOND

THIS

THE PLOT; HE

UNREASONABLY

BOY-HERO...[EXCERPT

EFFORT BY A COMPOSER GRIEF

QUITE TUNE

OR

WANDERINGS.

OF IT. THE

LITTLE

BY

DUCK

OPERATIC

POSSIBLE

THE

JULIET.

STRANGE

THE

TOGETHER

CLOSED

AND

THAN

HANG

LITTLE

LET ROMEO

COMPLICATED

BREAST

FROM

THE

SERVES TO FORWARD

DEVICE

THE

BE HAD

ITS

FOLLOWED

A CLEAN

WHICH

BEAUTIFULLY.

WORK

IN THIS STORY) REPRESENTED

THROUGH

A BETTER

HE

OF THE ORCHESTRA EACH ANIMAL IN THE

WHICH

WHO

FAIRY

OF ITS KIND.

BY HAVING

ABOUND

IS A NARRATOR

ORCHESTRAL

INSTRUMENTS

INSTRUMENT

IS AT LEAST INTO

THE

HIS

IS A MASTERPIECE

CHILDREN

STORY (AND ANIMALS A PARTICULAR

HIMSELF.

WOLF,

THE

PREMIERE

A COMPOSER BEST

IN

WAS WHO

THE CAN

WORKMANSHIP.

25

FIRST ALWAYS

SYMPHONY BE

ADVERSE

OF

DEPENDED CRITICISMS

WERE

PROFUSE

AND

UNDULY

LONG

LACKED

EMOTIONAL

IONS

A TIME

AS

AT

AND

PERSONAL)

THE

AS

THE

SOME

APPEAL.

NO

COULD

THE

INNOVATIONS

DENY

GOOD

PORTIONING

OF THE

STRUCTURE,

WHICH

PISTON

HAS

MR.

OTHER

MODERN

CREDIT

FOR

GAVE

CHARMING MME. AND

WORKS

MOST

US RAVEL’S

NOT

SONG-TRIPTYCH

FOR

OLGA

AVERINO

SANG

BEAUTY

OF TONE.

RECENTLY

STIRRING PSALM

PERFORMANCE

FOR

WE WERE

MASTERLY

FINE

BEEN

SENSE

IN THE

PAST.

AND

THE

KOUSSEVITZKY. HEARD

SOPRANO

AND

AMAZING

AND

ORCHESTRA.

SCHMITT’S

CHORUS,

HE VERY

UNDERSTANDING

DR. KOUSSEVITZKY

ORGAN,

PRO-

LYRICAL

MANY,

OF

TONE-

GAVE

A

FORTY-NINTH

AND

SOLO

VOICE.

DELL’ESTATE,

AND

MALIPIERO’S

SECOND

SYMPHO-

ELEGIACA.

BAD MUSIC FOUND TO HEAR

ITS WAY IN ALSO. WE HAD THE MISFORTUNE

A ‘CELLO CONCERTO

ANOTHER

GALLICIZED

MEANINGLESS

BY ONE THOMAS

RUSSIAN.

RUBBISH;

BUT

WERE

SOMEWHAT ACTAEON,

DECEIVED UNWILLINGLY,

A SYMPHONIC

ABOUT

DE HARTMANN,

NOTHING

TORTELIER, VALUE

MENTION

OF

26

OF

MARVEL-

A JOB THAT THE

PIECE.

ALESSANDRESCO’S

OF NO IMPORTANCE

Mr. ENESCO WHILE GUEST CONDUCTOR

SHORT

THE

DID SO EXPERT THE

I ALSO POEM

IT WAS

PAUL

LOUS CELLIST OF THE ORCHESTRA, MANY

HANDLING

A RARELY

WITH

CONCEDED

FETED WITH PIZZETTI’S INTERESTING AND PLEASANT

CONCERTO NY, THE

BE

BETRAYED

OF FLORENT

ORCHESTRA,

OPIN-

THE

TO DR.

SCHEHEREZADE,

(FOR

INSTRUMENTAL

THE

NOT

GOES

WORK

CASE

MUST

TASTE,

OFTEN

LARGO

THE

EXPERT

IN

AND

HAVE

OF THEM

THE

THE

FOUND

THE

AS THIS

ONE

NEVER-FAILING

THOUGHT

OTHERS

WHATEVER

TRANSITIONAL

ORCHESTRA,

COLOR,

DIVERSE:

UNINTERESTING;

HERE.

3

PLAYED

BY

Am.-ber

['am-ber]

n.,

{From: Middle English ambre, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin ambra, from Arabic ‘anbar ambergris. Date:

14th century},

(1) a hard

yellowish

translucent fine polish

ing ornamental

objects

(2) a variable color orange yellow.

Bern-stein

to brownish

fossil resin that takes a and is used chiefly in mak(as beads);

averaging

a dark

[’bern-] der; o.Pl.amber

ZF fe

eo DOSSIER

:

e MUSIC e

Leonard

BERNSTEIN

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW ESSAY WAS WRITTEN BY BERNSTEIN DURING HIS TENURE AS Music EDITOR OF

LEONARD

THE HARVARD

IT APPEARED

ADVOCATE;

IN NOVEMBER

1938

(VOL. XXV,

No. 2).

2

THE

FIRST CONCERT

OVER

AND

TRADITIONAL

FOR

B.S.O.

UNBREAKABLE HORN

OF THE

ELIGIBLE

REMARKABLE

MOST

THE THINGS

WE

THAT THE SCHERZO

FATE IN IT AFTER I SUPPOSE OF

THE

OF

QUEEN OF

THE

THE

COME

THAT

TO LOVE.

ONE

MAIN

PEOPLE

BONE WERE

OF

WITH

OBOE

CADENZA

IN

THE

THE

SCHERZO,

LONGED

OF

THE

THREE

ATONED

FOR

MAJESTY

MOMENT. KNOWS

WAS

CoDA).

SORT

A WORK BY

THE

BOYS,

OUR HOW-

SOMETHING

HEART

OF LIKE

OUR

FIRST

THING. THE

IN ITS

NORMAL

28

FIRST THE

THE

LET’S

THE

OF

SUB-

OUT

THROUGH

OF THE

SLOWNESS

MOVEMENT, iMPOSSIBLE, CHORDS

THE PRO-

OF

THE

BE-BACK-IN-A-FLASH

IMPULSE

BUT

FIFTH

ALL

OPENING BY

WAS OTHER

INCREDIBLE

THE

OF

THE

HAD

EACH

WHAT

OF

OF

THEM,

BULL FIDDLE, SO

CONTENTION

WATCHING

OF SYMPHONIES,

THIS

VIVALDI)

INNOVATION,

FIFTH

PRACTICALLY

DEMN

FRENCH

OF TEMPI--ALL

HAS ADDED A TENTH

EYES

TEMPO

THE

HEARING

THEIR

(WHICH

THE

PERCUSSION

NEAR-DRAGGINESS

FINALE

PRECISION,

IN

CONCEPTION

OF BEETHOVEN’S

THE

OF

LITTLE

THE

(IN THE

NOT

IS

IT WAS

ALL.

TEMPO.

CORNERS

AND

INDIVIDUALISTIC HAVE

ORCHESTRA

LARGE

NOTES

PHENOMENON

EVER: DR. KOUSSEVITZKY

JECT

FALSE

BLOWN

INDUSTRY

DIRECTOR’S

AND

MAGNIFICENT

OF

THE

WOODWINDS

SYMPHONY

BY

OFFERING:

TRADITION

DEPARTMENT,

SEEING

BOSTON

REVIEW.

IS ALWAYS BE

SYMPHONY

TO

TAOISTS WHICH

PERFORMANCE

CONFOR

A

EVERYONE

IS ALWAYS

THE

oe

FIRST

TO SUFFER

HAD BEEN

FROM

“INDIVIDUALISTIC”

ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH

THAT THIS WAS YOUR FIRST HEARING NOT

HAVE

OBJECTED

THOUGHT

SO

CERTAINLY

THE

MUST HAVE

WAS

JUST

BERLIOZ,

LADIES WHAT

AND

THERE

IS, YOU

COULD

HAVE CAN

MIGHT

MIGHT

EVEN

HAVE

KNOW,

CATCH

THE

AROUND—HAS SALOME.

THE

OUT INTO A MODERN TO ASSURE

THE

BRAHMS,

SO

IN

AT

HOME

MUSIC.

THEIR

THEY

WON’T

OF

FROM

WHOM

FINALLY

SOUTH

GOD

GOT

WHIMSY

PUBLIC

AND IT IS SO OFTEN

THINGS ARE PUBLISHED,

HARD,

SOUND

WHILE

WINDOW

MOUNTAIN.

BLESS

FOR

DOING

MORE UNDER

THE REST IS SILENCE. ONLY FULL-SEASON

AS FAR

IN

OR FROM

IN THE COUNTRY

AS BORIS

ORCHESTRAS

THE SES-

GODUNOV

SOMETIMES

BREAK

FOR A FEW MINUTES. JUST ENOUGH

THAT

PRETTY

NEW

YOU

LISTEN

COMPOSERS’

COMPANY—THE

SYMPHONY

NOT THAT

IF YOU

A STRANGE

CONDITIONS.

OPERA

SION

IN

EXCITING.

BEETHOVEN,

EASILY.

ANY CONDUCTOR

ADVERSE

AND

IT EXCITING.

PROGRAM

CENTURIES.

LEAGUE

HIMSELF,

MUSIC THAN

METROPOLITAN

ARE

CONTEMPORARY

OR VIA RADIO

FORMIDABLY

FOUND

WANTED:

LADIES

IT OUT TOO

OUTSIDE

KOUSSEVITZKY

BOARD

IS NOT JUST HISTORY.

FOUND

YORK,

OF THE

NINETEENTH

SOMETIMES

STANDING

MODERN

YOU

FOUND THE WHOLE

THE

BELIEVE THAT MUSIC

NEW

OF THE WORK—YOU

VIOLENTLY.

THEY

VIVALDI.

EIGHTEENTH

YOU

IF YOU

PRETEND

IT EXCITING.

FACT, THEY IT

RENDITION.

THE IMPOSSIBLE—TO

MUSIC

WAS

AND

NO

LONGER

BAD STUFF; SOMEHOW

IS.

THE WORST

AND THEN SELL FOR A DOZEN

DOLLARS

A COPY.

AARON

COPLAND’S

AT THE

SECOND

OUGHLY

GOOD.

POPULAR

RECENT

CONCERT, GOOD

PIECE), GOOD

MASTERFUL),

GOOD

FOR

WORK,

IS NOT THE

FOR THE

FOR THE

EL SALON MEXICO,

SUCH PUBLIC

PLAYED

IT IS THOR-

(IT IS ESSENTIALLY

MUSICIAN

MEXICANS 29

A PIECE.

(IT IS SUBTLE

(WHO AGREE

A

AND

THAT THE

= SPIRIT OF THEIR

COUNTRY

WAS

FOR THE SPLEEN

(IT IS CLEVER

REALLY

CAPTURED),

OUT, AND AS EXCITING AS A ROLLERCOASTER MUCH

GOOD

DID IT DO? KOUSSEVITZKY’S

PLAYED A NEW WORK. AS THINGS STAND THE

REST

MOST

OF THE

SECOND THE

CONCERT

MOZART

FOR ME A GREAT THRILL. IN ITS ADAGIO LESSER

MOZART,

CALLY

NOT.

IS DONE;

HE HAS

WAS

TRULY

BOSTON

AND

AGAIN

DIVERTIMENTO

YEARS.

HISTORY,

BADLY

I THOUGHT

MELODY,

FIRST-RATE

AMERICAN

THE

WHICH

PERFORMANCE

IN CON-

AND CONTAINS

COMPOSING

INSISTED

PLAYED,

BUT

IN B FLAT WAS

IT HITS THE TOP: IT IS GRAND

MOVEMENT

IN THE

RIDE). WELL, HOW

DUTY

NOT FOR SEVERAL

CEPTION, RICH IN THE BEST OF MOZART MARSTERS

GOOD

THROUGH-

CAN WE HEAR IT AGAIN, AS WE WANT TO?

NOW, POSSIBLY

ENJOYABLE.

AND

AND GOOD-HUMORED

(RUTH

THAT

IT WAS

IT WAS EMPHATI-

IN BETTER

TASTE

AND MORE CHARMINGLY

CONDUCTED THAN ALMOST ANY MOZART

PERFORMANCE

HEARD

I HAVE

COULD QUOTE MISS MARSTERS TORE

THE

NEW

WORLD SYMPHONY,

PEOPLE

PAPER

WERE

TO

I WISH

I

FOR YOU, BUT UNFORTUNATELY

FROM

[|

BITS). THE

AWARE

KOUSSEVITZKY.

THIRD

NUMBER,

WAS A GREAT SURPRISE THAT

THEY.

HAD

NEVER

THE

DVORAK

TO EVERYONE. IN

ALL

THEIR

HUNDREDS OF HEARINGS OF IT HEARD IT SO WELL PLAYED. THE

RIGID

OPPOSITION

KOUSSEVITZKY WHAT

A

PLAYED

WAS

MOVED;

BUT

IT AS A GESTURE

PERHAPS

EVEN

BECAUSE

OF SYMPATHY

TOWARD

WAS ONCE CZECHOSLOVAKIA.

SHORT

DISSERTATION

APPEARED,

“MUSIC

BY

ELIE

AND SOCIETY”

SIEGMEISTER (CRITICS GROUP

HAS

JUST

PRESS). IT

IS A GREAT, HEARTRENDING, TOO-TRUE COMPLAINT AGAINST THE CONTEMPORARY

MUSICAL SETUP, REVEALING

SPOTS, AND CONNECTING

THEM

MOST OF THE SORE

WITH THE SOCIAL AND ECONOM-

IC SETUP. IT BEGINS BY PLUNGING LOUDLY INTO THE PROBLEM GETTING

MODERN

ANTECEDENT

MUSIC

PROBLEMS

PLAYED SUCH

AND

HEARD.

AS “ANGELS,” 30

THIS

OF

INVOLVES

SOMETHING

TO EAT

e

FOR

THE

COMPOSER

SUNDAY

EVENING

(HOW

INARTISTIC!),

Hour.

HE

THEN

AND

ALL THIS TROUBLE

IS NOT TO BE RELEGATED

ART,

FIELD

BUT

IVORY

TO

THE

TOWER

WHO

SYSTEM

“CONTROL”

BACKING

UP

SURVEY BRINGING

BOARD.

FOR

THE

ESCAPE

OR

CHANGING

IN

BEEN AGENTS,

CONCERN

OR LESS CONCLUDED

ING IS THAT WHICH NEERING,

NO

THE

NOT PRODUCE

HAS

FROM

HISTORICAL ON

ABLE

STILL

TO ADJUST

IS A GOOD

HAVE PLAY-

OF THE

LADY

OF

DY

THE

MUCH

BOARD

PRESCRIBED,

WRIGGLING. AND

IT

INVOLVES

PAST...NEW

WORLD—BUT

A

AND

IDENTIFY

HOLD

THEM.

AGREE

READ

SECOND FIRST

THE

ESSAY,

BECAUSE

TIME.

IT

IT COSTS

REMOVED

WITH

THE

CONCERT

NO PIOMUSIC

WILL

BECAUSE

BE

IS

PRESENT

OF

HAS

BECOME

A

THE

SOMEWHAT OF

COMPOSER

THAT

IT OR

NOT,

IT

IN

A QUARTER.

31

AN

ANYONE

AS

YOU

BUT

THE

ROOM OF

PEOPLE AND

IT TO

A GREAT

ORGANIZED

WAY

OF THE

REME-

LEFT

FOR

COMPOSER

CAN

A NEW

OWE

IT SAYS

*

FOR

PARTS

THE

WITH,

BECAUSE

CONCATENATION

MORE

EQUAL

THEMSELVES

SAYS

REPER-

AUDIENCE

LIVING

ALMOST

CONVINCED.

CONSIST

FIRST

THE

HALL

IMPRESSIVE.

WITH

IS

TIMES CAN-

P. 56)

OF THIS

THERE MUST

STAND

TO

CONTACT

DOWNRIGHT

TO

CONDUC-

BOX-OFFICE,

BOURGEOIS

QUOTED IS SO

ITSELF

AND

THAT THE ONLY MUSIC WORTH MUSIC

(SIEGMEISTER,

FACTS

SEEKING

EXALTATION,

DIRECTORS,

COMPLETELY

ANY EFFECTIVE

I HAVE

MUSIC,

GREAT ART”)... REPETITION OF THE SAME

ALMOST

MUSIC....THE

MUSEUM.”

PEOPLE

KEENNESS,

FACED WITH A HOSTILE BUILD-UP (“OUR UNSETTLED TOIRE

THE

ERA OF THE LADIES ON

IS SURE FIRE, AND WHICH

RISKS:

THE

SOCIETY

AUDIENCE,

MUSIC....THE

OF

THAT

GREAT

MUSIC—EMOTIONAL

DIVERSION—HAS FIRST

TO

THAT

FIELD

AND

A COMPREHENSIVE

OF

MIDDLE-CLASS

VALUES

WHOSE

MORE

SERVICE

WITH

EFFECTS

“THE

OLD

NEWER

TORS,

GREAT

IT RIGHT UP TO THE PRESENT

THE

THE

SCIENCE,

THIS HE DOES WITH

THESIS

THE

FORD’S

TO SHOW

TO THE

SOCIAL

IS OF

MUSIC.

HIS

OF

OF

HENRY

PROCEEDS

UNDER-

WORLD

TO

YOURSELF DEAL

AND

FOR

THE

DOSSIER oe.

* DE

AOR

HELE ONGC ee @

THIS

UNDATED

INFIRMARY

LETTER,

STATIONERY,

PIANO

TEACHER

ASSISTANT TO THE

HELEN

AND,

SPRING

OF

ON

LATER,

COATES.

PRODUCTION

DOCUMENT

WRITTEN

1S ADDRESSED

1939,

IT IS

OF BERNSTEIN WORLD

THE

JUST

BIRDS,

PRIOR

IN THE

A CHARMING

THE

AND

BERNSTEIN’S

PERSONAL

WRITTEN

OF

STILLMAN

TO

COLLEGE

SENIOR'S

CONCERNS. eo

DEAR

AS

HELEN,

PER

THE

PATIENT

LETTERHEAD,

IN STILLMAN

ALL HAPPENED MATE

SO SUDDENLY

A CHEERY

SUDDENLY HERE

IT IS TUESDAY,

OUTSIDE

OF

RELATIVE THE WITH

LA

NIGHT I BADE

AND

I WAS PAINS.

FINE AGAIN.

HAS SO SPEEDY

THAT

ONLY

A SHORT

WAY

SO FAR) DUE NEXT WEEK, LISTENING

MERITS

OF

TO

MOMENT

ENCLOSURES, J WAS

SILLY

DULY

HAS

BEEN

ME RIGHT

WITH

32

BIRDS

THESIS

(ONLY

ETC.

AND

THE

DELIVERED

STRICKEN

THE

CONTROVERSIES

KOUSSEVITZKY

TOO

CAN’T AFFORD

IT STRUCK

OFF;

I AM

A RECOVERY

IF I LEAVE

BUT I REALLY

A IT

MY ROOM-

MORNING

ALL THE ACHES

AFRAID

I AM

GRIPPE.

OF THE BUSIEST PART OF THE YEAR—THE

CHEERIEST

ROOMMATE.

HALF

THAT

DE

MONDAY

IN THIS LAIR OF LASSITUDE.

PERFORMANCE DONE

AND

B. NEVER

I’M ONLY

IN THE MIDDLE PARTLY

AND

WILL BE A RELAPSE,

TO LANGUISH

KNOWN

VICTIME

AND I FEEL PERFECTLY

OF WARD

KNOWN.

SOON THERE

IT BE

SUNDAY

GOODNIGHT,

PROSTRATE—FEVER

THE WONDER

BEEN

LET

INFIRMARY,

RECEIPT HERE

REMORSE

OVER

BENNY

OF YOUR

BY AT

THE

GOODMAN

MY

NOTE

FAITHFUL

HAVING

NOT

SEEN

YOU

FOR

I MANAGED

THANK

SO

TO

BUT

ON

YOUR

THE

PLACE,

ONE YOU

OR

THE

CLIPPINGS.

DIVERSE

MAKE

ENJOYABLE

READING

IT IS TRUE

THAT

THE

RARY;

AND

IT WAS

STACKS

OF WORK

BEEN

GIVEN

A LOVELY

TERM

BY

AND

WHAT

OLD, JANGLING SO

SAME THAT

HAD

RACKET.

IF NOT

BEFORE,

PERFORMANCE

ALL

THE

21

THERE.

SUNDRY

ME; I HAVE

FOR THE

WITH

THE

I HAVE

JUST

REST OF THE

[SEE DOSSIER—PERLIS

TO BE AN INCENTIVE,

DAMPERS AND

LOVE

AS

SICKBED.

WHAT

YEAR.

TO PRACTICE

RESOUND

I SHOULD

(APR.

THIS

ON

ALL OUT OF TUNE,

AND

AND IN THE

FROM

INEVITABLE,

MINIPIANO

OUGHT

OCCASIONS

NOT

BUT IT IS ONLY TEMPO-

BENEFACTOR

THAT

AFFAIR,

THEY

AWFUL

GET YOU

NEW

I HAVE

TIMBRE,

RECEDED

TO BE DONE

A WONDERFUL

INTERVIEW]; CONSIDER

HAS

IDENTITY.

CERTAINLY

NEW

THE

PIANO

LOST MY PIANISTIC

TWO

WERE

THEY

ALMOST

FOR

TO

ARE,

THEY

YOU

LONG,

GET

NO TWO

OFF THE

TO SEE

YOU

NOTES

BASS

RESOUND,

+ 22, EVENINGS).

WHEN

I

HITHERTO—AN

MAKING

AT THE

OF

NOTES, AN

“BIRDS”

I SHALL

TRY

TO

TICKETS. EVER, LEONARD

[IN THE MARGIN:

My FONDEST

B

GREETINGS 33

TO YOUR

MOTHER]

®

DOSSIER

CHRONOLOGY 1918:

AuGust

25 LEONARD

JENNIE

1929:

MATRICULATES

1932:

TAKES

PIANO

LESSONS HELEN

WITH

ORCHESTRA,

GRADUATES

COMPOSES

1937.

TRIO

THE

BOSTON

LATIN

148,

WORKS

PIANO

AARON

FOR

MARC “SCENES

PIANO, SONATA

AND

CELLO

EBB

PIANO

IN 3 MOVEMENTS AND

ALLEGRO

AS CONCERT

CONCERTO

WITH

AT CAMP

ONOTA,

PIANIST; STATE

SYMPHONY

OF

THE

BY DANCER

No.

ANNA

2

ADVOCATE

TO MODERN

PERFORMANCE

LARGO-MODERATO-

1, INSPIRED

Music

AS A CONDUCTOR,

BLITZSTEIN,

IN BOSTON;

GEBHARD

THE DANCE

HARVARD

THE BIRDS,

FROM

AND

HEINRICH

No.

FOR

OUTSIDE

MITROPOLOUS

IN NY

FOR

REVIEWS

FOR

DimiTRI

CADENZA-PRESTO

FIRST APPEARANCE PRODUCES

WITH LAWRENCE

LARGO-ANDANTE

COPLAND

Music

EDITOR

MUSIC

AND

MEETS

THE DANCE

CONTRIBUTES

1939

VOICE

PIANO

WRITTEN

SOKOLOW; Music

PIANO

UNIVERSITY

COUNSELOR MA;

SONATA:

Music

GRIEG

SYMPHONY

OF CAMBRIDGE

AS CAMP

CADENZA,

HIS

SCHOOL

APPEARANCE

RAVEL’S

PITTSFIELD,

MEETS

AND

SCHOOL

FOR

VIOLIN,

FIRST PROFESSIONAL

SCHOOL

IN COLLABORATION

PIANOS:

ORCHESTRA

AND

PERFORMED

PUBLIC

HIGH

TWO

PERFORMS

GEBHARD

AS PIANIST;

BOSTON

PIANO,

FOR

OF SAMUEL

MA

SCHOOL

HEINRICH

AT HARVARD

PSALM

FOR

Music

1938|

FROM

CLASS SONG

COmPOSES

CHILD

G. COATES

ROXBURY

MATRICULATES

FIRST

IN LAWRENCE, LATIN

FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE CONCERTO

1935.

BORN

AT BOSTON

ASSISTANT,

1934.

BERNSTEIN,

BERNSTEIN,

SANDERS OF

THE

AT HARVARD

LEADING THEATRE,

CRADLE

WILL

DRAMATIC

CITY OF SIN,” EIGHT

INCIDENTAL HARVARD Rock,

BY

CLUB

MINIATURES

FOR

4 HANDS FOR

VIOLIN AND

PIANO:

34

MODERATO

ASSAI,

VARIATIONS

GRADUATES ENTERS

STUDY

1940-

HARVARD

CURTIS

WITH

CUM

LAUDE

INSTITUTE

Fritz

IN MUSICA

OF Music,

PHILADELPHIA,

FOUR

STUDIES FOR 2 CLARINETS, 2 BASSOONS PRAELUDIUM, FUGHETTA, CHORAL, FINALE

ATTENDS

BERKSHIRE

OF SERGE

TEACH

Music

CENTER

KOUSSEVITZKY;

COMPOSITION

(TANGLEWOOD)

COPLAND

AND

AND

AND

PAUL

GRADUATES

Curtis

ConbDucTSs

PRODUCTION RECEIVES

PAYMENT

ORCHESTRA

SymMPHONY

No.

TRA, TEXT

FOR

BOOSEY

HARVARD

ORCHESTRA;

1 (JEREMIAH),

STUDENT

& HAWKES EL SALON

IN OPEN-AIR

(IN HEBREW)

OF RIMSKY-

FOR

PIANO

MExico

CONDUCTS

CONCERT

BOSTON

AT TANGLEWOOD

FOR MEZZO-SOPRANO

AND ORCHES-

OF JEREMIAH SERVES AS KOUSSEVITZKY’S ASSISTANT IN CONDUCTING CLASSES AT TANGLEWOOD WORKS WITH THE REVUERS IN GREENWICH VILLAGE IS HIRED BY HARMS-WITMARK PUBLISHERS TO MAKE WEEKLY PIANO ARRANGEMENTS OF ‘NOVELTY’ ORCHESTRA PIECES; NOTATES JAZZ IMPROVISATIONS FROM NEW RECORDINGS; PUBLISHES

1943-

SONATA

UNDER

FOR

THE LAMENTATIONS

PSEUDONYM

CLARINET

AND

AND ANDANTE-VIVACE SEVEN

FROM

UNION

PLAY

OF COPLAND’S

WITH A PROFESSIONAL

POPS

1942

FROM

AS A STUDENT HINDEMITH

OF Music

SCORE

OF ARISTOPHANES’

TRANSCRIPTION

DEBUT

INSTITUTE

THE PEACE,

PIANO:

CONDUCTING

FIRST APPEARANCE AS SYMPHONIC CONDUCTOR, KORSAKOFF’S SCHEHERAZADE, LENOX, MA 1941:

PA, To

REINER

‘LENNY AMBER’

PIANO:

GRAZIOSO,

UN POCO

MOSSO

E LEGGIERO

ANNIVERSARIES,

PIANO

SOLO

| HaTeE Music: A Cycle OF FIVE KiD SONGS FOR SOPRANO AND PIANO STEPS

IN AT LATE

PIANO

NOTICE

CONDUCTING

DEBUT;

IS OFFERED

POSITION

RODZINSKI SURPRISE

TO PLAY

SONATA AT TOWN

AT THE

DEBUT;

CONDUCTOR

PAUL

BOWLES,

AS ASSISTANT NEW

STANDS

OF THE

PREMIERE

OF COPLAND’S

HALL

YORK IN FOR

NEW

35

YORK

THE

WIND

REMAINS,

CONDUCTOR

TO ARTUR

PHILHARMONIC BRUNO

WALTER,

PHILHARMONIC

GUEST

MOMA

i"

(ici

on

‘Na

" Wit "

' ‘a i

a i la nh

LEONARD

BERNSTEIN

at BOSTON Ron

LATIN

GWIAZDA

BEFORE

LEONARD

COLLEGE

IN

BOSTON

BERNSTEIN

THE

PALL

PUBLIC

years,

Boston

from

the

He

\s the original brother

town

for

us. That

records

completed

eleven

to

sixth

seventeen,

at

Bernstein

through

\ row

AV

Record”

essentially

rigorous

of old metal

school

contain

cards

classical

“Publie

is Bernstein's

brittle,

and

a

patched

38

yeas older

is currently school

Publie

public

a ol

School

in the early examination

students

for college

curriculum,

filing cabinets the

One

the school

same:

become

Bay Pilgrims

in the Boston

the

to

Latin School, the

School

of preparing

April of

of children

examination

attended

for all students

One of the cards discolored,

students

the mission

ely

Latin

twelfth-grade

2.300

with

intreated

nourtering

in the country.

Boston

System.

it was

be

and

in

upon that our

by the Massachusetts

approximately 1930s,

shall

institution

through

school

show,

the inception of Boston

College,

When

of Boston

teaching

decision

educational

Harvard

seventh-

the

was

Pormort

the

and its date mark than

ATTENDED

in 1929 and then spent

meeting...it was...agreed

Philemon

scholmaster

oldest

he

HARVARD

HE

Latin School.

1635, “att a General

with

1935,

SCHOOLS.

time

ENTERED

OF

grade at the W. L. Garrison School six

SCHOOL

now

in the mail room

Latin from

1924

summary with

School to the

record

cellophane

of

Summary present.

card. It is tape.

but

the neat

script

is clearly

legible.

It contains

the following

basic information:

Date of Birth: August 25, 1918; Age at entrance: Il years; Entered: Sept. 12, 1929; Diploma awarded:

June

Samuel

J.

13,

1935:

Bernstein;

Parent

Washington Street, Boston: beauty parlor supply. The

first

Roxbury,

home

address

is crossed

out

or

Business

Occupation:

given,

and

Guardian:

Address:

55

followed

480

Job in

Brookledge

Street,

by another

address that is difficult to read. because

Roxbury

it has written over

ita third address, 86 Park Ave. Newton.

Encapsulated Bernstein

New

in these

family

York when

brief lines

history.

is an

Samuel

important

Bernstein

he was sixteen, learned

piece of

emigrated

to

English. and moved

through a succession of jobs until he acquired a position in a firm that supplied open

an

office

beauty

parlors. He

of the firm, and

came

his ultimate

to Boston business

financial success are reflected in the family’s move

large

and

Roxbury

vibrant

who

School

community

that

Until the 1970s, it was

lived outside

by

paying

Newton.

business, upward An

tuition,

In ways

Bernstein mobility

important

involves

in the

possible for a stu-

of the city to attend

and

that

was

that

parallel

involved

element

opportunity

of

the school’s 250th anniversary 39

his

own

at Boston

Boston

and upward

Latin

Leonard

to the school

his father’s success in

and sell-definition

Boston

is what

Bernstein did in his senior year. He commuted

from

from the

existed

section of Boston at that time to the more affluent

suburb of Newton.

dent

Jewish

to and

Latin

mobility.

process

in of

Latin School.

School's

ethos

In an oration

at

in 1865, Phillips Brooks gave

a history of the school and traced the democratic

its mission. “Side by side on its humble

of the governor

nature of

benches sat the son

and the son of the fisherman,

each free to

take the best he could grasp. The highest learning.” Brooks told his audience,

“was declared

of an aristocratic

class, but

town

who

at once

to be no privilege

the portion

of any

boy in the

had the soul to desire it and the brain to appro-

priate it.” The thread that reaches back through the school's that is classical and rigorous

history is a vision of education yet public and

democratic in nature. It transcends wealth, privilege, and social class. Boston Latin School, an alumnus

once

commented,

is a poor boys

What

Bernstein

brain

to appropriate’

“Public

Latin

had

to have

School

Andover

“the soul

or Exeter.

to acquire

and

the

fills the rest of the front side of his Summary

Record”

card. Listed

there

are the courses he took during each of his six years at the school, his grades, and the initials of the teachers who taught

him.

His studies

included

Latin, five of Mathematics,

of German and

six years

of English

and

four of French and History, two

and Natural Science, and one year of Geography

Physics.

Also

listed

are

grades

for

six

years

of

Declamation, or public speaking, as well as the designation of a Company and a Regiment for each year under the heading of Military Drill. (At the time, Boston high schools competed in Military

Drill, which amounted

today's

physical

education.

School

took

cer, a second

includes

at

Boston

part. During one year, Bernstein lieutenant,

Next to Bernstein's that

to the equivalent of

All students

his

was

Latin

an offi-

in his Company.)

picture in the 1935 yearbook nickname—Lenny—his

graduation—Harvard—and

the quotation

is an entry

destination

after

he had selected—

“Tis the tone that makes the music.” His prizes are also listed. In 1929-1930,

he won

the Modern 40

Prize. awarded

to the

student

with the highest combined average in the seventh grade in English. Mathematics, Natural Science, and Modern History and Geography. In the same year, he won the Special Reading Prize. which was determined by a panel of judges at a competition in public reading for seventhand eighth-graders. Apparently Bernstein already had presence and an impressive voice in the seventh grade. Also listed is the Classical Prize for 1932-1933, which means that Bernstein had the highest combined average in the tenth grade in Latin, Ancient History, and Geography. The prizes are a clear indication of his capacity to achieve at the highest and

most

competitive

The yearbook

entry

his senior year, the Club

Physics and

Club.

His involvement

level.

also lists Bernstein's

he was He

a soloist

academic

a member was

with

in music

the seventh grade, when

also

the

the School

activities.

of the French President

of the Glee

Symphony

at the school

During

Club and Orchestra.

stretched

back

to

he first joined the Glee Club. The

final line of the yearbook

entry credits Bernstein

as the co-

author of the Class Song. Elsewhere

in the yearbook,

Lawrence

F. Ebb

is credited

with writing the words of the song and Bernstein alone with composing

member

the

music.

In a recent

interview,

of the Class of “35, remembered

Ebb,

Bernstein

also

a

as an

“enthusiast,” a young man with great energy. He recalled Bernstein's approaching him to help with the Class Song but is not sure whether the words or the music came first. Ebb was the president of the French Club when Bernstein was a member, and both of them organized the staging of a play with the French Club from Brookline High School. The hidden agenda was to meet girls, since Boston Latin School was

all male.

41

Ebb also recalled that their first two years as Boston Latin School students, in the seventh and eighth grades, were not spent in the school building itself. As a result of construction that was underway at the school, they were housed across the street in the High School of Commerce for their seventh grade. While in the eighth grade, they were moved to the crest of Beacon Hill. Going to school involved taking the trolley to Park Street Station and then walking through the State House to the Sharp School on Beacon Hill. At the time, the Sharp School was the oldest school building in America. The students played sports in Boston Common during what Ebb remembered was the height of the Depression. Later,

when

assembly the

they

was

were

seniors,

Ebb

held in the school

recounted,

auditorium;

a weekly

it began with

headmaster reading from the Old Testament,

which was

followed by a musical selection. Bernstein, another and

a

violinist

Throughout

took

turns

at

providing

performances

in the auditorium—a

by Bernstein

likely antidote

stone of the reading that preceded Latin;

continued

both

music.

their senior year, the Class of 35 experienced

a series of musical

Bernstein

pianist,

the

of them

after

they

matriculated

at the piano

to the fire and

it.

brim-

Ebb’s connection

graduated

from

at

the

Harvard

to

Boston following

year. Ebb recalled that on Class Day at their Harvard

grad-

uation,

Latin

Bernstein

did

a

take-off

on

their

Boston

School Class Song, playing it at the piano in Eliot House in the

styles

apologized how

different

For many

composers.

to Ebb, in the event

Bernstein

apology

logue

of

had

transformed

was necessary,

their joint

Ebb assured

years the Boston

to convey

Afterwards

that he had been

on

by No

published a eata-

its history,

riculum, students, and prizes. The December 42

upset

creation.

him.

Latin School

information

Bernstein

mission,

cur-

1935 catalogue

names

Leonard

recipients

Bernstein

of the

prize

and

for

Edward

Merrill

Excellence

in

Goldman

Music

that

as

was

given shortly before graduation each June. The records of the size of Bernstein's class contained

in the

school catalogues are also an interesting source of information about the school at the time he was a student. Bernstein

was

one of 297 seventh

graders when

he entered

the school in 1929. By tenth grade that original number had dwindled to 113. From eighth to twelfth grade, between 400 and 450 students were

was

approximately

added

to Bernstein's class: the total According to the December, 1934

730.

catalogue, however,

Bernstein's graduating class contained

only 270 seniors, and only 258 seniors are listed in the 1935 yearbook.

Taking

the yearbook

than the earlier December students

in Bernstein's

These numbers

figure

as

more

accurate

catalogue, only one-third

class

graduated

point to an exceptionally

from

the

of the school.

high attrition rate

of students—not an exception but the norm. Until recently. it was a tradition of headmasters to tell the seventh graders in a September assembly to “Look to the left. Look to the right. Only one of you is going to be here in six years.” For

many

classes.

the six-year

level of two-thirds. school

and

enter

Students the work

into neighborhood and academically

high schools

not

to graduation

a supportive,

Latin

amounted

Typically,

forty

was

rate

reached

this

left did not drop out

force.

demanding.

difficult, and the workload viving

attrition

who

They

transferred

that were

Boston

of

back

less emotionally

Latin

School

was

so

so unrelenting, that simply sura major

nurturing

accomplishment.

environment:

to

undergoing

lines

of Latin

a

attending

kind

translation

of trial were

It was

Boston

by fire. assigned

each night, and on any given day a student could find himself the focus of his Latin class for the entire period, as he 43

stood

by his desk and

Students

were

referred

is likely that Bernstein Lenny or Leonard have answered in Social the

was

questioned

his translation. exclusively.

It

never heard an adult refer to him as

in his six years at the school—he

to just “Bernstein.”

Darwinism;

school’s

on

to by their surnames

those

perspective,

who the

It was

a world

survived others

would steeped

belonged.

were

From

chaff

to

be

quickly forgotten. However, and

for

many

first-generation

families

students,

particularly

children—all

those

the

immigrant

who

came

where no one had ever attended college

from

surviving

Boston Latin School held the promise of single-handedly transforming the future of ones family, of catapulting it into an entirely different social and economie stratum. The 1935 school

and

1911,

Harvard. seven;

catalogue

302

proudly

Boston

School

that

between

“boys”

went

1901

on

to

For the Class of ‘28 alone, the count was seventy-

for the Class

school,

reported

Latin

it was

of ‘29,

eighty-two.

Bernstein's

first

year

at the

1935 yearbook, ninety-nine listed Harvard as their college destination, and one

Of the 258 seniors

of those was

Leonard

in the

Bernstein.

Though Boston Latin School had a special relationship with Harvard, its younger sibling, an array of excellent other colleges was represented in the 1935 seniors’ choices as well. Eighteen students went on to MIT, and yet others to Yale, Columbia, Williams, Dartmouth, Amherst. In addition lo Harvard, many other excellent colleges opened their doors to the Boston Latin School graduating seniors. Jernsteins

unique,

but

Boston

Latin

make

musical

in

his mark

talent

being

School

the and

and

son

subsequent

Harvard,

and

then

at the top of his protession, 44

career

of immigrants,

were

attending

gvoing on

to

he is represen-

tative of many

the

course

of the school’s alumni. Those who could stay

found

themselves

exceptionally

well-prepared

for college and for the competitive world beyond. When

Bernstein

played

School assembly

the

piano

in

the

Boston

beneath a frieze that circles the room just beneath ing.

On

that

inscribed John

frieze

the

names

of

in gold letters—Cotton

Hancock,

Thomas

Benjamin

Bulfinch,

Ralph

prominent

Mather,

Franklin,

Waldo

Samuel

both

Emerson,

the ceil-

alumni

for

alumni,

Bernstein's name est

honor

Bernstein

that

the

school

are

Adams.

Charles

and

Santayana,

the list goes on. In May of 1996 during the Annual Celebration

Latin

hall for his senior classmates, they all sat

added

and

Spring Leonard

to the frieze, bestowing on him the highit could.

At

that

celebration,

said that his father had spoken

Alexander

“of Boston

Latin

always with a sort of awed reverence. On his father’s being the first in over esteemed

fifty years

to be added

to that list of most

alumni, he said that it “may very well be that there

is no honor on earth—you you—ol which

my

name

father would

it. Nobel

Prize. what-have-

have been more

proud.”

Sitting beneath the frieze with the returning alumni and faculty and witnessing the celebration were the class of “96, rich in its diversity, speaking eighteen different native languages in their homes, and representing between forty and fifty different countries of origin. They were the modern version of “the son of the governor and the son of the fisherman. Before the evening ended, the headmaster pointed out

to

them

that

Bernstein's name

high

up

beneath

there was still room

the

ceiling

on the frieze.

next

to

LENNY at

HARVARD

(REMINISCENCE) Harold

SHAPERO

SAMUEL

BERNSTEIN

JOIN

HIM

IN

HIS

EVENTUALLY

HOPED

BEAUTY

TAKE

IT

THAT

HIS SON

SUPPLY

OVER.

matic

bohemianism

success,

“How

did

Sam

in general.

came

| know

he

up with

was

dis-

seemed

ing music as a profession, worrying about

living” and

AND

remained

He

tressed during the years that Leonard

WOULD

BUSINESS,

to be choos-

“artists making a

After

Leonard's

his memorable

going

to

dra-

remark:

become

Leonard

Bernstein?>

The

Leonard

Bernstein

(1935-1939) was

| knew

during

not yet “Leonard

his Harvard

Bernstein.”

years

His ineredible

celebrity was to come a few years later, and his fame, which was to remain

constant

throughout

his life. has now

passed

into legend. His early years, including his college days, have been quite accurately documented in great detail by recent biographers. The following personal recollections may add a few incidents

to his early history.

I entered

Harvard

a junior

then, was

University

in 1937 as a freshman;

two years

ahead

of me.

enrolled in Music B, a class in 16th-century about

fifteen students,

Merritt.

Lenny was

as a pianist

who

had

in Massachusetts Administration). students.

since

taught

already

performed

could

he never

take

came 47

with

New

were

the WPA

Works

little notice to class.

both of

Arthur Tillman

in the Boston

Deal

Lenny,

counterpoint

by Professor

well-known

(Roosevelt's He

We

area

orchestras

Progress

of his fellow

At the end

of the

first semester, near Christmas, for his course thing he had

written

for dancer

Merritt, in his best Harvard “You

know

Leonard,

the piano, and

course

stunned,

eeous

outburst.

shouted,

and

necessary

Lenny “Well

Sokolow.

to

what

banged

we

are doing

his fist loudly on

| like it!” The

me

as

later

and conviction

for the

noisy

Professor

class was

of

myself giggling at this outra-

Inappropriate

Lenny’s confidence were

Anna

accent, drew himself up to say.

| found

it occurred

up to play a piece

it as a dissonant,

this is not exactly

in this class.” In response,

seemed,

he showed

credit. I remember

this that

behavior it

(right or wrong)

career that was

then

demonstrated

which

to follow.

I soon discovered that our families lived only a few houses apart in Newton, an upper-middle-class Boston suburb. During vacation | rang Lenny’s bell (his address was, prophetically, “Park Avenue’) hoping to get him to play catch and pepper (baseball) in his back yard. After throwing the ball around for a half hour, we sat down to discuss our ambitions. I (age seventeen) announced that | wanted to catch every girl in the world. Lenny (age nineteen) said he wanted everybody in the world to love him. He got much much further along in realizing his dream than | did. At Harvard Lenny carried on in typical undergraduate fashion, frequently staying up all night drinking beer with his friends, discussing heavy topics like God, Art, Polities, Sex. He took over at the piano at every party, entertaining everyone

for hours, playing everything from Chopin, Ernesto Lecuona’s Malaguefia, to jazz, pops, and (later) Copland’s Variations. He brimmed with youthful enthusi-

asm

as

he went

from

piece to piece, discovering

the great

moments in western music on a daily basis. One week he read a famous chapter in Aldous Huxley's novel, Point Counterpoint, in which the hero is prompted to religious

48

faith by hearing Beethoven's Quartet Op.132 (Heiliger Dankgesang). We got the old-fashioned records out of the library and played them all afternoon, until we began to get the message, and Lenny stopped complaining that the music

was

Around sent

boring.

this time, my (theory) teacher Nicholas

Aaron

Aaron your

Copland

wrote

Lenny

laurels!

There

neighborhood!”

the

first

early

a teasing may

\aron

showing

(Copland’s

an

posteard,

be

another

invited

of the

first Hollywood

Woodwind

both

MGM

uled

and

lot of glamorous

With

Copland’s

inner

circle

we

went

of us

premiere

to dinner

endorsement

| was

When

was

sched-

and all.

to enter

found

four-hand

and

With

Lenny’s

that

piano, we started, quite spontaneously, piano literature.

for

Men

he had writ-

play some

two

him

and

at the Ritz with a

able

Lenny

to

in your

to join

Of Mice

film people. searchlights

of friends.

of mine.

“Look

composer

picture, for which

score). The national

in Boston,

saying,

movie

ten a wonderful

Slonimsky

Trio

Lenny

I could

playing organiz-

ing everything, we were soon having fun playing recitals in the

Boston

Mozart

area.

Once

we

were

piece in F, so we decided

bored

playing

some

to flat all the dominants.

It sounded like crazy Grieg, but that particular audience know the difference. We were also invited to New York by a Jewish group that offered us rail fares and hotel rooms in exchange for a concert. We had given them a program that included pieces by Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Since neither of us had practiced anything, we decided that at the concert Lenny would improvise fake Prokofiev, and I would do fake Shostakovich. The reviewers found our performances impressive—especially didn't

fine in the Soviet

music.

49

Our most

important concert

of Boston's

gram

Institute

Concerto

took place at the inauguration

of Contemporary

included Hindemith’s

wrilten

and

new

Four-Hand

Art.

Our

for Two Solo Pianos, and a new Sonata for us to play. We

were

rewarded

by

| had just

had a great success

being

pro-

Sonata, Stravinskys

taken

to

that night,

Boston's

toniest

nightclub, escorted by a handsome young couple who were Institute famous

officers.

When

Hollywood

Lenny

actor Paul

he commandeered

noticed

Lukas

was

that

the

then

at the next

table.

the nightclub piano and seductively

formed Chopin's beautiful Nocturne

in F-sharp.

over to our table and was instantly added

per-

Lukas came

to Lenny’s circle

of admirers. After a few drinks Lenny began some rather wild smooching with the young wife who was our hostess. Though

| was shocked, the husband didn't seem to mind, It was the first time | observed Lenny's lifelong habit of temporarily insinuating himself into the emotional lives of married couples. the

He was

conjugal

Marital

relations

final opera,

and

became

fascinated the

the

with

matrimony,

male-female

“equation.”

substantive

content

of

his

A Quiet Place.

At this time I saw homosexuality, glamorous

endlessly

mystery,

very

One

little of Lenny’s later struggle with

month

we

even

Kiki Speyer, daughter

Orchestra's

English

horn

dated

the same

of the Boston

soloist.

Kiki

was

girl,

Symphony

chic,

lively,

clever, sexually seductive, and very desirable. (No feminists then!) She was

crazy

serious, stormy

relationship which

about

Lenny

and

they

began

a very

lasted for years, almost

ending in marriage. In Lenny’s various

final

ventures

mation. Professor

He

was

David

two

years

that

would

at

Harvard

prove

befriended Prall,

who

by gave

50

he was

involved

to be decisive

the an

subtle, important

in

in his for-

sensitive Harvard

course

in Aesthetics.

Lenny

also attended

group discussions (on all the Arts) at

like Robert

Motherwell

and

Harry

wrote an undergraduate

honors

of Race

Elements

into

American

subject

for

time

at

Harvard. tions

that

He was

to make

in the jazz

appear

in so

‘and

many

Prall’s

Levin were

present.

thesis on “The Music,

staid,

informal

which later luminaries

a

still

He

Absorption

rather

daring

somewhat

stuffy

good use of his thesis investiga-

Hispanic)

elements

which

were

to

of his pieces.

In 1937, he took on the unpaid job of “silent movie” pianist for the Harvard Film Society's screenings of old cinema classics. Accompanying a showing of Battleship Potemkin he improvised for over an hour, incorporating Stravinskys Petrouchka and an endless set of Russian folk tunes, and received a standing ovation from the 1000 students in attendance.

Under

very

mounted

difficult

(almost

political and

single-handedly)

financial

conditions,

a brilliant

he

performance

of The Cradle Will Rock, casting his sister Shirley in the role

of the

prostitute,

Blitzstein

Sanders which

in

the

Theatre

Lenny,

and

making

process.

a lifelong

The

opening

friend

of Mare

performance

at

sold out. surprisingly, with a good profit.

Mare. and

the cast practically

drank

up cele-

brating the night away. The Boston reviews were sensational, especially

for an

undergraduate

venture

which

was

totally

non-professional.

He invited Copland to come up to hear the incidental music he had composed

for the Harvard

mance of Aristophanes tacular, with lots of

Classical

Club's perfor-

The Birds. The costuming was spec-

yellow beaks and wings. Lenny’s highly

effective music featured jagged rhythms with plenty of enerey, and some occasional lyricism. 51

Again, the evening proved

to be an undergraduate triumph. Lenny conducted with such flair that Aaron quickly realized his young [riend was a born orchestral director. Copland arranged meetings with Koussevilzky, who immediately accepted Lenny for his conducting class in the Berkshire Music Center's inaugural year, 1940. | was also accepted at Tanglewood, in composition, to study with Paul Hindemith. By the luck of the draw, Lenny and I were assigned to a large dorm room with three others: room 57 in the Cranwell Jesuit school building. (Tanglewood did not have its own facilities in the first year.) Our roommates included Arthur Winograd (later conductor of the Hartford Symphony), Raphael Hillyer (ater violist of the Juilliard Quartet), and golden-toned clarinettist Nat Brusiloff. Tanglewood was teeming with talent: mostly young high-spirited students of prep school and college age.

There were pranks and horseplay at any hour of the day or night. We dragged a young soon-to-be-lamous composer

into a running shower with his clothes on because he was not washing often enough in the summer heat. Golden-tone Brusiloff was in awe of Lenny, and good-heartedly went along with a crazy sadistic game we had invented. We drew a chalk line on the floor around his bed, and he was forbidden to cross the line going to sleep or getting up in the morning

always cross

until

greeted

we gave him permission.

me

with

(in a Spanish

In later

years Lenny

accent)

“Bruzzilov

dee line!”

During practice hours the din throughout the dorm rooms was horrific. The Cranwell School had magnificent grounds, its own golf course, and beautiful red clay tennis courts, yet there was only one beat-up upright piano for the entire building, a piano on which we were supposed to compose, and on which Lenny was foreed to bang out the score of Rimsky's “Schéhérazade’, his first conducting assignment. Soon the important

night arrived when 52

Lenny

was to make

his official debut conducting the brilliant student orchestra. Lenny jumped all over the podium, acting out the entrances of every instrument.

It was a clear preview of his later per-

formances:

excitement,

cheers. We

all teased

eymbal

crash

with

highjinks

on

the

him unmercifully

both arms,

instead

stand,

and

loud

for acting out each of keeping his beat.

Koussevitzky was, however, duly impressed, adoringly took Bernstein was

under

his wing,

and

Lenny’s

conducting

career

launched.

Lenny

had

Tanglewood

graduated summer,

from found

Harvard, himself

and

severely

after

the

underem-

ployed. He moved to New York City, struggling to get a job. Most disappointing for him were the apprentice conductorships

Mitropoulos

He finally went

piano

which

had

been

half

promised

and Koussevitzky, and had come to work

in a jazz publishing house making

tunes. He sent me several angst-ridden postcards during this period. As usual, Lenny put his pedestrian job to good use. When he began writing his Broadway musicals he had learned and mastered Tin Pan Alley techniques from the bottom up, sheet music to score. Soon he would be able to put poverty behind him forever. In November of 1943 his great moment

arrangements

by

to nothing.

came:

of pop

substituting

for

Bruno

Walter

with

the

New York Philharmonic. He became famous overnight. with a celebrity which would only increase during the rest of his life. When interviewed, he told the media, “Now I can take a cab without worrying about it!”

it i

INP

ily

\

oi ailay mt

AW

nt

i)

h

slain wi

ee

We

CAMBRIDGE

} faeern

COMPOSING (tot.

a)

PHILOSOPHICAL Bernadette

IN

MID-APRIL,

BERNSTEIN

A.

1939,

MEYLER

COLLEGE

CONDUCTED

ARISTOPHANES

SATIRIC

SENIOR

\

COMEDY

THE

UNIVERSITY'S

SANDERS

primarily

by undergraduate

classics

Enacted

drawn

from

LEONARD

PRODUCTION

HARVARD

the assistance of other members cians

COMEDY

it was

AT

THEATRE.

majors,

of the university

the community.

OF

BIRDS

with

and musi-

rendered

in the

original Greek. Although the performance was staged in an ancient language inaccessible to many members of the audience,

any

Bernstein's

The Birds did not therefore

less of a translation.

Rather

than

being

represent

borne

exclu-

sively by words. the burden of translation—o! carrying meaning across the divide between the text and its recipients—was

borne

by aural

and

visual

elements

of the pro-

duction, The costumes, gestures, and, above all, the musical score

assumed

Aristophanes derived

from

eth-century

the

jokes.

formidable laden

fifth-century

political

Athens,

by the tradition

Aristotle's

Poetics music

double-entendres

accessible

of dramatic

acquired

to twenti-

elements

which

production

the

Bernstein

ever

Bernstein

on The

composed,

gestures accessi-

of Aristophanes’ conducted, 71

based

centrality.

of the play, both by enhanc-

ing the words and by rendering semantic 1939

criticism

hermeneutic

in particular,

significant

ble. The first

rendering

allusions, those facets considered

peripheral incidental

of

spectators. By articulating elements of the play

in terms of contemporary

conveyed

with BC

task

and

The Birds

in it the

was

student

already

emerged

as

the teacher

later

become.

Bernstein's

music

comprehensible

and

translator

capacity

to

he would

make

classical

been acclaimed, particularly in the context of the Young People’s Concerts, cultural

and it was antiquity

audience

would

instruction

taught

references

members

not a word

The

musical

Harvard

a

him to adapt

twentieth-century

Combining

Bernstein

and

pleasure

with

the conductor

also

singers—at

of Greek—both

\ristophanes’ text and how porary

that

find compelling.

for the audience,

knew

has often

this ability that enabled

to

orchestra

whom

to the uninitiated

least

how

one

of

to approach

to synthesize disparate contem-

influences.

Classical

Club

had

put on

Greek

and

Latin

dramas in the original languages since 1881, when its staging of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex proved so successful that

it was

briefly transplanted to New York.’ In 1938, members gathered to discuss the production of

when another words

play, they of one

horseplay

and

nobody

in

Although ered

in

decided

participant, thus

the

nearly

University

now

a comedy

compensate

audience

“allow

for

meetings

an emeritus

of California,

the

understood

all of Aristophanes’

preliminary

Davidson,

on

it would

on

because, fact

that

the

language.”*

works

play

have

influenced

My

me.

were

considDonald

professor of Philosophy

Berkeley,

interest

From

almost

selection,

recounts

eested The Birds because “it seemed...to knowledge of the history and personalities for its enjoyment.

in the

for entertaining

that

demand less of the period

as a philosopher

the start

we

at the

he sug-

had

playing it in a way that would point up modern

may

the

also

idea

of parallels.”°

Aristophanes’ play—a parodic examination of utopias in general, and of the plight of contemporary Athens—conveyed

a universal

perspective 72

that emerged

from

comedic

particulars.

The

Peisthetairos

play

and

opens

with

Euelpides,

two

in

a

Athenian

Beckettian

citizens. situation,

stymied in their search for Tereus, a former king who has been transformed into a hoopoe. Frustrated by the workings of the Athenian city. When ever,

he

state, they attempt

they inadvertently

informs

exist. From

them

that

birds

finds

herself.

when the

ean

imagine

does

not

governed

what

and

of by

travesties

characters

had sought

Peisthetairos

curtains

backdrop

and

marrying

of this allegorical

allegory,

the spire ascending

Memorial

purportedly

the main

birds

universality

like any

Indeed, reveal

envision

rapidly

into a dictator, celebrating his assumption

by sacrificing The

evident:

One

Athens

itself reinstated,

metamorphoses of power

they

a paradise

themselves.

ensue, as that very to escape

what

this point, it is a short step to the foundation

*Cloud-Cuckoo-Land,”

the

to find a superior

arrive at Tereus’ door, how-

it lends

opened

“Sovereignty” play

is readily

itself to specification.

in the middle of the play to

representing

“Cloud-Cuckoo-Land,

in the distance

Church. and Harvard

was

that

of Harvard's

Yard could be identified as

the fictive utopia.

Nor

did

the commissioned

historical drama.

score

fail to mediate

particulars and the universal Anticipating

the

Stravinsky was to convey the fall of 1939, Referring

ideas

between

significance of the

visiting

professor

Igor

in the Norton Lectures he gave in

Bernstein

to the theories

derived

unity

of the ancients,

from

multiplicity.

Stravinsky

con-

cluded his lectures by suggesting that he had, in the course of them,

“on different

question

that preoccupies

seen,

always and

occasions

inevitably

referred

to the essential

the musician...[which] reverts

back

we

have

to the pursuit

of

the One out of the Many.’ * How, then, did Bernstein assemble diverse

contemporary

references

giving way to unwieldy eclecticism? 73

in his score

without

Many

of the Classical Club’s prior performances

had ineclud-

ed incidental music. Since no ancient Greek accompaniments survive,

these

invention,

had

and

to be generated

could

assume

solely

whatever

through

form

musical

was

deemed

most appropriate to the particular production. Elliott Carter

had composed

the 1936 score for Plautus’ Mostellaria but, as

the music proved to be almost unplayably

difficult, it became

evident that another composer was required for The Birds. A friend

of

enjoyed

Donald

the

Department,” was

given

should

Davidson’s—Bernstein

reputation emerged

free

rein,

be rendered

of

“a rising

himself—who

star

in

the

Music

as a clear choice.

Although

the

Aristophanes’

decision

as a musical

that

had already

Bernstein play

been made

by

the time he was enlisted [see Boyd and Higbie]. \s Peter Arnott

has pointed out, “Adaptation

into a musical

has

greatest

contemporary

been

the

\merican

theatre.

accolade

of

Greek

works.

Several

the

both

tragedy

and

comedy, have enjoyed this variable distinction.”* Not only do even

the earliest such productions

however,

to which

Arnott

alludes,

postdate the 1939 production of The Birds, but, as

it happens, none of them was actually staged in Greek. Thus

Bernstein's uniquely

setting American

commencement

attacked Greek

of its history,

the even text

remarks

into

on

more an

television

while

challenging

American

the uniquely

the Omnibus

published

contributed to the development of a approach to Greek drama near the

idiom.

American

program

the

time

it

of converting

same

a

Bernstein's

own

genre of the musical

released

in

in 1954, and later

The Joy of Music, reveal the significance of rather than operatic setting. \sserting that ~..musical comedy belongs somewhere in that middle ground we spoke of between variety show and opera, ° Bernstein describes how musicals took up increasingly serious subjects during the 1930s, while still managing to retain

selecting

as

at

task

a

musical-comedy

74

their comedic relevant

structure.

As he writes.

to the serio-comic

If the Twenties our

musical

in a statement

oddly

tenor of Aristophanes’ Birds,

could be called the adolescence

comedy,

then

the

Thirties

of

certainly

represented its sober

young manhood. The tenor of

the

seriousness.

times

become

dictated

suddenly

government doesnt

and

mean

funny

and

more

adult, consciously

social

that

enough,

had

involved

with

This

musicals

entertaining:

in the direction

Appropriately

problems.

our

America

certainly

stopped

its only

being

that they veered

of social satire.

one

example

of this tendency

that

Bernstein provides is Mare Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock,

a musical same

Bernstein

season

had

conducted

at Harvard

as The Birds. “American

during

Musical Comedy,

the how-

ever, also raises the crucial problem of the 1939 production—

that of language. Within the unique manner what

he

terms

American which The

the

I mean

both

and

~..musical

jazz

could

Bernstein

‘vernacular.

English,

Birds

the lecture.

emphasized

in which musicals are structured around

of the

Because

not

employ

it was a

through

performed

linguistic

David Schiff, Bernstein

saw

universality, ? a judgment

in Stravinsky's that

use

of

in Greek,

vernacular,

Bernstein did incorporate jazz into the score.

of Oedipus Rex “not an alienation

their

vernacular—by but

According to

Latin rendition

effect but a gesture of

could

be

applied

to

the

Greek of The Birds as well.

During

the

Bernstein of Race

claim

spring

of

1939,

also completed Elements

that

developed

a

into

uniquely

while

composing

his senior thesis “The

American

American

by integrating jazz and 75

Music.

musical

The

Birds,

Absorption

In it he makes

idiom

the blues.

could

the

be

In writing the

score

for

theory,

The

Birds,

providing

Bernstein

jazzy

worked

tunes

for

to actualize

the

chorus

and

this

even

transforming Aristophanes’ “poet” into a “jazz poet, played by a non-Greek-speaking friend of his from Eliot House, Myron Simons. As Simons himself recoilects, “Lenny...asked me whether I'd like to sing the blues in Greek.

have

And

to

he promised

sing

Aristophanes’

disparate

in

own

patterns

for

to the score

piece,

heard

he

had

impressed,

the

a

he

purposes

this

of

member

parody,

composing

music

Tillman

Piston

the

instantly

unacknowl-

with the production,

Arthur

Walter

from

but added

perform;

Indian

Pleased

professors,

faculty

Shankar

transcribed

| would

cue

relerences, and his

as well. While

Uday

into the overture.

of Bernstein's fellow

the words

Taking

did not limit himself to jazz allusions,

other elements

edged

out

use of contemporary

speech

Bernstein

to write

phoneties..'°

Merritt,

to attend

one

invited

the second

night. Piston, however, had also attended Shankar's concert, and was consequently less impressed. An observer from the Christian Science Monitor astutely recorded other citations in the score,

writing that

Debussys

Faun

looked

in

at

Cambridge,

at the close of the

melody

the

in

members

theatrical Stravinsky's

and

French

style,

of the Harvard

fooling

of

came,

Theatre,

week and warbled by way

Classical

of helping

Club reeall the

Fifth-Century

Petrouchka

in he, too,

Sanders

heard

the

helmeted

Athens.

Faun’s

flute,

like a crow;

not

mute, this time, but talking Greek." Just as Aristophanes Hesiod,

audience auditory

poked

Bernstein

latehed

would

recognize,

fun at the styles of Homer onto

musical

employing

shorthand. 76

and

references

that

his

them

type

of

as

a

Rather

than

simply

also accepted production

follow

advice

more

his own

from

cast

inclinations,

members,

fully collaborative.

Bernstein

thus making

When

John

the

Bradshaw,

who played the part of the “Sycophant.” suggested that one of his songs be set to the Verdi aria “La Donna é Mobile,” Bernstein quickly acceded. of The Birds represented encounters his

later

would

with the teamwork endeavors.

For

conduct, Bernstein

Harvard

Indeed, the Harvard

one of Bernstein's

and

production

most

formative

that characterized

this.

the

recruited

the surrounding

first

orchestra

his musical

community,

many

of

that

he

friends from

many

of whom

would go on to professional careers, or to performing more of Bernstein's presented

own

the

compositions.

premiere

Clarinettist

of Bernstein's

David

Clarinet

Glazer

Sonata

1942, while violinist Raphael Hillyer subsequently

in

became a

founding member of the Juilliard Quartet, and ‘cellist Jesse Ehrlich joined the Los Angeles Symphony. Rehearsing the chorus in the Eliot House

tower room.

them

parts.

in music

Beatty

and

remarks,

their

“though

a

Bernstein educated

As cast

novice

member

conductor,

Richard

Leonard

knew what he wanted and was very efficient in getting it from his orchestra. There was only one dress rehearsal in -12

Sanders

Theatre.

The community audience,

too,

created did not end with the orchestra: the encompassed

acquaintances, among

Bernstein's

them Aaron

friends

and

Copland, Walter Piston,

and Paul Hindemith. In and among the spectators sat a mass of schoolchildren from the surrounding area, whose participation entertainment.

attested As one

to cast

the didactic member

aspect

remarked,

of this

first

“It is a pity

that the production of 1939 was never recorded. Bernstein subsequently did some very good things, but none ever surpassed

his Birds

in unity,

integrity,

appropriateness,

, fais and sheer delight. In its own right it was a true classic. PLTf

NOTES 1. Fiona Macintosh, “Tragedy in performance: nineteenthand twentieth-century productions,” in The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy ed. P.E. Easterling (Cambridge and New York, 1997), pp. 291-292. Incidentally, there was some discussion of introducing The

Birds

as

well

on

the

thought that this wou!d cast members’ studies. 2. Richard 3. Dona!d

Wing,

letter 21

Davidson,

4. Igor Stravinsky, 1942), p. 140. 5. Peter

Arnott,

ed. Michael 6. Leonard

New

August

letter

America,”

The

Joy

but

greatly

it was

with

the

1993.

of Music

(New York,

Bernstein,

stage,

too

23 August

Poetics

“North

Walton

York

interfere

1993.

(Cambridge,

in Living

1987),

MA,

Greek

Theater,

p. 376.

of Music

(New York,

1959),

p. 157.

7. Ibid, p. 170. 8. Ibid, p. 168. 9. David Monthly

Schiff, “Re-Hearing (June 1993) p. 76.

10. Myron

Simons,

letter

Bernstein,”

25 August

The

Atlantic

1993.

11. Winthrop Tryon, “Aristophanes at Harvard,” Christian Science Monitor (24 April 1939), p. 25.

12. Richard

Beatty,

13. Bernard

Shea,

letter 26 September letter

21 September

1993. 1993.

“NOT

SO

MUCH

NEW

DEAL

AS

OLD

HOWARD”

LEONARD

;

BERNSTEIN

and ARISTOPHANES’

Timothy

On

May 6, 8, and

College

staged

comedy

by scenes

to music Harvard This

for

the

the Classical

three

choral

Knowles

production

met

Club

The

Bc

Athenian

and

interested

Paine,

of Harvard

from

material

had

been

set

of music

composer great

a

spectators.

which

such

Birds,

playwright

a professor

American with

HIGBIE

at

of the peri-

success

that

a

wrote in the Records of the Classical Club:

press

comments

but

to reflect

privileged 2 in

scenes

College

included

BIRDS'

Carolyn

fifth-century

recommends ; often

last

and a well-known

seemed were

and

10, 1901.

by John

commentator The

BOYD

the

the

Aristophanes, These

od.

W.

THE

the

were

the

to see

most

flattering

sentiment

the Birds.

that similar attempts

and

of all who

The

Secretary

be made

more

4 2 future.

Staging elaborate ancient plays in their original languages was clearly not an urgent priority for the Classical Club in following years, but plays did appear in 1906 (Aeschylus Agamemnon), 1930 (Plautus’ Menaechmi), 1933 (Sophocles Philoctetes), and in 1986, Harvard's tricentennial (Plautus’ Mostellaria).* There was a kind of tradition,

the Classical

Club

met

and

then,

discussed 80

when, on

whether

12 April

1938,

to put ona

play in the following spring. This discussion continued over several meetings

dent

until a final choice was

newspaper,

announcement:

Aristophanes From

Harvard

“Classical

Club

to

in Original Greek”fon

this

Davidson, duction,

to

who

be

played

remembers

musical comedy Bernstein

was

a

comedy

carried

Present

in May

it, “the decision How

1938, the Club

music.

As

to treat

Donald

in this prothe play as a

music was taken before

the selection

dispute

of

1938.

Peisthetairos,

with contemporary

the

‘Birds’

27 October

with

the lead,

involved.”>

made and the stu-

Crimson,

the time of the original choice

intended

was

the

is in some

Lawrence

Leighton,

Department

of the Classics, and a co-director of the produc-

who

among

was

tion, was a friend of Leonard

through

him

that

footsteps of John Donald

Davidson

was

informants,

an _ Instructor

Bernstein

Bernstein Knowles

our

of composer

made

in

but

the

and perhaps it was

chosen

to

follow

in the

Paine.

describes

Bernstein's

commission

from

the Classical Club as follows:

He had a free hand

in composing

the music except

in one matter: since we had decided

to sing all the

choruses, everything that was sung in Aristophanes’ day, someone

the scansion

for Bernstein,

muUSiC:

WAS

: JaZZ,

yerse.

twenty-one

that

comedies,

songs, are entirely

had

out

he of course respected. In whatever sense the

Aristophanes’ cated

wrote

which

ras was

Bernstein's Bernsteins

their

in verse, means

that

actors

and

thirteen

Thus, those who

dialogue,

solo

and sometimes

This

to speak Greek,

choi 6 choice.

those

and

rather compli-

in the cast

chorus

but to speak—and

choral

members)

(ultimately not

sing—Greek

only

verse.

tried out for the play had to go through 81

two auditions. In the first, supervised by the two directors, Lawrence Leighton and Charles Murphy, the hopeful would be asked to read from an English translation for various parts. Then, those trying out for roles with singing parts would be asked to present themselves ¢ before

the

There

were,

composer.

however,

Li

exceptions.

Donald

Davidson

was

is assigned the leading role of Peisthetairos because he had been one of the main agitators for The Birds. When the Club voted to put on the play, it was suggested that Davidson should begin study of the 600 lines of Greek verse which made up Peisthetairos’ part! Since Davidson was already in the Glee Club, it should be assumed that his musical audition was pro forma, at best.* John Bradshaw remembers that he was asked to read before Leighton and Murphy, who agreed that he “sounded like a syeophant’— and that was the role he played.’ There also appear to have been a few members of the chorus who may, like Richard Wincor, never have auditioned at all. As he remarked in a letter, “] was a Classical Club member and got dragooned

.

:

;

into [being in] the chorus. Once

the

cast

was

:

selected,

Bernstein

set

to work

on

the

score and rehearsals began. This was to prove a complicated business.

At the same

time

that he was

working on

The

Birds, Bernstein was also writing his senior thesis. So busy was

he that Curtis

up some

Bennett

(Basileia) was once

sent

part of the score only to find Bernstein

pajamas at noon, : sk script materials.

propped

up in a bed

covered

to pick

still in his

in manu-

The other complicating factor was that rehearsals had to be of various kinds—for principals, chorus, and orchestra individually before all were brought together. The principals 82

appear to have drilled themselves, for the most

part, but the chorus had numbers of rehearsals.’? Although the majority of orchestra members were Harvard students, they were the most

“professional” part of the production and probably

had the fewest rehearsals. fact,

A small number of the players, in

were actual professionals

or pre-professionals,

like as

Raphael Hillyer (then Silverman) (first violin), David Glazer (clarinet),

and

friends from Beatty

Olivia

(percussion

Olivia

to

come

because

around,

house

(harp),

musical

who

were

community.

Bernstein's

Of Hall, R. R.

and copyist) recalls:

couldn't

dress one, harp

Hall

the Boston

to rehearsals

she had no way

Leonard

give

her

used

private

to

until the final of moving

go

over

instruction

in

to

her her

what

I

believe was then called ‘boogie-woogie bass’...' Bernstein

rehearsed

the chorus

himself, with

the very

able

assistance of Frederick Peachy, a graduate student in the Department of the Classics, who acted as chorus leader and choreographed its movements. One chorus member, John Ordway.

he

describes

began

Bernstein's

method

of rehearsal:

to outline the type of music wed

singing in the chorus

and

then started

be

us in with

the music and began to draw music out of us. This is the point

| wanted

able to draw

music out of us and teach us to read

to make

most

of all: he was

music, simple music, but nevertheless : pe ae ia

read music

Samuel Goddard

teach us to

and sing it...

adds this detail about Bernstein's rehearsal

method: “Bernstein rehearsed us by the ‘seal method —throw

. : , 4 015 them fish again and again until they get it.

83

The choreography was, perforce, simple, since Peachy was working with Harvard undergraduates, not a corps de ballet. His surviving notes, however, show that, as in the staging of a

musical or operetta, careful attention was

paid to the move-

ments

only as a group

that

must

interact

but also as a group

that

must

interact

with

of the chorus,

the principals,

not

with itself. His drill was so successful, the second

night, one

member

slightly under the weather either side were

in fact, that when, on

of that

chorus

showed

up

from drink, his chorus mates on

able to walk

him through

: : 16 his stagger being noticeable!

the part without

Although the exact dates are not known, at some point before the actual

performance,

the actors,

chorus,

and

orchestra

were brought together."” The dress rehearsal (which was open to

the

public)

was

held

on

Thursday,

20

April

1939,

in

Sanders Theatre. It was ragged (some of the masks for the various characters were not yet available) but clearly went off

well enough that, the next night, Friday, 21 April 1939, Aristophanes’ The Birds, with music by Leonard Bernstein, , eg : 1 had the first of its two evening performances at Harvard. 4 From

reviews, a scattering of photographs. and the testimo-

ny of surviving performers, we can reconstruct the look and

feel of those performances

1, v, vu, ix, xt, Pages

notice

(October

pared its audience

They

are

79, 92).

1938),

for what

determined

hearty comedy

In the

the Classical

something of

[sce Tite page, PLATES

earliest

Club

pre-production

had already

to expect:

that

their

production

of this

will not be an exotic and incompre-

hensible trick, and great attention is being paid to the staging, masks, costumes and various bits of “business’ which will make the play understandable and enjoyable to those who don’t know the language.'® 84

pre-

And, closer to the time of the actual

production,

this note

was added:

: The music has been written especially duction been

by Leonard

made

Bernstein,

to approximate,

kind of musie that would formance both

to serve

: provide

When

of our the

humor

the audience in Athens.

something

Instead the musi-

have

been

employed

of Aristophanes : ; in their own

and

to

; 20 right.

As the play progressed, however, and Athens to the new the audience

different

(Manes—a

When

the

a per-

took their seats, the first thing visible

“Cloud-Cuckoo-Land. Nardin

to suggest,

have been the backdrop, which depicted the

the scene changed from was

Athens. day

: Ris a point of interest

to them would Parthenon

own

or even

have accompanied

in fifth-century

val idioms

for the pro-

‘39... No effort has

about

this

city of the birds,

would

learn

backdrop,

that there as

James

slave) tells us:

Peisthetairos,

his accompanying

I, his slave, arrived

finally

at the end,

friend and the back-

drop rolled like a long and weighted roller towel. and

what

the clouds

came

was

into

view

as one

a somewhat

saw

the city

from

stylized, but identili-

able view of Harvard Yard as the perfect city, good for a delighted laugh at the end of the play."

\fter echoes

the overture of the music

(which

recognized

as containing

played at performances

some

of the dancer

Uday Shankar, who had recently appeared in Boston), the play began.” The principals wore simple costumes (tunics and robes) and much more elaborate masks. Several of the surviving performers have commented that, though cumbersome, these masks proved a great advantage since stage 85

fright caused them to muff their lines and no one could them through the masks anyway!™ 23 Footwear (very obvious in some of the photographs taken at the time) conhear;

sisted of tennis shoes dyed brown

The

chorus,

when

it appeared,

face paint. Photographs

or black.

were

dressed

in tunics

of the production show

and

that some

chorus members

wore feathers in their headbands [see erate vu]. This. combined with the look of certain of the masks, sug-

gested to some of the audience, to at least one reviewer (from the New York

duction

Times), as well as to the author of a pre-pro-

article in the Boston

was an intended Native

Evening

Transcript, that there

American east to the costuming. This

; aoe has been denied by several of the surviving

cast members.

\lthough all the dialogue and choruses which

24

followed the

overture were in classical Greek, the action, as surviving teslimony

suggests, must have been on a less elevated plain. Bernard Shea (Messenger) gives us a clue to the general tone:

People certainly enjoyed the performances, and, being accustomed to attending the Friday midnight shows at the Old Howard, they were well aware of what was going on and laughed at all the right places.”

The Old Howard (now long torn down) was, for many years, Boston's premier burlesque house. Its influence, then, would account not only for many of the ar tics on stage, bul also for the color of the music and its performance as well. On their first entrance, the Chorus, for example, shouted “Ornithes!” (Birds!"), looked up, and pretended to be immediately splattered with bird droppings.?? When Iris, the messenger of the gods, arrived much later in the play, she appeared on roller skates.”

27

a

There were allusions to opera— 86

John

Bradshaw

tune of

ye

(Sycophant)

is

x

“La Donna

as Myron Simons,

:

sang

4

~ 28

¢ Mobile” who

his opening

lines to the y

and to more

popular forms,

played the Poet, remembered:

| came trucking in, did a small amount of pecking, and went into a Suzie-cue lsicl while singing. (All three were popular dances at the Savoy ballroom and other such jazz places.)...1 was supposed to sing it down and dirty with a slight Armstrong tes | 29 QI Owl.

In one

of the rehearsals,

down!”

and

performers

this was

Bernstein

clearly

had

and for the audience,

and

to New

the majority reviving

an

right

Crimson

ancient

comedy,

formula,

commented:

even

but the academic

of the performers

was

the

York.

as

“Do

made

for

talk of moving commitments

this impossible.*!

the Classical

the

it low

both

led to the huge suc-

cess of the performances.” There was the show

urged.

the key to the show,

reviewer

~...it's impossible

Club

for

of For

approach

the

to describe,

Harvard but the

nearest thing to it is Barnum and Bailey at their best, minus the elephants.”

As

for

the

music,

Monitor summed

the

reviewer

for

The

Christian

Science

up the general reaction by saying:

Leonard Bernstein, thanks to Russian opera models, could design a practical type of music, starting with a small group of male voices and completing matters with a chamber orchestra of strings, wood, percussion, and harp. The illusion of the antique? He must get that the way Gluck and es : a Pe re 33

Offenbach Plaudits,

do, by dint of imagination.

then, for Mr. Bernstein

for the same

as conductor.

87

as composer:

and

plaudits

NOTES

1. We

thank

Samuel

P. Goddard,

Harvard

’41, who

played the Hoopoe in the 1939 production for this quotation, as well as for our initial inspiration to collect and preserve the surviving testimony, both documentary and oral, for this production. Aside from the records of the Classical Club and certain pre-production articles and reviews preserved in the Harvard Coliege Archives and Harvard Theatre Archives, the majority of the testimony consists of letters written to the authors and of interviews with cast and orchestra members recorded by the authors. We are extremely grateful to all those who shared memories and memorabilia with us. Our research assistant, Bernadette Meyler. aided us in every part of the process, from designing the questionnaire we used to transcribing the interviews. The “New Deal” in our title comes from a suggestion in various printed sources of the time that the production was intended to spoof certain aspects of Rooseveit’s economic policies of the 1930s. This suggestion has not been met with favor by surviving cast members. 2. Records

of the Classical Club of Harvard

Coilege,

vol. | (1885-1902), p. 185. Coincidentally, the Harvard Glee Club performed the choruses on its 1939 Spring Trip, 1-10 April, just before the production of the complete play with Bernstein music (John C. Welis, letter 30 September 1993). 1939 would have

marked

the centennial

3. This Alumni

of Paine’s

listing of plays

birth,

is derived

Bulletin, vol. 41, no. 23 (24 March

6 January

from

the

1839.

Harvard

1939), p. 746. The

first

such play given at Harvard had been Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus, in 1881, with a subsequent performance of Terence’s Phormio in 1894. 4. The discussion of play choice may be followed in Secretary’s Records, Harvard Classical Ciub, 1936-1948 under the dates 12 April, 3 May, and 18 May 1938. The title and quotation are from the Harvard Crimson, vol. 109, no. 30 (27 October 1938), p. 4. 5. Donald H. Davidson, letter 23 August 1993. 6. Ibid. From certain passages of the music, it is possible to identify the text used as that of Benjamin Bickley Rodgers, in the Loeb Classical Library 2d., 1924. 7. Samuel P. Goddard remembers trying out by giving a reading, then being passed on to sing for Bernstein. Samuel P. Goddard, interview. 8. Donald H. Davidson, letter 23 August 1993. 600 lines was approximately one-third of the play. All surviving

members of the cast as well as a number of the reviews testify to his mastery of the role. 9. John Bradshaw, letter 20 August 1993. 10. Richard

Wincor,

88

letter 23 August

1993. This was

also true for Benjamin M. Hazard, whose freshman advisor was Lawrence Leighton and who was simply to/d that he would be in the Chorus. Benjamin M. Hazard, letter 31 August 1993. 11. Curtis

Bennett,

letter

1 December

1993.

12. Donald H. Davidson recalls that, “| remember going over it only a few times with Bernstein...” letter 23 August 1993. 13. R. R. Beatty, letter 26 September 1993. 14. John A. Ordway, interview fall 1993. 15. Samuel P. Goddard, interview. 16. Benjamin M. Hazard, letter 31 August 1993. 17. Donald H. Davidson (Peisthetairos), letter 23 August 1993: “I would guess we had no more than two or three rehearsals

with the chorus, orchestra, and so forth...” 18. R. R. Beatty, letter 26 September 1993: “There was only one dress rehearsal, in Sanders Theatre. Not all of the masks were then ready, and | remember that the Hoopoe had to

wear tra.”

Prokne’s 19.

mask, to the general The

Harvard

amusement

Crimson,

vol.

of the orches-

109,

no.

1938), p. 4. 20. From a long preview in the Harvard Bulletin, vol. 41, no. 23 (24 March 1939), pp. 744-746.

30

(27

October

21. James

T. Nardin,

letter 23 August

Alumni

1993.

22. See the letters of R. R. Beatty, 26 September 1993 and Frederic Peachy, 1 September 1993. 23. Christopher G. Petrow, letter 31 August 1993; Richard L. Wing, letter 21 August 1993. 24.

“Red

Man’s

Aristophanes

See

Chris

Dress

and

at Harvard,”

G.

Petrow,

Blues-Jazz Boston

leter

31

Tunes

Evening

August

Mark

1993;

‘Birds’

Transcript

vol.

cf.

of 110,

no. 98 (15 April 1939), pp. 1-2. The article also implies that the Native American theme sprang from the necessities of creation on a low budget. See also “Play Given All in Greek at Harvard,” The New York Times vol. 88, no. 29 (23 April 1939), p. iii, 3:3. 25. Bernard D. Shea, letter 21 September 1993. 26. Richard Wincor, letter 23 August 1993. 27. Samuel

P. Goddard,

interview.

28. John Bradshaw, letter 20 August 1993. 29. Myron Simons, letter 25 August 1993. 30. Samuel

P. Goddard,

interview.

31. Ibid. 32. Harvard Crimson, vol. 109, no. 137 (22 April 1939) 2 (signed “The Playgoer”). 33. The Christian Science Monitor vol. 31, no. 126

(24 April 1939), p. 11.

89

CONTRIBUTORS TimotHyW. Boypd HELLENIC

STUDIES

ON THE TRANSMISSION BUREAU

RON PROGRAM,

OF THE

DC,

HOMERIC

FELLOW WHERE

WAS

DIRECTS FUNDED

THE

AT THE HE

CENTER

IS WRITING

STUDIO

IN NEW

INTERDISCIPLINARY

BY THE

NEA

AND

YORK.

CONNECTIONS

DEVELOPED

IN COL-

LABORATION WITH THE MuSeEuM OF FINE ARTS AND THE STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, AT BOSTON LATIN SCHOOL. CAROLYN HIGBIE IS AN CLASSICS AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY. HOMER AND IS WORKING ON A STUDY THEIR PAST.

FOR

A BOOK

TEXT.

IS A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY

GWIAZDA

WHICH

IS A JUNIOR

IN WASHINGTON

ISABELLA

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF THE SHE HAS WRITTEN TWO BOOKS ON OF THE GREEK UNDERSTANDING OF

BERNADETTE MEYLER iS A GRADUATE STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE, WHERE SHE 1S WORKING TOWARD A PH.D. IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. VIVIAN

music.

SHE

PERLIS

IS A HISTORIAN

1S DIRECTOR

OF

SHAPERO

HISTORY,

2OTH-CENTURY

(HARVARD

AMERICAN

AMERICAN

AT YALE UNIVERSITY, AND 1S KNOWN FOR HER PUBLICATIONS AND PRODUCTIONS ON MANY COMPOSERS, AMONG THEM CAGE, COPLAND, AND IVES.

HAROLD

OF ORAL

MUSIC

’41) IS A COMPOSER

AND

PRO-

FESSOR EMERITUS OF Music, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY. HIS MUSIC HAS BEEN PERFORMED THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE; HIS BEST KNOWN WORK IS SYMPHONY FOR CLASSICAL ORCHESTRA (1947). JONATHAN SHEFFER IS A COMPOSER AND DIRECTOR OF THE EOS ORCHESTRA.

CONDUCTOR

AND

THE ARTISTIC

CLAUDIA HisTORY

AT

SWAN

iS

NORTHWESTERN

MEMBER OF THE SCHOOL ADVANCED STubDy.

AN

ASSISTANT

UNIVERSITY

OF HISTORICAL

STUDIES

DaviD WRIGHT, AN INDEPENDENT PROGRAM

ANNOTATOR

1995, AND COMPOSERS

OF THE NEW YORK

IS NOW PROGRAM ORCHESTRA.

OF

IN

1998-1999,

AT THE

INSTITUTE

MUSIC JOURNALIST, PHILHARMONIC

ANNOTATOR

90

PROFESSOR

AND,

OF

FROM THE

ART aA

FOR

WAS THE 1993 TO AMERICAN

CREDITS IMAGES: Leonard Bernstein, © Ruth Orkin; (TITLE PAGE) Peisthetairos (Donald Davidson ‘39) and Oracle-Monger (C.D.B. Howell, ‘41) in The Birds, 1939 Harvard Classical Club, Courtesy of Carolyn Higbie; Harvard University, © H. Armstrong Roberts; Leonard Bernstein ca. 1939, Photographer Unidentified, Courtesy of the Library of Congress; Leonard Bernstein at Harvard graduation, 1939, by William Filene’s & Sons Company, Boston, Courtesy of the Library of Congress; Four students of Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1926 (Virgil Thomson, Ellwell, Walter Piston, and Aaron Copland), © CORBIS/Bettmann; Leonard Bernstein conducting the Camp Onota Rhythm Band, 1937, © The Berkshire Eagle; Leonard Bernstein and Serge Koussevitzky at Tanglewood, © Ruth Orkin; Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, Music Division, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York Public Library; PLATE 1 Triballos (H.G. Hageman, ‘42), Poseidon (C.G. Petrow, ‘41), and Herakles (F.S. Armstrong, ‘39) in The Birds 1939 Harvard Classical Club, Courtesy of Carolyn Higbie; PLATE tt! Marc Blitzstein and Leonard Bernstein on the lawn at Tanglewood, © Ruth Orkin; PLate tt Dimitri Mitropolous, Music Division, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York Public Library; PLATE 1v Great Grey Owl, © H. Armstrong Roberts; PLATE v Triballos in The Birds 1939 Harvard Classical Club, Courtesy of Carolyn Higbie; PLATE

vi

Leonard

Bernstein

and

others

on

the

lawn

at Tanglewood,

© Ruth

Orkin; PLATE vit Iris (U.K. McCormick ‘39) in The Birds 1939 Harvard Classical Club, Courtesy of Carolyn Higbie; PLATE vitt Leonard Bernstein, undated, © CORBIS/Bettmann; PLATE 1x Hoopoe (Samuel Goddard, ‘41) in The Birds 1939 Harvard Classical Club, Courtesy of Carolyn Higbie; PLATE xX Leonard Bernstein, © Ruth Orkin; PLATE x1 Principal characters in The Birds, from Life May 29, 1939, General Research Division, The New York Public

Greece,

Library,

Astor,

Lenox

© H. Armstrong

and

Roberts;

Tilden

Member

Foundations;

of the

Chorus

PLATE

in

The

x1!

Athens,

Birds

1939

Harvard Classical Club, Courtesy of Carolyn Higbie; Prokne (N.R. Landon, ‘42) in The Birds 1939 Harvard Classical Club, Courtesy of Carolyn Higbie. PHOTO RESEARCH BY D. EDGAR HEESON TEXTS: “An Interview with Vivian Perlis” and “Dear Helen...” © 1998 Estate of Leonard Bernstein. Used by permission of Amberson, Inc.; “Boston Carries On” reprinted with permission of K-II| Directory Corp.; “Music” reprinted with permission of the Harvard Advocate.

91

Rice Res. Neinitis ¥