Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein is widely known not only as one of the greatest American conductors, but also as a composer whose creativity and passion was spread over a wide range. His social and cultural influences helped shape his career into a musical icon and his music rekindled the American spirit. Above all, he will be remembered as one of the most amazing and influential musical personalities of the twentieth century.
In the following paper I will be exploring the beginning of Leonard Bernstein's career and his family background. I will also look into the influences he had in his life and look at two pieces that he composed, "Jeremiah Symphony No. 1", and "Candide". My reasons for choosing these two pieces is due to the fact that they are contrasting in genre, one being a symphony with orchestration and the other being an operetta, and that they were written at different stages in Bernstein's life. They both produced a number of responses and displayed his wide range of musical ability.
Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. Leonard's father, Samuel immigrated to America in 1908 at the age of sixteen from the Russian province of Volhynia where he came from a long line of rabbis. (Gradenwitz 1987: 20)
Samuel worked for his uncle in a barber's shop and quickly picked up the trade. He soon found himself accepting a job in Boston and starting his own company called the Samuel Bernstein Hair Company. Soon after he married Jennie Resnick in 1917, also of Jewish descent. She had lived in America since the age of seven and her family lived in Lawrence. The couple moved back to Boston after marriage but soon returned to Lawrence i...
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Leonard Bernstein, "Jeremiah (Symphony No. 1)", New York Philharmonic
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Johannes Brahms was a German Composer, Pianist and conductor of the 19th century or the Romantic period. He was one of the 3 B's or the Big three: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Johannes was a very self-critic man he burned many of his pieces before he could get anyone's opinion on them and he burned all of his compositions that he wrote before the age of 19.
Johannes Brahms, a striking individual of unmistakable character, is defined by his compositions as meticulous and enlightened. His comprehensive grasp on classical and baroque form, with his familiarity of counterpoint and musical development, allowed him to effortlessly traverse and cultivate upon the musical architecture laid out by the likes of Bach and Beethoven. Born in Hamburg in 1833, he was the son of Johann Jacob Brahms, who travelled from North Germany, in which the family name “Brahms(t)” propagated (Musgrave 4). His father being a musician by profession instigated Brahms into his own domain of music. With Brahms’ first instruments being the violin, cello and the natural horn (predecessor of the French horn), it was discovered that the genius possessed absolute pitch and had also developed a system of notation on his own even before formal introductions into music (Musgrave 9). His astonishing understanding of musical rudiments was further cemented at age seven by his first teacher Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel, with piano literature ranging from Bach to Schubert to Clementi (Musgrave 10). The young gifted talent quickly matured, with his compositions being sedulously characterized in craft similar to the seasoned taste of aged liquor. Following in the wake of Beethoven, his style of romanticism seemed restrained, and viewed as being confined to classical forms. With his preference towards absolute music, his works demonstrated “as [Ian] McEwan/ [Clive] Linley would have it, at the intersection of emotion and reason” and of “powerful intellect and of passionate expressivity” (Platt and Smith 4). However, being the headstrong romantic that he is, he manipulated the limiting factor into an area of expanse, in which he...
These excerpts also supply an understanding of the diversity of Garner's compositions. Many composers develop and maintain a particular conceptual style that is evident throughout all their piec...
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Richard Strauss was known for being able to portray incredible stories with his music incredibly well. Every part of his writing is so descriptive that even Strauss said that he could “describe a soup spoon” in his music. Program music became so popular and still is for just that reason; a master composer like Strauss can tell any story in a musical format that people enjoy.
Beethoven is viewed as a transitional figure between the classical and romantic eras and from 1800 to 1809 he write some of the most revolutionary compositions in the history of western music. This essay therefore will aim to discuss the numerous ways in which Ludwig Van Beethoven expanded the formal and expressive content of the high classical style he inherited.
Berg, Darrell M. "Beethoven, Ludwig Van." The World Book Encyclopedia 1996. Vol. 2. Chicago, IL: World Book, 1996. 213-14. Print.
Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25, 1918. Bernstein's birth name was Louis, but his family always called him Leonard. At the age of 16 he legal changed his name to Leonard. Leonard grew up understanding that being a musician or artist was off limits. Leonard began playing piano at the age of 10. He had to save up his own money to pay for lessons, because his father refused to. Leonard, being a natural at the piano, impressed hi father enough that when his bar mitzvah came his father bought him a baby grand piano.
September 4th, 1913; one of the world’s greatest crime bosses was born. Meyer Harris Cohen grew up in Brooklyn, New York with his widowed mother and five older siblings. His Russian immigrant, God-fearing mother ran a grocery store when they moved to the ruthless Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, while his brothers dealt drugs. For years he had little supervision and even less money. At an
Classical music can be best summed by Mr. Dan Romano who said, “Music is the hardest kind of art. It doesn't hang up on a wall and wait to be stared at and enjoyed by passersby. It's communication. Its hours and hours being put into a work of art that may only last, in reality, for a few moments...but if done well and truly appreciated, it lasts in our hearts forever. That's art, speaking with your heart to the hearts of others.” Starting at a young age Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven have done just that with their musical compositions. Both musical composers changed the world of music and captivated the hearts of many. Their love of composing shared many similar traits, though their musical styles were much different.
Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania on February 3rd, 1874. She was the the youngest out of five children. Her family was considered to be a upperclass German-Jewish-American family. Her father, Daniel Stein, was a wealthy Businessman with real estate holding and was the director of San Francisco's street car lines, the Market Street Railway. Her mothers name was Amelia Stein. German and English were the the two
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This is the second volume of Richard Taruskin's historical work, and it highlights composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He examines the progression of different styles and eras of music.
In conclusion, arguably the greatest influence on American music in the 20th century was George Gershwin. Gershwin’s music was composed of both popular and classical musical genres. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular refrains are extensively known. Gershwin’s compositions have been used and heard in many movies, plays including Broadway, and fit for television. George Gershwin today remains one of the greatest and most influential musical composers and pianists of all time. Gershwin is still celebrated by many aspiring music artists and composers. He was able to innovate music and make into his own. Although he died at a young age he still had the biggest impact on American music in the 20th century. Thanks to Gershwin innovating music genres he has made room for more and more artists to thrive today.