#music by leonard bernstein

[danbenzvi]

On The Jukebox: "Maestro: Music By Leonard Bernstein"

All music composed by Leonard Bernstein and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Bradley Cooper and the cast of "Maestro".

[davidhudson]

Leonard Bernstein, August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990.

[chantssecrets]

A color photograph depicting James Baldwin standing with his arm around the shoulders of his brother, David Baldwin, and American musical conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. Both James Baldwin and Bernstein are wearing the Legion of Honor medals that they had just received. Paris, June 19, 1986.

[jihef03]

Boris Karloff's Captain Hook my beloved

[exhausted-think-bucket]

The Beatles and Leonard Bernstein

Daddy loved the Beatles, too, which made me particularly happy. In the swimming pool the following summer, he came up with a third part to “Love Me Do,” so that he, Alexander, and I could sing the song together in three-part harmony, right there in the corner of the deep end. On one of his Young People’s Concerts, Daddy explained the A-B-A structure of sonata form by singing a Beatles song. Oh, how the girls in the audience squirmed and squealed as he accompanied himself on piano, singing “And I Love Her” in his not-so-McCartneyesque voice! He must have known he was onto something, because he began regularly incorporating the Beatles, and other pop music, in his Young People’s Concerts, to illustrate his various points. It kept the kids in the audience interested, just as it had for Alexander and me. (We, and later Nina, were in effect the ongoing guinea pigs for Daddy’s Young People’s Concert ideas.) John Lennon was Daddy’s favorite Beatle, as he was mine. We were both enchanted by Lennon’s book of poetry, “In His Own Write,” and pored over it together. Daddy invented a singing game for Alexander and me to play with him while the three of us lay wedged into the hammock under the big maple tree after dinner. We would invent a round, à la “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” using Lennon’s poem “The Moldy Moldy Man.” Whoever started the round got to choose what kind of melody it would be: sad, perky, waltz, military. After the first line — “I’m a moldy moldy man…” — the second person had to come in, echoing person number one. Then the third person would come in. The fun of the game was, of course, that you couldn’t possibly repeat the line you’d just heard while simultaneously listening for the next one. It was deliciously hopeless, and a raucous shambles every time — always punctuated at the end by person number three dolefully singing the last line all alone after the other two had finished: “… I’m such a humble Joe.” Eventually, word got back to John Lennon — or to his manager or press agent or somebody — that Leonard Bernstein was thinking about possibly setting some of the “In His Own Write” poems to music. This led to Daddy being invited to meet Lennon backstage during a dress rehearsal for “The Ed Sullivan Show.” It was by now the summer of 1965, and the Beatles were returning to the U.S. to make their highly anticipated second Ed Sullivan appearance. Naturally, our father asked if he could bring his two older children with him to the rehearsal.

- "Famous Father Girl", Jamie Bernstein - 2018

Here is Leonard Bernstein being enchanted by The Beatles, in Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, 1967.

Even though his viewpoint is understandably informed (and thus imo limited) by his classical background, he appreciated pop music a lot more than others his age at the time did.

I love everything about this, but honestly, to hear my favorite 20th century composer comparing Paul McCartney to Schumann is just...wild.

[sixty-silver-wishes]

hi classical music tumblr. it has come to my attention that not enough of you are aware of the fact that leonard bernstein wrote poetry. specifically a poem called “life is juicy.” from 1947. and it’s. it’s really one of the poems ever

[blackswaneuroparedux]

undefined

I think that if I were required to spend the rest of my life on a desert island, and to listen to or play the music of any one composer during all that time, that composer would almost certainly be Bach.

- Glenn Gould

Glenn Gould plays Bach's Keyboard Concerto in D Minor. In 1960.

Glenn Gould made his television debut on CBS's Ford Presents "The Creative Performer" with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.

[gouldblogger]

LEONARD BERNSTEIN conducting BEETHOVEN's Fifth Symphony for the TV show 'Omnibus', 1954, taken by ALFRED EISENSTAEDT

Note on context:

In a national television broadcast, Leonard Bernstein examined discarded sketches that Beethoven intended to use in the Fifth Symphony and put them back into the symphony. The conductor commented:

"We have here painted on the floor a reproduction of the first page of the conductor’s score for Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Every time I look at this orchestral score, I am amazed all over again at its simplicity, strength and rightness. And how economical the music is! Why almost every bar of this first movement is a direct development of these opening four notes. And what are these notes that they should be so pregnant and meaningful that a whole symphonic movement can be born of them? Three G’s and an E-flat. Anyone could have thought of them – maybe."

[pureanonofficial]

Leave anyone else you love in the tags! This list is specifically for composers who are not composer-lyricists!

[doyouknowthismusical]

[davidhudson]

Leonard Bernstein, August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990.

1947.

[ethanfreemanappreciation]

Ethan in Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" (Kennedy Center, Washington, 1981)

[empirearchives]

Leonard Bernstein’s face on Beethoven’s face on Napoleon’s face