Time Marches On

2019 ◽  
pp. 221-254
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Crist
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Critical Reception ◽  
Leonard Bernstein ◽  
The Real ◽  
New York Philharmonic ◽  
Time Out ◽  
Time Changes

This chapter first picks up and develops three strands in Dave Brubeck’s biography, which were introduced in the opening chapters of the book: the Quartet’s work with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, Brubeck’s involvement in issues of civil rights, and Dave and Iola Brubeck’s efforts to bring The Real Ambassadors to fruition. The balance of the chapter considers the early critical reception of Time Out, sketches the outlines of its four sequels (Time Further Out, Countdown: Time in Outer Space, Time Changes, and Time In), and examines the circumstances surrounding the dissolution of the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1967.

The Frustrated Activist

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Abrams Ansari
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Musical Theater ◽  
New Left ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Leonard Bernstein ◽  
New York Philharmonic ◽  
Civil Rights Movements ◽  
Political Commitments

This chapter presents an account of the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, who, although constrained significantly by the ideological climate of the 1950s, refused to silence himself politically. Beginning in the last years of the decade, he became increasingly vocal in his support for New Left causes, including the antiwar, antinuclear, and civil rights movements. On State Department–funded conducting tours with the New York Philharmonic, he tried to use music, particularly the Americanist tradition, to challenge US foreign policy. In his compositions, he remained true to musical Americanism, striving earnestly in his art music to continue Copland’s prewar approach. He found a fruitful outlet for his political commitments in his works for musical theater, but his art music compositions present a much more complex and fraught picture. Bernstein was attempting to resist and undermine political nationalism, while simultaneously advancing cultural nationalism. But in the binarized climate of Cold War America, this would not prove easy.

Watershed

2019 ◽  
pp. 41-68
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Crist
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
International Travel ◽  
The Other ◽  
Creative Project ◽  
New York Philharmonic ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Time Out ◽  
Enormous Amount ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
Cover Art

1959 was a watershed for the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Not only was it the year of Brubeck’s most famous creative project, Time Out, but it also marked the midpoint of the “classic” Quartet with Paul Desmond, which was formed in 1951 and disbanded in 1967. This chapter discloses the specific factors involved in the production of Time Out. These include early concert performances of the repertoire, the recording sessions, and decisions concerning the album’s title, cover art, and liner notes. The other trajectory followed here concerns several important matters that were uppermost in Brubeck’s life and career at that time. Chief among them were an enormous amount of domestic and international travel, a high-profile stand against racism and segregation in the South, an all-out effort to finish his musical and see it produced on Broadway, and a series of performances with the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall.

scholarly journals Modernist Music for Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-517
Author(s):  
David H. Miller
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Anton Webern ◽  
Leonard Bernstein ◽  
Christian Science ◽  
New York Philharmonic ◽  
Christian Science Monitor ◽  
Middlebrow Culture ◽  
Lincoln Center ◽  
Rhetorical Force

On several occasions in the midcentury United States, the music of Anton Webern was reimagined as music for children. In 1936 conductor and musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky published the score of Webern’s op. 10/4 on the children’s page of the Christian Science Monitor. In 1958 Webern’s op. 6/3 was featured in a New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concert, the first conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Eight years later, Webern’s Kinderstück (Children’s Piece) received its posthumous premiere at Lincoln Center, performed by a nine-year-old pianist. In each case children served as a marker of accessibility, meant to render Webern’s music more palatable to adult audiences; thus was Webern’s music subsumed within the middlebrow circulation of classical music. Although recent scholarship has considered the intersections between modernist music and middlebrow culture, Webern’s music has remained absent from these discussions. Indeed, Webern’s terse, abstract, and severe compositions might at first appear ill suited to middlebrow contexts. Yet, as these three historical moments make clear, children served as a potent rhetorical force that could be used to market even this music to a broad audience of adults.

The Return of Two Maestros

Dearest Lenny ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 42-55
Author(s):  
Mari Yoshihara
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Rapid Rise ◽  
Leonard Bernstein ◽  
Her Family ◽  
New York Philharmonic ◽  
November Steps

In 1970, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic returned to Japan for the second tour, again with Seiji Ozawa. The tour was organized partly in conjunction with the Osaka Expo ’70, symbolizing Japan’s rapid rise as an economic power and the expansion of the classical music fan base in the nation. Seiji Ozawa, now an international maestro in his own right, led the tour along with Bernstein and conducted Toru Takemitsu’s November Steps. During the tour, Kazuko Amano and her family enjoyed their second encounter with Bernstein, but her joyful time was cut short by her domestic obligations.

scholarly journals Leonard Bernstein's Jewish Boston: Cross-Disciplinary Research in the Classroom

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-33
Author(s):  
CAROL J. OJA ◽  
KAY KAUFMAN SHELEMAY
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Leonard Bernstein ◽  
New Yorker ◽  
New York Philharmonic ◽  
Immigrant Experiences ◽  
Low Culture ◽  
Prep School ◽  
American Society ◽  
Iconic Status

AbstractLeonard Bernstein is most often perceived as the quintessential New Yorker—music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1958 to 1969 and composer of Broadway shows that made New York their focus. Yet his grounding in the greater Boston area was powerful. He was born in 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and raised in various Jewish neighborhoods within Boston. The young Leonard went to Boston Latin, a prestigious public prep school, and graduated from Harvard in 1939.This article explores a team research project, made up of Harvard graduate students and undergraduates, which delved into the urban subcultures and post-immigrant experiences that shaped Bernstein's youth and early adulthood. It considers the synergy between an individual and a community, and it examines the complexities of blending pedagogy with research, analyzing the multilayered methodologies and theoretical strategies that were employed.Given Bernstein's iconic status, his life and career illuminate a broad range of questions about the nature of music in American society. Fusing the techniques of ethnographic and archival research, our team probed Bernstein's formative connections to Jewish traditions through his family synagogue (Congregation Mishkan Tefila), the ethnic geography that defined the Boston neighborhoods of his immigrant family, the network of young people involved in Bernstein's summer theatrical productions in Sharon, Massachusetts, during the 1930s, and the formative role of the city's musical venues and institutions in shaping Bernstein's lifelong campaign to collapse traditional distinctions between high and low culture.

scholarly journals Comparative analysis of musical-enlightenment concepts of L. Bernstein and D. Kabalevsky in Russian music education

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia V. Mishina ◽  
Zilia M. Yavgildina ◽  
Rufina Ildarovna Samigullina ◽  
Tamara Yu. Melnik
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Leonard Bernstein ◽  
Educational Work ◽  
Russian Music ◽  
New York Philharmonic ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Epistolary Texts

The aim of this study is to compare the activities of Kabalevsky and Bernstein—two musicians who made a significant contribution to the musical education of the younger generation, reveals the principles, methods, forms of educational work and covers the subject of television programmes. In particular, the pedagogical and musical-enlightenment concept of the outstanding composer, scientist Dmitry Kabalevsky was widely spread in our country. Also, the achievements of American composer, lecturer, teacher Leonard Bernstein in the field of musical enlightenment differ in originality and are rarely used in Russian musical pedagogical practice.  In accordance with the aim of the study, the following theoretical methods were used: analysis of the literature, epistolary texts, the repertoire of the concert programmes of the New York Philharmonic orchestra; generalisation of historical data on musical and educational activities of Kabalevsky and Bernstein, comparison of methods and techniques of music education, biographical method.   Keywords: Conversation, enlightenment, Dmitry Kabalevsky, Leonard Bernstein, TV

Mobilized by Injustice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah L. Walker
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Contact ◽  
Racial Boundaries ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Depth Interviews

Springing from decades of abuse by law enforcement and an excessive criminal justice system, members of over-policed communities lead the current movement for civil rights in the United States. Activated by injustice, individuals protested police brutality in Ferguson, campaigned to end stop-and-frisk in New York City, and advocated for restorative justice in Washington, D.C. Yet, scholars focused on the negative impact of punitive policy on material resources, and trust in government did not predict these pockets of resistance, arguing instead that marginalizing and demeaning policy teaches individuals to acquiesce and withdraw. Mobilized by Injustice excavates conditions under which, despite otherwise negative outcomes, negative criminal justice experiences catalyze political action. This book argues that when understood as resulting from a system that targets people based on race, class, or other group identifiers, contact can politically mobilize. Negative experiences with democratic institutions predicated on equality under the law, when connected to a larger, group-based struggle, can provoke action from anger. Evidence from several surveys and in-depth interviews reveals that mobilization as result of negative criminal justice experiences is broad, crosses racial boundaries, and extends to the loved ones of custodial citizens. When over half of Blacks and Latinos and a plurality of Whites know someone with personal contact, the mobilizing effect of a sense of injustice promises to have important consequences for American politics.

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