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.

Growing Pains

Dearest Lenny ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 36-41
Author(s):  
Mari Yoshihara
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Recording Industry ◽  
Leonard Bernstein ◽  
White House ◽  
Growing Pains ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Lincoln Center ◽  
Kennedy Family ◽  
International Status

Leonard Bernstein conducting the inaugural concert of the Philharmonic Hall in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1962 symbolized the national and international status he had achieved. Through his close relationship with the Kennedy family and his continued ties to the White House, combined with his unrivaled place in the world of the performing arts, Bernstein was a prime candidate to lead the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. To manage the ever expanding scope of his work, Bernstein’s company, Amberson Enterprises, professionalized and corporatized its operations under Schuyler Chapin. But the popular leaning of the recording industry was beginning to cause some issues even for the foremost leader of American classical music.

scholarly journals Policy Considerations for Using Forests to Mitigate Carbon Dioxide Emissions

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 241-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Brown ◽  
R. Neil Sampson ◽  
Bernhard Schlamadinger ◽  
John Kinsman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Christian Science ◽  
Climate Change Negotiations ◽  
Christian Science Monitor ◽  
The Press ◽  
International Climate

A recent article in Nature, “Soil Fertility Limits Carbon Sequestration by Forest Ecosystems in a CO2-Enriched Atmosphere” by Oren and colleagues[1], has been widely reported on, and often misinterpreted, by the press. The article dampens enthusiasm for accelerated forest growth due to CO2 fertilization and puts in question the fringe theory that the world’s forests can provide an automatic mitigation feedback. We agree that these results increase our understanding of the global carbon cycle. At the same time, their relevance in the context of the international climate change negotiations is much more complicated than portrayed by newspapers such as the New York Times (“Role of Trees in Curbing Greenhouse Gases is Challenged”, May 24, 2001) and the Christian Science Monitor (“Trees No Savior for Global Warming”, May 25, 2001).

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.

Japan Beckons

Dearest Lenny ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 61-67
Author(s):  
Mari Yoshihara
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
New York Philharmonic ◽  
Music Market ◽  
Growing Economy

Leonard Bernstein’s tour of Japan with the New York Philharmonic in 1974 featured the heavy involvement of commercial entities, exemplified by the effective campaign by CBS/Sony to promote Bernstein’s recordings. With a sophisticated and rich classical music fan base and a rapidly growing economy, Japan was becoming a key market for Bernstein and the classical music market generally. Kazuko Amano, who was now settled in Tokyo after years of frequent relocation from one city to another, delighted in listening to Bernstein’s music again, as did her daughter Kikuko, who inherited her love of music and of Bernstein.

The Entrepreneur-conductors and their Orchestras

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
John Spitzer
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New York ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
New York Philharmonic ◽  
Paris Opera

The story of the orchestra in the nineteenth century usually focuses on two types of orchestras: theatre orchestras – such as La Scala, the Queen's Theatre (London), and the Paris Opéra – and concert societies – such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (Paris), and the New York Philharmonic. It concentrates on the conductors who led these orchestras, many of whom were also famous composers, such as Weber, Spontini, Berlioz, Mendelssohn and Wagner, whose works form a large part of today's ‘classical’ music repertory. This story is not wrong, but it is incomplete.

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.

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