Thirty-five years after Leonard Bernstein\u2019s death, the critics are still arguing over the meaning and impact of his legacy.\u00a0 What is clear, however, is that the world rarely enjoys the genius of someone who excels supremely in so many artistic endeavors.\u00a0 Pianist, conductor, television personality, teacher, mentor, social gadfly, and composer of both popular musical theatre and \u201cserious works,\u201d Bernstein wore all hats with avidity.\u00a0\u00a0 And he enjoyed stunning success in most.\u00a0 He had a passion about everything that he essayed, whether conducting the Mahler that he loved so well, or helping audiences \u201cpeel\u201d apart the mysteries of music in his many teaching roles.\u00a0 He knew so much, and could do so much, that he genuinely thought that he could do it all.\u00a0 His leadership of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and other orchestras is legendary, but everyone knows there were some concerts that, frankly, got away from him in his self-indulgence.\u00a0 He worked assiduously as a composer of \u201cserious\u201d music, but those works\u2014from youthful successes to his late efforts–have enjoyed mixed success.\u00a0 But, all that says is that simply he was human.\u00a0 Other than his epochal conducting, there is one field in which he garnered almost universal acclaim, and that is musical theatre.\u00a0\u00a0 When all is said and done, he possessed a talent and a facility for the stage that was as deep as it was prolific.\u00a0 He simply understood the genre and its demands.<\/p>\n
He plunged in early, writing for student productions at Harvard, and working with a cabaret group (that included Judy Holiday) while a student at the Curtis Institute.\u00a0 When he was twenty-six, his ballet Fancy Free<\/em> was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera and On the Town<\/em> opened on Broadway.\u00a0 Wonderful Town<\/em>, Peter Pan<\/em>, Facsimile<\/em>, Candide<\/em>, and, of course, West Side Story<\/em>, followed in succession. \u00a0\u00a0But, the music that Bernstein provided for Fancy Free <\/em>was the beginning.\u00a0\u00a0 The ballet is by the giant of choreography, Jerome Robbins, and went on to be reincarnated that same year (1944) as the Broadway musical On the Town.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 The Broadway show was subsequently made into a film in 1949, but most of Bernstein\u2019s music was thrown out by Hollywood as too \u201ccomplex and operatic.\u201d\u00a0 Those who have seen the show in any of its versions will easily remember the simple premise of the plot:\u00a0 three sailors on liberty in New York City, looking for female companionship, engage in a series of ritual dances of courtship, competing for the affections of the girls.\u00a0 But, throughout the dilemma remains:\u00a0 three sailors\u2014two girls.\u00a0\u00a0 They dance in vain, are left in the lurch, and begin to try the whole thing all over, as the ballet ends.<\/p>\n The \u201cThree Dance Variations\u201d occur toward the end of the ballet, when the three sailors and two women try to decide who will be the \u201codd man out.\u201d\u00a0 It is decided that a \u201cdance off\u201d will eliminate the unlucky sailor who loses the contest.\u00a0\u00a0 The first sailor dances a galop, the second, a waltz, and the third, a danz\u00f3n<\/em>.\u00a0 A galop is a standard nineteenth-century ballroom dance, written by everyone from Johann Strauss II to Shostakovich.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fast affair, and traditionally often includes a cornet solo.\u00a0 Bernstein has cleverly invoked the dancehall atmosphere, with a solo trumpet, and later trombones, playing rustic solos in a popular style.\u00a0 It\u2019s all over in a frenetic minute and a half.\u00a0 The waltz is a melancholy little affair that is a study in Bernstein\u2019s signature penchant for displacing downbeats and mixing time signatures till everyone (only in the audience, it is hoped) is thoroughly confused.\u00a0 In the middle the contrasting section sounds for all the world like Bernstein is channeling Kurt Weill\u2019s best 1920s cabaret style.\u00a0\u00a0 It all ends softly as it literally dissipates into wistful silence.\u00a0 The last dance, a Cuban danz\u00f3n<\/em>, would seem to be a reflection of the mad affection that composers and audiences alike had for all music Cuban during the 1930s and 40s.\u00a0 Aaron Copland, whom Bernstein adored, distinguished himself in this regard, and, in fact, two years earlier, in 1942, Bernstein and Copland premi\u00e8red Copland\u2019s own Danz\u00f3n Cubano<\/em> for two pianos.\u00a0 So, two years later, here is another danz\u00f3n, <\/em>an elegant dance, with a mysterious bass line in the strings and piano, punctuated by spare percussion enhancements.\u00a0\u00a0 There are plenty of solos for everyone, as the stylized dance builds to a climax, with Ravel\u2019s Bolero<\/em> looking over the composer\u2019s shoulder.\u00a0\u00a0 It ends as it began, softly, spare, and mysterious.<\/p>\n The three sailors can\u2019t decide who won, so they resort to a typical sailor\u2019s solution:\u00a0 they fight.\u00a0 Naturally, the women are horrified and hurried depart, leaving the sailors to start their odyssey all over again.<\/p>\n –Wm. E. Runyan<\/p>\n \u00a9 2016 William E. Runyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"program_note_tax":[69],"class_list":["post-242","program_note","type-program_note","status-publish","hentry","program_note_tax-leonardbernstein"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/program_note"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"program_note_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note_tax?post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}