{"id":315,"date":"2019-10-08T14:32:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T14:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/waterfront-suite\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T17:10:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T17:10:46","slug":"waterfront-suite","status":"publish","type":"program_note","link":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/waterfront-suite\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Waterfront Suite"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <em>On the Waterfront<\/em> (1954) is easily one of the most important of American films.&nbsp; Directed by the great\u2014and controversial\u2014Elia Kazan, with a screenplay by Budd Schulberg, and an all-star cast of Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, and Eva Marie Saint, it just doesn\u2019t get much better than this in cinema.&nbsp; It won eight Academy Awards (but not one for the music!), and is almost always on the list of American top-ten movies.&nbsp;&nbsp; The film-score was composed when Bernstein was thirty-five, and is unique for the composer in that it was totally original, with no connections to any stage production.&nbsp;&nbsp; The story, about corruption and violence on the New Jersey docks, was unremittingly dark, and the composer\u2019s music is eloquently reflective of it\u2014perfect for a kind of \u201cfilm noir.\u201d&nbsp; The movie is in black and white, the sun never shines, and violence is always threatening.&nbsp; It&#8217;s all in the music, and makes for one of Bernstein\u2019s masterpieces\u2014it certainly set the mark for many following contemporary film scores.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p> The stark brass of the opening sets the mood perfectly.&nbsp; Later, this kind of writing comes back with even more power and dissonance; if it reminds one a bit of Copland\u2019s <em>Fanfare for the Common Man<\/em>, is no accident.&nbsp;&nbsp; For it is no secret that Bernstein\u2019s life-long musical style owed more than a little to the composer\u2019s beloved mentor.&nbsp; Much of the score references Copland, but with a decided edge.&nbsp; Rhythmic displacements, jagged gestures, serene simple harmonies\u2014it\u2019s all there.&nbsp; Bernstein\u2019s score is perfectly suited for the variety of dramatic situations of the film.&nbsp; The bleak scenes of the docks and the New Jersey tenements; the tender encounters between Brando and Saint; the serenity of the roof-top pigeon coops; the evil of Cobb; the moral ambiguity of Steiger; the firm morality of Malden; and the constant menace of real violence\u2014all are subtly depicted without bathos, and with stylistic evenness.&nbsp; Like the best of film scores, the music is apt but not distracting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p> Bernstein initially resisted accepting the commission for the score.&nbsp; Politically dedicated to liberal causes all of his life, he had deep antipathy for the director, Elia Kazan.&nbsp; Kazan was marginalized for many years for his co\u00f6peration with the McCarthy HUAC hearings.&nbsp; He named names in the witch-hunt.&nbsp;&nbsp; Musical posterity is fortunate that Bernstein saw the opportunity and changed his mind.<\/p>\n<p> In many respects there is a cogent argument that the <em>On the Waterfront<\/em> Suite represents some of Bernstein\u2019s very best work.&nbsp; Perhaps the Russian, Mstislav Rostropovich (of <em>Slava! <\/em>fame) said it best:&nbsp; \u201cHis Suite from <em>On the Waterfront<\/em> I have conducted many, many times, and this music smells of the United States.&nbsp; But, it is a good smell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Wm. E. Runyan<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2018 William E. Runyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"program_note_tax":[69],"class_list":["post-315","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\/315","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=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"program_note_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note_tax?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}