Books

The Music Division provides researchers access to a wide range of books by and about Leonard Bernstein, including reference resources, Bernstein's own books and correspondence, biographies and accounts of Bernstein, and books that analyze specific works or aspects of Bernstein's career.

Reference Books

Catalogs, dictionaries, and research guides provide excellent reference resources when needing to consult a catalog of works, annotated bibliography, discography, and more.

The following titles, listed as examples, link to fuller bibliographic information for Bernstein-focused reference books in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Leonard Bernstein: A Complete Catalog of His Works by Jack Gottlieb
Call Number: ML134.B512 L46 1988
ISBN: 0913932213
Published/Created: 1988
Jack Gottlieb was an assistant to Leonard Bernstein and later served as Bernstein's Director of Publications. His catalog of Bernstein's works...FINISH THIS

Historical Dictionary of Leonard Bernstein by Paul R. Laird; Hsun Lin
Call Number: ML410.B566 L36 2019
ISBN: 9781538113448
Published/Created: 2019-07-31
Leonard Bernstein is one of the most significant musicians in the history of the United States. He was the first conductor born in the United States and trained exclusively in his home country to develop an international profile. Most famous as music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1958 to 1969, Bernstein spent far longer as a guest conductor who developed substantive relationships with several major ensembles. He was a composer, conductor, and has made significant contributions as a composer of concert music and scores for musical theater. He was also an excellent pianist, well known for playing piano concertos while he directed the ensemble from the keyboard. Few 20th-century American composers have made such important contributions in each of the areas of symphonic music, ballets, and musical theater. Historical Dictionary of Leonard Bernstein contains a chronology, an introduction, an appendix, an extensive bibliography, and more than 700 cross-referenced entries on Bernstein's life and works. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Leonard Bernstein.

Leonard Bernstein by Paul Laird
Call Number: ML134.B512 L35 2015
ISBN: 9781138913332
Published/Created: 2015-06-18
Leonard Bernstein: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography and research guide on this popular American composer and conductor. It includes annotations on Bernstein's writings, performances, educational work, and major secondary sources. Also included are a biographical sketch, lists of compositions and arrangements, as well as lists of recordings and video. The second edition is updated to include research since the 1st edition was published in 2001, as well as online resources.
Leonard Bernstein by Paul Laird
Call Number: ML134.B512 L35 2002
ISBN: 0815335172
Published/Created: 2001-12-21
Beginning with an introductory essay on his achievements, it continues with annotations on Bernstein's voluminous writings, performances, educational work, and major secondary sources.

Bernstein's Writings and Correspondence

Bernstein's writings include published books on music and correspondence published after his death. The following titles, listed as examples, link to fuller bibliographic information for published scores in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Books on Music
Published Correspondence

Findings by Leonard Bernstein
Call Number: ML410.B566 A3 1993
ISBN: 038542437X
Published/Created: 1993-09-01
An extraordinary book of musical and personal discoveries. Bringing together Bernstein's private notes, essays, and musical writings, the book offers a brilliant and revealing portrait of the man who, more than any other, confirmed the maturity and originality of American music. Among the writings collected in this book are Bernstein's recollections of childhood, his education as a musician and as a man, and his reflections on fifty years of composing such popular successes as Candide, On the Town, and West Side Story, as well as such enduring classical triumphs as his Mass and Kaddish. The book includes Bernstein's thoughts on the art of conducting, his opinions on the role of music in the arts and in society, his perspectives on politics and culture, as well as his analysis of the roots of American music and the influence of Beethoven and Mahler on his own life and work. Richly illustrated with photographs and music scores, this book offers a rare and moving window into the personal life of one of the towering figures of twentieth-century music, a man who was at once a great conductor, a composer of extraordinary range, and deeply involved and passionate citizen of the world. Findings was originally published in 1982 by Simon and Schuster.
The Joy of Music by Leonard Bernstein; Tim Page (Foreword by)
Call Number: ML60.B47 2004
ISBN: 1574671049
Published/Created: 2004-12-01
(Amadeus). This classic work is perhaps Bernstein's finest collection of conversations on the meaning and wonder of music. This book is a must for all music fans who wish to experience music more fully and deeply through one of the most inspired, and inspiring, music intellects of our time. Employing the creative device of "Imaginary Conversations" in the first section of his book, Bernstein illuminates the importance of the symphony in America, the greatness of Beethoven, and the art of composing. The book also includes a photo section and a third section with the transcripts from his televised Omnibus music series, including "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony," "The World of Jazz," "Introduction to Modern Music," and "What Makes Opera Grand." The Joy of Music was originally published in 1959 by Simon and Schuster.
The Infinite Variety of Music by Leonard Bernstein
Call Number: MT6.B43 I6 1993
ISBN: 0385424388
Published/Created: 1993-02-01
With style, wit, and expertise, Leonard Bernstein shares his love and appreciation for music in all its varied forms in The Infinite Variety of Music, illuminating the deep pleasure and sometimes subtle beauty it offers. He begins with an “imaginary conversation” with George Washington entitled “The Muzak Muse ” in which he argues the values of actively listening to music by learning how to read notes, as opposed to simply hearing music in a concert hall. The book also features the reproduction of five television scripts from Bernstein on the influence of jazz, the timeless appeal of Mozart, musical romanticism, and the complexities of rhythmic innovation. Also included are Bernstein's analyses of symphonies by Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Brahms, a rare reproduction of a 1957 lecture on the nature of composing, and a report on the musical scene written for the New York Times after his sabbatical leave from directorship of the New York Philharmonic during the 1964-65 season. Originally published in 1966 by Simon and Schuster.
The Unanswered Question by Leonard Bernstein
Call Number: MT6.B45 U6
ISBN: 0674920007
Published/Created: 1976-01-01
The varied forms of Leonard Bernstein's musical creativity have been recognized and enjoyed by millions. These lectures, Mr. Bernstein's most recent venture in musical explication, will make fascinating reading as well. Virgil Thomson says of the lectures: "Nobody anywhere presents this material so warmly, so sincerely, so skillfully. As musical mind-openers they are first class; as pedagogy they are matchless." Mr. Bernstein considers music ranging from Hindu ragas through Mozart and Ravel, to Copland, suggesting a worldwide, innate musical grammar. Folk music, pop songs, symphonies, modal, tonal, atonal, well-tempered and ill-tempered works all find a place in these discussions. Each, Mr. Bernstein suggests, has roots in a universal language central to all artistic creation. Using certain linguistic analogies, he explores the ways in which this language developed and can be understood as an aesthetic surface. Drawing on his insights as a master composer and conductor, Mr. Bernstein also explores what music means below the surface: the symbols and metaphors which exist in every musical piece, of whatever sort. And, finally, Mr. Bernstein analyzes twentieth century crises in the music of Schoenberg and Stravinsky, finding even here a transformation of all that has gone before, as part of the poetry of expression, through its roots in the earth of human experience. These talks, written and delivered when Leonard Bernstein was Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University, are the newest of the author's literary achievements. In addition to a distinguished career as conductor, pianist, and composer, Mr. Bernstein is the recipient of many television Emmys for the scripts of his Young People's Concerts, Omnibus programs, and others, and is the author of The Infinite Variety of Music and The Joy of Music, for which he received the Christopher Award.

The Leonard Bernstein Letters by Nigel Simeone (Editor); Leonard Bernstein
Call Number: ML410.B566 A4 2013
ISBN: 9780300179095
Published/Created: 2013-10-29
An extraordinary selection of revealing letters to and from one of the titans of 20th-century music Leonard Bernstein was a charismatic and versatile musician--a brilliant conductor who attained international super-star status, and a gifted composer of Broadway musicals (West Side Story), symphonies (Age of Anxiety), choral works (Chichester Psalms), film scores (On the Waterfront), and much more. Bernstein was also an enthusiastic letter writer, and this book is the first to present a wide-ranging selection of his correspondence. The letters have been selected for the insights they offer into the passions of his life--musical and personal--and the extravagant scope of his musical and extra-musical activities. Bernstein's letters tell much about this complex man, his collaborators, his mentors, and others close to him. His galaxy of correspondents encompassed, among others, Aaron Copland,Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, Thornton Wilder, Boris Pasternak, Bette Davis, Adolph Green, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and family members including his wife Felicia and his sister Shirley. The majority of these letters have never been published before. They have been carefully chosen to demonstrate the breadth of Bernstein's musical interests, his constant struggle to find the time to compose, his turbulent and complex sexuality, his political activities, and his endless capacity for hard work. Beyond all this, these writings provide a glimpse of the man behind the legends: his humanity, warmth, volatility, intellectual brilliance, wonderful eye for descriptive detail, and humor.
Dearest Lenny by Mari Yoshihara
Call Number: ML410.B566 Y67 2019
ISBN: 9780190465780
Published/Created: 2019-09-03
Much has been written about Leonard Bernstein, a musician of extraordinary talent who was legendary for his passionate love of life and many relationships. In this work, Mari Yoshihara reveals the deeply emotional connections Bernstein formed with two little-known Japanese individuals, whichshe narrates through their personal letters that have never been seen before.Dearest Lenny interweaves an intimate story of love and art with a history of Bernstein's transformation from an American icon to a world maestro during the second half of the twentieth century. The articulate, moving letters of Kazuko Amano - a woman who began writing fan letters to Bernstein in1947 and became a close family friend - and Kunihiko Hashimoto - a young man who fell in love with the maestro in 1979 and later became his business representative - convey the meaning Bernstein and his music had at various stages of their lives. The letters also shed light on how Bernstein'scompositions, recordings, and performances touched his audiences around the world. The book further traces the making of a global Bernstein amidst the shifting landscape of classical music that made this American celebrity turn increasingly to Europe and Japan. The dramatic change in Japan's placein the world and its relationship to the United States during the postwar decades shaped Bernstein's connection to the country. Ultimately, Dearest Lenny is a story of relationships - between the two individuals and Bernstein, the United States and the world, art and commerce, artists and the state,private and public, conventions and transgressions, dreams and realities - that were at the core of Bernstein's greatest achievements and challenges and that made him truly a maestro of the world.Dearest Lenny paints a poignant portrait of individuals connected across cultures, languages, age, and status through correspondence and music-and the world that shaped their relationships.

Biographies and Accounts of Bernstein

Several types of accounts of Bernstein's life and career offer scholars and music enthusiasts different lenses through which to view and understand the man. While biographies offer outside accounts of Bernstein's life and career, memoirs by his family, collaborators, and colleagues offer additional, often personal perspectives on Bernstein as a person. Published interviews and photographic retrospectives supplement these intimate accounts.

The following titles, listed as examples, link to fuller bibliographic information for published scores in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Leonard Bernstein by Humphrey Burton
Call Number: ML410.B566 B9 1994
ISBN: 0385423454
Published/Created: 1994-04-01
The definitive biography of one of the most influential, flamboyant, and multifaceted musical talents of the 20th century, a man whose concert hall performances inspired generations of musicians and music lovers, and whose theatrical triumphs dazzled Broadway.
Leonard Bernstein by Meryle Secrest
Call Number: ML410.B566 S43 1995
ISBN: 067973757X
Published/Created: 1995-10-31
The most insightful and engrossing work we have had from the widely admired biographer of Frank Lloyd Wright ("Captivating ... The reader comes away with an understanding of Wright as a man as well as an architect" -- Washington Post Book World ... "Spellbinding" -- Boston Globe), of Bernard Berenson ("Authoritative and fascinating" -- Philip Toynbee, The Observer ... "A memorable opus" -- Sir Harold Acton), and of Kenneth Clark ("Splendid, enthralling" -- Wall Street Journal). Here is Leonard Bernstein, full scale and fully alive -- the child prodigy, the man, the composer, the teacher, the hugely charismatic personality, the lover, the American folk hero. Everything is here: the child growing up in a Hasidic family in Massachusetts, his father a rabbi's son; his first piano at age nine ("I remember touching it ... It was my contact with life, with God"); his reluctant, brilliant, argumentative years at Harvard; the rocky but exhilarating start of his career (scant jobs, no money, but friendships with Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Judy Holliday, Comden and Green, et al.); his spectacular debut (understudy into a star!) as substitute conductor at the New York Philharmonic; the great career over the years as a composer in classical music (the Kaddish Symphony, Chichester Psalms, Songfest), and in musical theater (On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, West Side Story, Mass, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). We see Bernstein: the good father to his three children, the man who adored his wife, Felicia Montealegre, the man who adored men, the brilliant and generous mentor, the temperamental artist, the hypochondriac, the politician, the businessman, the Pied Piper ... His life, his music, the great international cultural world in which he traveled, are richly and vividly portrayed in this magnificent biography, alive with music -- and with life. From the Hardcover edition.

Famous Father Girl by Jamie Bernstein
Call Number: ML410.B566 B47 2018
ISBN: 9780062641359
Published/Created: 2018-06-12
Best Book of 2018 -- NPR, Library Journal The oldest daughter of revered composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein offers a rare look at her father on the centennial of his birth in a deeply intimate and broadly evocative memoir The composer of On the Town and West Side Story, chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic, television star, humanitarian, friend of the powerful and influential, and the life of every party, Leonard Bernstein was an enormous celebrity during one of the headiest periods of American cultural life, as well as the most protean musician in twentieth century America. But to his eldest daughter, Jamie, he was above all the man in the scratchy brown bathrobe who smelled of cigarettes; the jokester and compulsive teacher who enthused about Beethoven and the Beatles; the insomniac whose 4 a.m. composing breaks involved spooning baby food out of the jar. He taught his daughter to love the world in all its beauty and complexity. In public and private, Lenny was larger than life. In Famous Father Girl, Bernstein mines the emotional depths of her childhood and invites us into her family's private world. A fantastic set of characters populates the Bernsteins' lives, including: the Kennedys, Mike Nichols, John Lennon, Richard Avedon, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, and Betty (Lauren) Bacall. An intoxicating tale, Famous Father Girl is an intimate meditation on a complex and sometimes troubled man, the family he raised, and the music he composed that became the soundtrack to their entwined lives. Deeply moving and often hilarious, Bernstein's beautifully written memoir is a great American story about one of the greatest Americans of the modern age.
Working with Bernstein by Leonard Bernstein (Composed by); Jack Gottlieb
Call Number: ML410.B566 G67 2010
ISBN: 9781574671865
Published/Created: 2010-04-01
(Amadeus). As they engage with one of the 20th century's most provocative musical personalities, studies of the multifaceted Leonard Bernstein will always proffer new insights into the human condition. But this is the first book on Bernstein to be written by a composer, and the first by a colleague and friend who worked intimately with the maestro for more than three decades. Jack Gottlieb has been described as Bernstein's amanuensis and as the preeminent Bernstein scholar. This memoir presents fresh, sensitive, and revealing information about the everyday life of the maestro in Part One, featuring reminiscences peppered with anecdotes, humor, and stories by others. Part Two includes Gottlieb's commentaries and analysis of Bernstein's works, which have appeared in program notes for concerts by many of the world's orchestras, as jacket notes for recordings, and as articles in journals and elsewhere, beginning with the New York Philharmonic tribute "A Valentine for Leonard Bernstein" on February 13, 1961. Preceded by updated remarks, this collection allows those seeking firsthand information on Bernstein's compositions to find all of Gottlieb's valuable scholarship in one place.
Leonard Bernstein by Schuyler Chapin
Call Number: ML410.B566 C5 1992
ISBN: 0802712169
Published/Created: 1992-11-01
Here is the story of a friendship, a remarkable friendship between a great maestro and an administrative colleague who became his trusted confidante. This is not a biography of Leonard Bernstein but an informal portrait - a warm, personal glimpse of "Lenny" at the peak of his achievements and into his later years, when, even in declining health, he enthusiastically pursued dozens of projects. For over thirty years, as colleague and adviser, Schuyler Chapin was part of the whirlwind of Bernstein activity that resulted in unforgettable recordings, television performances, operas, festivals, and theater events that will never be equaled. All of this brought frustrations, exhaustion, and moments of laughter and tears - as well as triumphs - as Mr. Chapin reveals. The friendship of Bernstein and Chapin lasted through many journeys and adventures. The two men traveled the world together making Bernstein's artistic dreams become realities, and their adventures make fascinating reading. This is a behind-the-scenes look at a great man who was a good friend and always fun to be around. Rich in vignettes and anecdotes to be treasured, this book shows the human side of Bernstein. With great charm, Chapin tells what an interesting friend and colleague he indeed was.

Dinner with Lenny by Jonathan Cott
Call Number: ML410.B566 C68 2013
ISBN: 9780199858446
Published/Created: 2013-01-08
Leonard Bernstein was arguably the most highly esteemed, influential, and charismatic American classical music personality of the twentieth century. Conductor, composer, pianist, writer, educator, and human rights activist, Bernstein truly led a life of Byronic intensity--passionate, risk-taking, and convention-breaking. In November 1989, just a year before his death, Bernstein invited writer Jonathan Cott to his country home in Fairfield, Connecticut for what turned out to be his last major interview--an unprecedented and astonishingly frank twelve-hour conversation. Now, in Dinner with Lenny, Cott provides a complete account of this remarkable dialogue in which Bernstein discourses with disarming frankness, humor, and intensity on matters musical, pedagogical, political, psychological, spiritual, and the unabashedly personal. Bernstein comes alive again, with vodka glass in hand, singing, humming, and making pointed comments on a wide array of topics, from popular music ("the Beatles were the best songwriters since Gershwin"), to great composers ("Wagner was always in a psychotic frenzy. He was a madman, a megalomaniac"), and politics (lamenting "the brainlessness, the mindlessness, the carelessness, and the heedlessness of the Reagans of the world"). And of course, Bernstein talks of conducting, advising students "to look at the score and make it come alive as if they were the composer. If you can do that, you're a conductorand if you can't, you're not. If I don't become Brahms or Tchaikovsky or Stravinsky when I'm conducting their works, then it won't be a great performance." After Rolling Stone magazine published an abridged version of the conversation in 1990, the Chicago Tribune praised it as "an extraordinary interview" filled with "passion, wit, and acute analysis." Studs Terkel called the interview "astonishing and revelatory." Now, this full-length version provides the reader with a unique, you-are-there perspective on what it was like to converse with this gregarious, witty, candid, and inspiring American dynamo.

Leonard Bernstein 100 by Jamie Bernstein (Editor); Steve J. Sherman (Editor)
Call Number: ML88.B476 L4 2018
ISBN: 9781576878934
Published/Created: 2018-12-11
Leonard Bernstein's life captivated the public, giving rise to indelible photographs by many of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century. This book tells Bernstein's story through the lenses of such masters as Richard Avedon, Heni Cartier-Bresson, Bruce Davidson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Ernst Haas, Ken Heyman, Stanley Kubrick, Gjon Mili, Ralph Morse, Carl Mydans, Arnold Newman, Ruth Orkin, Gordon Parks, and Irving Penn. The collection is a rich trove that gives generations to come an unforgettable glimpse into the life of an artist who changed the face of culture in the 20th century.
Bernstein Remembered by Jane Fluegel (Editor); Donal Henahan (Introduction by); Isaac Stern (Preface by)
Call Number: ML88.B476 B47 1991
ISBN: 0881847224
Published/Created: 1991-09-01
A pictorial tribute to the late Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), capturing his expressiveness as composer, conductor, pianist, and teacher, and capturing many other music-world luminaries as well. With an introduction by Donal Henahan and a preface by Isaac Stern. 9x12.

Analysis and Criticism

While published biographies offer a degree of analysis and criticism of Bernstein's career and works, researchers will benefit from searching for in-depth analyses in books, essays, articles, and dissertations. Search for material on the analysis and interpretation of Bernstein's music and career in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. The following titles, listed as examples, link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Experiencing Leonard Bernstein by Kenneth LaFave
Call Number: ML410.B566 L33 2015
ISBN: 9781442235434
Published/Created: 2014-10-30
Leonard Bernstein is a household name. Most know him for his classic musical reworking of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as Broadway's West Side Story. But Bernstein accomplished so much more as a composer, and his body of work is both broad and varied. He composed ballets (Fancy Free, Facsimile, Dybbuk), operas (Trouble in Tahiti, Candide, A Quiet Place), musicals (On the Town, Wonderful Town), film scores (On the Waterfront), symphonies, choral works, chamber music pieces, art songs, and piano works. In Experiencing Leonard Bernstein: A Listener's Companion, Kenneth LaFave guides readers past Bernstein's famously tortured personal problems and into the clarity and balance of his Serenade after Plato's Symposium for Violin and Orchestra, the intense drama of his music for On the Waterfront, the existential cosmography of his three symphonies, and his vibrant works for the musical stage. Perhaps the most famous American classical musician born in the twentieth century, Bernstein divided his time between composing, conducting, writing, and teaching, a busy schedule--especially his conducting of major orchestras--that set his work as composer at a disadvantage. Often generated in short spurts, his work carries an urgency--and even an element of improvisational genius--that he flavored with his eclectic embrace of jazz, folk song, Jewish cantorial music, and innovations in contemporary classical theory. The result is a body of work that is beguilingly melodic, incomparably rhythmic, and irrepressibly individual. Experiencing Leonard Bernstein: A Listener's Companion is the ideal work for any reader seeking to learn how to listen across the spectrum of Bernstein's musical output.

Bernstein's Orchestral Music by David Hurwitz
Call Number: ML410.B566 H87 2011
ISBN: 9781574671933
Published/Created: 2011-05-01
(Unlocking the Masters). Leonard Bernstein's fame as a conductor and general cultural phenomenon has overshadowed his genius as a composer, despite the fact that at least some of his orchestral music has entered the standard repertoire and achieved a well-deserved measure of popularity. In fact, his achievement in the field of "serious" music is both larger and more significant than is usually acknowledged. It includes three symphonies, several noteworthy pieces for soloists and orchestra, ballets that are often performed in concert, suites from his various stage works, music for voices and orchestra, and a substantial numbers of overtures and shorter pieces. In all of this music, Bernstein's level of craftsmanship and inspiration remains consistently high. Even more remarkably, and despite his lifelong involvement as a conductor in presenting the works of other composers, his distinctive personality and style animate every bar. The direct emotional appeal of Bernstein's original work has always spoken most directly to music-loving audiences (as opposed to critics or academics), and so this book, in tandem with the accompanying CD, describes all of his significant concert music in a detailed but approachable way for listeners who want to explore his richly varied and colorful orchestral output both the familiar and the unfamiliar in greater depth.
The Chichester Psalms of Leonard Bernstein by Paul R. Laird; Michael J. Budds
Call Number: ML410.B566 L35 2010
ISBN: 9781576471524
Published/Created: 2009-11-01
This is a secular work with sacred Hebrew texts and a 'hint of Broadway' - commissioned by an Anglican cleric for a British choral festival to be held in a medieval cathedral and written by a popular American composer of Jewish heritage in his own eclectic style. It would certainly attract widespread interest. In fact, since its 1965 premiere, Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein has taken its place in the concert repertory as the most frequently performed piece of twentieth-century American choral music. In his thoughtful study Professor Paul R. Laird traces the unusual genesis of the work from sketches conceived for other projects and describes in detail the musical content of the final form of its three movements. Published for the first time with the author's commentary are the complete correspondence between Dean Walter Hussey and the composer, a survey of published criticism that greeted its first performances on both sides of the Atlantic, and an accounting of emendations to two performance scores in Bernstein's own hand.

Bernstein Meets Broadway by Carol J. Oja
Call Number: ML410.B566 O43 2014
ISBN: 9780199862092
Published/Created: 2014-08-22
Winner of the 2015 Music in American Culture Award from the American Musicological Society When Leonard Bernstein first arrived in New York City, he was an unknown artist working with other brilliant twentysomethings, notably Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. By the end of the 1940s, these artists were world famous. Their collaborations defied artistic boundaries and subtly pushed a progressive political agenda, altering the landscape of musical theater, ballet, and nightclub comedy. In Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War, award-winning author and scholar Carol J. Oja examines the early days of Bernstein's career during World War II, centering around the debut in 1944 of the Broadway musical On the Town and the ballet Fancy Free. As a composer and conductor, Bernstein experienced a meteoric rise to fame, thanks in no small part to his visionary colleagues. Together, they focused on urban contemporary life and popular culture, featuring as heroes the itinerant sailors who bore the brunt of military service. They were provocative both artistically and politically. In a time of race riots and Japanese internment camps, Bernstein and his collaborators featured African American performers and a Japanese American ballerina, staging a model of racial integration. Rather than accepting traditional distinctions between high and low art, Bernstein's music was wide-open, inspired by everything from opera and jazz to cartoons. Oja shapes a wide-ranging cultural history that captures a tumultuous moment in time. Bernstein Meets Broadway is an indispensable work for fans of Broadway musicals, dance, and American performance history.
There's a Place for Us: the Musical Theatre Works of Leonard Bernstein by Helen Smith
Call Number: ML410.B566 S65 2011
ISBN: 9781409411697
Published/Created: 2011-09-16
Leonard Bernstein was the quintessential American musician. Through his careers as conductor, pianist, teacher and television personality he became known across the US and the world, his flamboyance and theatricality making him a favourite with audiences, if not with critics. However, he is perhaps best remembered as a composer, particularly of the musical West Side Story, and for songs such as 'America', 'Tonight' and 'Somewhere'. Dr Helen Smith takes an in-depth look at all eight of Bernstein's musical theatre works, from the early On the Town written by the 26-year-old composer at the start of his career, to his second and last opera A Quiet Place in 1983; in between these two pieces he composed music for Trouble in Tahiti, Wonderful Town, Candide, West Side Story, Mass and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. These works are analysed and considered against a background of musical and social context, as well as looking at Bernstein's other orchestral, choral and chamber works. One important aspect examined is Bernstein's use of motifs in his theatre compositions, which takes them out of the realms of Broadway and into the sphere of symphonic writing. Smith provides an indispensable overview of the musical theatre works of an eclectic composer, and shows what it is that constitutes the Bernstein 'sound'.
Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story by Nigel Simeone
Call Number: ML410.B566 S56 2009
ISBN: 9780754664840
Published/Created: 2009-12-28
One of the Broadway musicals that can genuinely claim to have transformed the genre, West Side Story has been featured in many books on Broadway, but it has yet to be the focus of a scholarly monograph. Nigel Simeone begins by exploring the long process of creating West Side Story, including a discussion of Bernstein's sketches, early drafts of the score and script, as well as cut songs. The core of the book is a commentary on the music itself. West Side Story is one of the very few Broadway musicals for which there is a complete published orchestral score, as well as two different editions of the piano-vocal score. The survival of the original copied orchestral score, and the reminiscences of Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, reveal details of the orchestration process, and the extent to which Bernstein was involved in this. Simeone's commentary considers: musical characteristics and compositional techniques used to mirror the drama (for example, the various uses of the tritone), motivic development, the use and reinvention of Broadway and other conventions, the creation of dramatic continuity in the score through the use of motifs and other devices, the unusual degree of dissonance and rhythmic complexity (at least for the time), and the integration of Latin-American dance forms (Mambo, Huapango and so on). Simeone also considers the reception of West Side Story in the contemporary press. The stir the show caused included the response that it was the angular, edgy score that made it a remarkable achievement. Not all reviews were uncritical. Finally, the book looks in detail at the making of the original Broadway cast recording, made in just one day, included on the accompanying CD.
West Side Story by Elizabeth A. Wells
Call Number: ML410.B566 W45 2011
ISBN: 9780810876668
Published/Created: 2010-11-19
In West Side Story: Cultural Perspectives on an American Musical, Wells presents a major scholarly study of the famous American musical West Side Story, viewing the work from cultural, historical, and musical perspectives. From the "mambo craze" of the 1950s to the work's ongoing permeation of popular culture, Wells looks at the myriad ways in which this canonic musical reflects and refracts American culture. Drawing on primary documentary sources, oral history--including interviews with members of the original creative team such as Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents--and early sketch material, Wells explores the creation and dissemination of West Side Story to diverse audiences. After a short history of West Side Story's creation, each chapter investigates the musical from a different cultural perspective, examining its relationship to the classical canon and Leonard Bernstein's investment in that tradition, juvenile delinquency in the 1950s, feminism and the women of West Side Story, Latin-American and Hispanic influences, and its international reception and distribution. Richly illustrated with images and musical examples and complete with factual appendixes like a chronological timeline, discography, and cast and crew list, this fascinating account is exciting for specialists and non-specialists alike.

Leonard Bernstein's on the Waterfront by Anthony Bushard
Call Number: ML410.B566 B93 2013
ISBN: 9780810881372
Published/Created: 2012-12-27
Released in 1954, On the Waterfront is considered one of the greatest films of all time, winning eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and placing in the top 20 on the American Film Institute s 100 Films survey. The film s Oscar-nominated score represented a rare venture into film music composition by Leonard Bernstein, one of the towering figures of classical music in the 20th century. In Leonard Bernstein s On the Waterfront: A Film Score Guide, Anthony Bushard examines this landmark work, a score that continues to influence composers of film and classical music alike. The book begins with a biographical survey of Bernstein s work, followed by an exploration of Bernstein s compositional method, a look at the context of the film, and an analysis of the score itself. Though other volumes have focused on Bernstein s overall career, Bushard's book is the first to look specifically at the score of this film. A welcome examination of one of Bernstein s most accomplished works, Leonard Bernstein s On the Waterfront: A Film Score Guide highlights the invaluable contributions of this great composer and will be appreciated by fans of classical music and film scores."

Leonard Bernstein and Washington, DC by Daniel Abraham (Editor); Alicia Kopfstein-Penk (Editor); Andrew Weaver (Editor)
Call Number: ML410.B566 L44 2020
ISBN: 9781580469739
Published/Created: 2020-03-15
Composer, conductor, activist, and icon of twentieth-century America, Leonard Bernstein (1918-90) had a rich association with Washington, DC. Although he never lived there, the US capital was the site of some of the most importantmoments in his life and work, as he engaged with the nation's struggles and triumphs. By examining Bernstein through the lens of Washington, DC, this book offers new insights into his life and music from the 1940s through the 1980s, including his role in building the city's artistic landscape, his political-diplomatic aims, his works that received premieres and other early performances in Washington, and his relationships with the nation's liberal and conservative political elites. The collection also contributes new perspectives on twentieth-century American history, government, and culture, helping to elucidate the political function of music in American democracy.The essays in Leonard Bernstein and Washington, DC, all newly written by leading authorities, situate this important American cultural figure in the seat of United States government. The result is a fresh new angle on Leonard Bernstein, American politics, and American culture in the second half of the twentieth century.Daniel Abraham is Professor of Music at American University, Alicia Kopfstein-Penk is Adjunct Professorial Lecturer at American University, and Andrew H. Weaver is Professor of Musicology at The Catholic University of America.
Leonard Bernstein by Barry Seldes
Call Number: ML410.B566 S45 2009
ISBN: 9780520257641
Published/Created: 2009-05-26
From his dazzling conducting debut in 1943 until his death in 1990, Leonard Bernstein's star blazed brilliantly. In this fresh and revealing biography of Bernstein's political life, Barry Seldes examines Bernstein's career against the backdrop of cold war America?blacklisting by the State Department in 1950, voluntary exile from the New York Philharmonic in 1951 for fear that he might be blacklisted, signing a humiliating affidavit to regain his passport?and the factors that by the mid-1950s allowed his triumphant return to the New York Philharmonic. Seldes for the first time links Bernstein's great concert-hall and musical-theatrical achievements and his real and perceived artistic setbacks to his involvement with progressive political causes. Making extensive use of previously untapped FBI files as well as overlooked materials in the Library of Congress's Bernstein archive, Seldes illuminates the ways in which Bernstein's career intersected with the twentieth century's most momentous events. This broadly accessible and impressively documented account of the celebrity-maestro's life deepens our understanding of an entire era as it reveals important and often ignored intersections of American culture and political power.

Bloch, Schoenberg, and Bernstein by David M. Schiller
Call Number: ML3776.S45 2003
ISBN: 0198167113
Published/Created: 2003-05-22
David Schiller's study of the Jewish music of Bloch, Schoenberg, and Bernstein reveals how, in the mid-twentieth century, the problem of assimilation was acutely felt as the unfinished business of European Jewry, at a time when American Jewry was creating its own distinctive culture (albeit with European roots). This incisive study sheds new light on an important aspect of the cultural and aesthetic achievements of these seminal Jewish composers.

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RILM Abstracts of Music Literature External This link opens in a new window
International bibliography of scholarly writings on music and related disciplines from 5,200 journals in 202 languages. Citations are drawn from articles, books, conference proceedings, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, festchriften, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, ethnographic recordings and videos, and reviews. Covers from Western and Eastern classical to pop, folk, and jazz with original language titles and title translations in English.
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Index of doctoral dissertations and master's theses, with coverage from 1861 to the present. Those published from 1980 to present include abstracts, and many of those published since the 1990's are available in full text (PDF digital format) along with 24 page previews. Full text dissertations may be downloaded to a zip disc or emailed to a user account (but be aware that restrictions on your email account or security precautions at your institution might prevent the document from reaching you after leaving the Library). Please limit printing from Library of Congress workstations to citations and summaries.