Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25,
1918. Early music study took place with private piano teachers, and
subsequently with Helen Coates and Heinrich Gebhard. He was graduated
from Harvard in 1939 after which he attended the Curtis Institute of
Music (a pupil of Fritz Reiner in conducting) and three summer sessions
of the Berkshire Music Center as a student and protégé of Serge
Koussevitzky. He made a sensational debut as conductor with the New York
Philharmonic in 1943, appearing as a last-minute substitute for Bruno
Walter who had fallen ill. Since that time he has risen to the front
rank of contemporary symphony conductors, having led most of the world’s
leading organizations, and being appointed music director of the New
York Philharmonic in 1958. As a serious composer he first attracted
attention with the _Jeremiah Symphony_ in 1944, which was performed by
most of America’s leading orchestras, was recorded, and received the New
York City Music Critics Award. He subsequently wrote other major works
for orchestra as well as the scores to successful ballets, an opera, and
several Broadway musical comedies that were box-office triumphs; the
last of these included _On the Town_ (1944), _Wonderful Town_ (1953) and
_West Side Story_ (1957). Bernstein has also distinguished himself as a
musical commentator and analyst over television, concert pianist, and
author.
Whether writing in a serious or popular vein Bernstein consistently
reveals himself to be a master of his technical resources, endowed with
a fine creative imagination, a strong lyric and rhythmic gift, and a
restless intelligence that is ever on the search for new and fresh
approaches in his writing. High on the list of favorites in the
semi-classical repertory are the orchestral suites he adapted from his
two popular and successful ballets.
_Facsimile_, choreography by Jerome Robbins, was introduced in New York
in 1946. The ballet scenario revolves around three lonely people—a woman
and two men—who find only frustration and disenchantment after trying to
find satisfactory personal relationships. The orchestral suite from this
vivacious score, vitalized with the use of popular melodies and dance
rhythms, is made up of four parts. I. “Solo.” The principal musical
material here is found in a solo flute. This is a description of a woman
standing alone in an open place. II. “Pas de Deux.” Woman meets man, and
a flirtation ensues to the tune of a waltz. The scene achieves a
passionate climax, and is followed by a sentimental episode,
romanticized in the music by a subject for muted strings and two solo
violins and solo viola. The love interest dies; the pair become bored,
then hostile. III. “Pas de trois.” The second man enters. This episode
is a scherzo with extended piano solo passages. A triangle ensues
between the two men and one woman, there is some sophisticated interplay
among them, and finally there ensue bitter words and misunderstandings.
IV. “Coda.” The two men take their departure, not without considerable
embarrassment.
_Fancy Free_ was Bernstein’s first ballet, and it is still his most
popular one; he completed his score in 1944 and it was introduced by the
Ballet Theater (which had commissioned it) on April 18 of that year. It
was a success of major proportions, received numerous performances, then
became a staple in the American dance repertory. It is, wrote George
Amberg, “the first substantial ballet entirely created in the
contemporary American idiom, a striking and beautifully convincing
example of genuine American style.” The scenario, by Jerome Robbins,
concerned the quest of girl companionship on the part of three sailors
on temporary shore leave. Bernstein’s music, though sophisticated in its
harmonic and instrumental vocabulary, is filled with racy jazz rhythms
and idioms and with melodies cast in a popular mold. The orchestral
suite is made up of five parts: “Dance of the Three Sailors”; “Scene at
the Bar”; “Pas de deux”; “Pantomime”; “Three Variations” (Galop, Waltz,
Danzon) and Finale.
When this Suite was first performed, in Pittsburgh in 1945, with
Bernstein conducting, the composer provided the following description of
what takes place in the music. “From the moment the action begins, with
the sound of a juke box wailing behind the curtain, the ballet is
strictly Young America of 1944. The curtain rises on a street corner
with a lamppost, side street bar, and New York skyscrapers tricked out
with a crazy pattern of lights, making a dizzying background. Three
sailors explode onto the stage; they are on shore leave in the city and
on the prowl for girls. The tale of how they meet first one girl, then a
second, and how they fight over them, lose them, and in the end take off
after still a third, is the story of the ballet.”
_Fancy Free_ was expanded into a musical-comedy by Betty Comden and
Adolph Green, for which Bernstein wrote his Broadway score. Called _On
the Town_ it started a one-year Broadway run on December 28, 1944, and
subsequently was twice revived in off-Broadway productions, and was made
into an outstanding screen musical.