Leonard Bernstein's 100th Birthday

Leonard Bernstein's 100th Birthday
 

Google Doodle
Happy Birthday, Leonard Bernstein!


Published on Aug 24, 2018

Today's Doodle celebrates the 100th birthday of American composer, conductor, pianist, author and music lecturer, Leonard Bernstein!

Happy 100th birthday to American music icon Leonard Bernstein! The youngest conductor ever to lead the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, he was also the first U.S. conductor to gain international renown, leading a 1953 performance of ‘Medea’ at La Scala in Milan, Italy's foremost opera house.

The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Bernstein discovered music around age 10 and overcame his parents’ resistance to his passion for the arts. His creativity and talent spilled over from one art-form to the next, and throughout his life, the most persistent criticisms of his work were that he did too much. “I want to conduct,” he wrote late in life. “I want to play the piano. I want to write for Hollywood. I want to write symphonic music. I want to keep on trying to be, in the full sense of that wonderful word, a musician. I also want to teach. I want to write books and poetry. And I think I can still do justice to them all.''

Today’s Doodle celebrates Bernstein’s life set to one of his  most iconic works - the score to West Side Story. The tale, following the turf war between two rival gangs and star-crossed lovers in the west side of Manhattan, was brought to life through Bernstein’s gripping score. The original 1957 production was nominated for six Tony Awards including Best Musical. Explore the history and legacy of the iconic musical by visiting Google Arts & Culture.
A larger-than-life personality, Bernstein held the baton with emphatic mannerisms, reacting to the emotion of the music mid-performance. As Director of the New York Philharmonic, he exposed generations of young people to musical programming on television. Before Bernstein’s tenure, no widely-aired television show existed to educate youth through musical performances. In this way, and as a popular commentator about music on radio and TV, he made intellectual culture more accessible to the public at large.

Bernstein was also a skilled lecturer - winning a Grammy in 1961 for Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (other than comedy). He published books about music and lectured on poetry at Harvard University. 

His legacy endures as a musical polymath, a creator of culture, and an example that sometimes more is more.

Leonard Bernstein Team 

• Art Lead: Lydia Nichols
• Motion Designer: Stan Cameron
• Marketing: Perla Campos, Carlos Diaz
• Business Affairs: Madeline Belliveau
• Doodle Team Lead: Jessica Yu

For more info behind the Doodle, please visit:
 https://www.google.com/doodles/leonard-bernsteins-100th-birthday

 

Beyond West Side Story:

5 of Leonard Bernstein’s musical masterpieces

Leonard Bernstein gave American music so much more than West Side Story.
By Aja Romano Updated Aug 25, 2018

Of all the figures in the American cultural pantheon, there are few who have had a broader cultural impact than Leonard Bernstein — composer, conductor, performer, queer and Jewish icon, and genius.

As today’s Google Doodle celebrates Bernstein’s 100th birthday, you might be tempted to whip out your copy of West Side Story and indulge in a reminiscence of “Somewhere” or “Tonight” or “Cool,” or any of the other brilliant songs that have made the Bernstein-Sondheim masterpiece such an enduring part of our modern musical lexicon.

But let us suggest a different approach to celebrating Bernstein’s birthday. Though it may be tempting to stop at West Side Story, if you did, you’d be missing out on a wealth of gorgeous music from the man who churned out hundreds of works before his death in 1990. Bernstein’s complete oeuvre is massive, spawning everything from Broadway musicals to jazz singles to symphonies and ballets.

Here are five seminal works by Bernstein that you shouldn’t miss if you want to understand what made him America’s greatest composer.

READ MORE and Listen to Music Here:
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/25/17779096/leonard-bernsteins-100th-birthday-greatest-works 

 

 Bernstein
The Greatest 5 min. in Music Education

This amazing lecture series (The unanswered Question ), is actually an interdisciplinary overview about the evolution of Western European classical music from Bach through the 20th century crisis and beyond a bit . Mr. Bernstein uses linguistics namely Chomskian Linguistics to provide a framework to illustrate how music and all the arts evolved toward greater and greater levels of ambiguity/expressivity over history until the 20th century crisis . He manages this impressive feat of popular education , by dividing music into; Phonology (the study of sound); Syntax (the study of structure) and; Semantics (the study of meaning)

Candide Overture:

Leonard Bernstein conducting

Candide Overture, conducted by the composer himself, Leonard Bernstein. Concert performance of Candide with June Anderson, Jerry Hadley, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda - London Symphony Orchestra (London, December 13, 1989).

The Best of Bernstein

Top Classical Music - Published on May 29, 2013

Tracklist: Candide

1. Abertura

Três variações do Balé "Fancy Free"

2. Variação I: Galop

3. Variação II: Waltz

4. Variação III: Danzon

Danças Sinfônicas de "West Side Story" (Amor, Sublime Amor)

5. Prólogo (Allegro moderato)

6. Somewhere (Adagio)

7. Scherzo (Vivace e leggiero)

8. Mambo (Meno presto)

9. Cha-Cha (Andantino con grazia)

10. Meeting Scene (Meno mosso)

11. Cool Fugue (Allegretto)

12. Rumble (Molto allegro)

13. Finale (Adagio)

Três episódios de dança "On The Town" (Um dia em Nova York)

14. I. The Great Lover

15. II. Lonely Town: Pas de deux

16. III. Times Square: 1944

17. Suíte sinfônica de "On the Waterfront" (Sindicato dos Ladrões)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Love classical music? Learn to play the best PIANO pieces the easiest way: http://tinyurl.com/classic-flowkey

West Side Story - Prologue

Official Full Number - 50th Anniversary (HD)

The opening Prologue from the 10-time Academy Award winning musical film West Side Story, which is celebrating its 50th Anniversary on November 15, 2011. Here is the full Prologue from the movie in HD, and below are links where you purchase the 50th Anniversary Edition of West Side Story on Blu-ray and Limited Edition Box Set!

Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Jerome Robbins Music by Leonard Bernstein

Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by Arthur Laurents

 

West Side Story - America

(1080p HD)
From the 50th Anniversary Edition Blu-Ray of the movie.

West Side Story - America

(1961) HD

FILM DESCRIPTION: Romeo and Juliet is updated to the tenements of New York City in this Oscar-winning musical landmark. Adapted by Ernest Lehman from the Broadway production, the movie opens with an overhead shot of Manhattan, an effect that director Robert Wise would repeat over the Alps in The Sound of Music four years later.

West Side Story
The Gangs fight in the street

• Victoria Vasquez:  I wish choreographed gang fights were actually a thing.

• Juei-min Huang: Choreographed gang fights would definitely make America great again.

• Houdini: Just an average day in New York City.

• Zach Rolf:  I go to a theater school and this is what we do when we see our rivals on the street.