Monday Musical Offering Odds and Ends

100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth—Huzzah!  Bernstein is somebody I have come to appreciate more and more, the older I get.  My first exposure was in high school, where I was supposed to play the piano part in the pit band of West Side Story.  I had been in the pit band for a couple of other high school musicals, and they were nothing but oom-pah reductions of pretty un-challenging music.  I approached WSS the same way, which was a grave error which I have come to regret terribly.  Every time I listen to the music now, I hear those piano cues—those critical, essential cues that I completely missed because I didn’t take it seriously—and I feel bad for Mr. Lish, the director, and for the music.  And every time I listen to the music now, I get weepy.

Bernstein wasn’t on my radar in particular for a long time after that, as what musical energy I had tended to be focused in other places than the orchestral canon.  I did hear, and really loved, Candide.  I played a little bit more Bernstein during my first teaching gig, when I accompanied a student playing the early clarinet sonata at a talent show.  Good stuff, and I was wishing there was more like it.

Now I am listening more closely to the canon, and listening more to Bernstein the composer.  There’s still stuff I have a hard time with—sometimes just a little too freshman-earnest or didactic or studiously pop—but most of the time, wow.

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Not naming names, but you may need to rethink your approach to composition if the radio announcer says something like “despite being written in his characteristic 12-tone style, parts of the piece are quite listenable and almost melodic.”

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Trying to play the piano a bit more as the year winds down.  It’s hard to find the energy and time, but it is good to do.  I’m working on memorizing, which is a new thing.  It’s rough going.