Johns 1

Keaton Johns

Dr. Scott Knowles

THEA 3723

2/28/18

Say It Loud and There’s Music Playing: A Look at the Impact of Leonard Bernstein

● Introduction

○ Thesis Statement- Bernstein is underappreciated in the realm of theatre, and I plan

to show his impact

○ Methodology- analyses and reviews, personal accounts, articles about his impact

○ Findings- very popular in opera world, hope to see him mentioned with other

great American composers

● Literature Review

○ His Music

■ Norton Anthology w/ “Cool”

■ Foulkes and post WWII New York

■ Smith had analyses of Bernstein in There’s A Place For Us

■ Nash has liturgical view

■ Gottlieb has personal account and analyses of his work

○ His Impact

■ Burton Bernstein assembled a team to talk about Leonard’s work with the

New York Philharmonic

■ Budmen talks about the Young People Concerts

 Johns 2

■ Keyser includes Bernstein in compilative biography of American

composers

● Body

○ The Music

■ Analyses of Bernstein’s three most popular musicals- Candide, On The

Town, & West Side Story

● Norton Anthology’s analysis

● Gottlieb’s personal analysis

● Smith’s analysis

● Foulkes’ analysis

■ Alternative Analyses

● Nash’s liturgical viewpoint

● Nadine Hubbs’ view on queer composition

○ The Impact

■ In the realm of conducting

● Burton Bernstein and others’ look at him

● Budmen

● Gottlieb’s personal memories

■ His place in the musical theatre canon

● Keyser’s biography

● Smith wrote a whole book on him

● Budmen on how he made a difference

● Conclusion
 Johns 3

○ Bernstein is highly regarded in the realm of classical music, and highly praised

among the scholars of musical theatre, but it seems that the general audience does

not remember him

Works Cited
 Johns 4

Bernstein, Burton. Leonard Bernstein : American original : how a modern Renaissance

man transformed music and the world during his New York Philharmonic years, 1943-

1976. 1st ed., Collins, 2008.

Bernstein, Leonard. Candide. 1956. Chicago: Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing

Company LLC, 1997. Print.

Bernstein, Leonard. On The Town. 1944. Chicago: Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing

Company LLC, 1997. Print.

Bernstein, Leonard. West Side Story. 1957. Chicago: Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing

Company LLC, 1994. Print.

Budmen, Lawrence. “Bernstein: An Artist Who Made A Difference.” BERNSTEIN: AN

ARTIST WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE,

www.lawrencebudmen.com/articles_bernstein_an_artist_difference.html.

Burkholder, J. Peter, and Claude V. Palisca. “Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story,

musical: Act I, No. 8, "Cool".” Norton Anthology of Western Music, 7th ed., vol. 3,

W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY, 2014, pp. 561–591.

Foulkes, Julia L. A place for us : "West Side story" and New York. The University of

Chicago Press, 2016.

Gottlieb, Jack. Working with Bernstein : a memoir. Amadeus Press, 2010.

Hubbs, Nadine. The Queer Composition of America's Sound : Gay Modernists, American

Music, and National Identity. Berkeley, University of California Press, 2004. Print.

Keyser, Herbert H. Geniuses of the American musical theatre : the composers and

lyricists. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, 2009.

 Johns 5

Nash, Paul. “'The most beautiful sound I ever heard': Liturgy, Religious Imagery and

Symbolism in West Side Story.” Contemporary Theatre Review, vol. 19, no. 1, 2009, pp.

87–100.

Smith, Helen. There’s a Place for Us: The Musical Theatre Works of Leonard Bernstein.

Ashgate, 2011.