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1 Chapter 1 : Symphonic Dances (9) from "Westâ Details AllMusic Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. LEONARD BERNSTEIN BORN: August 25, Lawrence, Massachusetts DIED: October 14, New York City. The San Francisco Symphony is celebrating the centennial of his birth during the season. If you do not wish to be contacted, leave it blank. Review Guidelines Explain exactly why you liked or disliked the product. Do you like the artist? Is the transcription accurate? Is it a good teaching tool? Consider writing about your experience and musical tastes. Are you a beginner who started playing last month? Do you usually like this style of music? Be respectful of artists, readers, and your fellow reviewers. Please do not use inappropriate language, including profanity, vulgarity, or obscenity. Avoid disclosing contact information addresses, phone numbers, etc. We cannot post your review if it violates these guidelines. If you have any suggestions or comments on the guidelines, please us. All submitted reviews become the licensed property of Sheet Music Plus and are subject to all laws pertaining thereto. If you believe that any review contained on our site infringes upon your copyright, please us. Tell a friend or remind yourself about this product. You may also enter a personal message. We do not use or store addresses from this form for any other purpose than sending your share . You can also listen to your MP3 at any time in your Digital Library. You can also download at any time in your Digital Library. Your video is in XX format and is playable on most pre-installed video players. Page 1

2 Chapter 2 : Bernstein: West Side Story: Symphonic Dances (page 1 of 8) Presto Classical Leonard Bernstein Israel Philharmonic Orchestra The Symphony Hall, Osaka, This will be quite a ride, so sit back, relax, and let us delve into the sound world of Bernstein. Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on August 25th, Saying this, however, it was from a young age that Bernstein began engaging with classical music, more specifically â piano music. Bernstein attended Harvard University, where he studied music. He had an active musical life around the Harvard campus, where he was involved in musical productions, piano accompaniment, and conducting. The show became an artistic landmark, due to its fusion of opera, ballet, jazz, classical, as well as seriously complex vocal and instrumental demands on the cast and orchestra. This powerful show outlines the classic love vs hate storyline, where two street gangs clash horns on the streets of New York. Although all of the movements create one piece of music, the order in which the music appears is different from the show itself. The nine movements are as follows: Prologue Allegro Moderato 3. Scherzo Vivace e Leggiero 4. Mambo Meno Presto 5. Cha-Cha Andantino Con Grazia 6. Meeting Scene Meno Mosso 7. Rumble Molto Allegro 9. However, for those interested, for each section I shall offer a short outline of what unfolds in the scene from the show, which may add some context to the music. Some main themes are established in this movement. This whole section is rather unsettled, which represents the tension between the two gangs. The quiet sections build up tension, with short bursts of extremely loud brass-led sections show the anger and frustration of the music. A short burst of a jazz theme is heard, before returning to one of the main themes. The music is structured chaos, and the drive of the music is exciting, until it begins to calm down with its segue into the next, much slower section. With a sweet melody in the high winds and tuned percussion leading this section, the brass and strings interject throughout, but never fully penetrate the music properly. This playful movement differs from both the first and second movements. The accented dance rhythms create the excitement of a dance battle, with references to Latin rhythms and jazz, this section is perhaps one of the most exhilarating. The instrumentation is perhaps the most interesting part of this sequence, with the lower winds being used to create an air of curiosity, whereas the upper winds are used for the sweet melodies. The tambourine and shaker remind us that this is still a dance scene, with their rhythmic patterns. The sweetness of this section represents the two lovers meeting for the first time. This is only a very short section, but it offers a melodic transition into the seventh section. The underlying swung snare beat creates quite a foreboding atmosphere. This movement builds up into another big outburst from the whole orchestra. We see the return of surprising accents, led by the brass, which could also represent the physical struggle from the scene. The constant off-kilter rhythms create the conflict and builds the tension up. The strings and winds are used to represent the mourning and tears shed at the death of the protagonist, Tony. The slow and rich build up to when the muted trumpets enter, represent the funeral procession. The idea of this scene is that both gangs reach out for some level of peace, it has been due to the tragic loss of Tony. A multi-dimensional work can easily stand alone as its own concert piece, due to its seamless musicality, orchestration and imagery used throughout. This work is demanding for even the top orchestras, with its infamously difficult brass parts. To get an orchestra to play this cohesively and with the right character is a mammoth task, but one that is so rewarding for both conductor and ensemble. Page 2

3 Chapter 3 : Leonard Bernstein 'Symphonic Dances from West Side Story': Mambo! - Classicalexburns Symphonic Dances from West Side Story by: Leonard Bernstein: Paul Lavender marked the 50th anniversary of West Side Story; considered by many to be Broadway's greatest contribution to the arts; as well as the most memorable work from legendary composer Leonard Bernstein. For more than 30 years, from his assumption of the post of Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in until the final concerts that he conducted in obviously failing health near the end of his life in, he was the most prominent and widely recognized American-born conductor in the world, and the dominant personality in American classical music as both a conductor and, to a lesser degree, a composer. In the process, he opened new musical horizons to millions of listeners and thousands of would-be performers who might never have otherwise discovered them. And most who were around to see him in the years when he was at the New York Philharmonic, either as an assistant conductor or a guest conductor for such events as the Lewisohn Stadium concerts, or as Music Director, remember him as vividly as they recall Elvis Presley or the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, or hearing the Sgt. Bernstein was born in Lawrence, MA, in, the son of Sam Bernstein, a Russian-born Talmudic scholar-turned-fish-cleaner-turned-businessman. Bernstein seemed destined for a career in business until age ten, when he began playing the piano on his own and got good enough to give lessons to other children, earning enough money to pay for his own lessons when his father refused to indulge in such impractical activities. He had an equal aptitude with popular music and the classics, and was a formidable improviser even at this young age. After initial study with Helen Coates, who subsequently became his mentor and personal secretary, he studied with the prominent piano teacher Heinrich Gebhard. He attended Harvard, and became very well known at the university for his prodigious musical abilities -- surprisingly, he often neglected courses in music theory in favor of classes in philosophy and language, all the while playing the piano at every opportunity and writing about music as well. It appeared that Bernstein was destined for a career as a concert pianist, when a chance encounter in with the Greek-born maestro Dimitri Mitropoulos, which led to a brief homosexual relationship, changed the course of his career. Seeing the celebrated conductor at work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein became fixated upon the art of conducting, and decided to shift his intention from a career at the keyboard to one at the podium. It was on the strength of a recommendation from Koussevitsky that Bernstein was hired as an assistant conductor by the New York Philharmonic. This was not a prominent or glamorous post, primarily charging Bernstein with responsibility for screening new scores, occasionally coaching the orchestra, and standing by in the event that the scheduled conductor on a given evening was unable to appear. It was in the latter capacity that lightning first struck for Bernstein, on the afternoon of November 14,, when the scheduled conductor, Bruno Walter, was suddenly taken ill, just hours before he was to conduct a program of both new and established concert works. The next day, Bernstein and the story of the behind-the-scenes drama at the Philharmonic and the broadcast that followed were on the front page of The New York Times and other major newspapers, and not just in New York. Literally overnight, he was in demand as a conductor, sufficiently to receive invitations from various major orchestras and the offer of a recording contract with RCA Victor, then one of the three biggest record labels in the country alongside Columbia and Decca. It was as a composer, primarily for the stage, that Bernstein began emerging in the years after his New York Philharmonic debut. He also became a familiar figure on television, through his appearances on the Omnibus documentary series. And there were some recordings -- his contract with RCA Victor limited Bernstein to recording contemporary works including some of his own, but his stint conducting the Philharmonic in its summer concerts at Lewisohn Stadium in northern Manhattan led to a recording contract with Decca Records for which the Philharmonic, to avoid a violation of its exclusive contract with Columbia Masterworks, was billed as the "Lewisohn Stadium Symphony Orchestra". This gave him his first chance to record the mainstream European repertory, including works by Schumann, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky; and he ran with it, in a series of genuinely exciting and bracing interpretations that remained popular for decades. His aspirations as a conductor were thwarted, however, and his career seemed stalled. Additionally, his health was deteriorating, and it seemed to all Page 3

4 concerned by that Mitropoulos might not last much longer with the Philharmonic. There were two obstacles, however, that he would have to overcome -- the first was the fact that no American-born conductor had ever held the post of chief conductor or, as it was to be renamed, music director of any major American orchestra; their boards tended to look at Europeans, owing to an in-bred cultural inferiority that went with classical music at the time, and the Philharmonic was the most elitist of them all. And there was also still one man ahead of him, standing in his path: His only drawback was his youth, and it was assumed by many that Bernstein might, at best, receive an interim appointment as chief conductor for three or four years, until Cantelli was ready, and then relinquish the job. The tragedy left Bernstein as the leading contender for the position. It was only after he agreed to abandon his Broadway career that these doubts were settled. At the age of 40, he had succeeded to the most prominent musical post in the United States, the first American-born musician to have achieved such a position with a major orchestra. Overnight Bernstein became a national figure. He emerged into the limelight through a recording contract with Columbia Masterworks that ensured he would get to record every major piece of classical repertory -- some more than once -- over the next 15 years, and those recordings, in turn, brought Bernstein even more exposure. He was a shockingly handsome man, with matinee idol, even movie star good looks, and was a dashing figure at the podium, and on camera he was unbelievably charismatic. Additionally, he was a natural teacher, able to reach out to audiences of any age and explain music written as much as a century or two earlier to contemporary listeners. But his success was a factor of much more than his abilities as a speaker, or even as an interpreter of music. Bernstein had been fortunate enough to arrive on the national scene at around the same time as another major cultural figure out of Massachusetts, President John F. He had not only the classical music world at his feet but, seemingly, the pop culture world as well. Strangely enough, amid all of this material -- many hundreds of recordings -- he only ever recorded two pieces by his boyhood idol George Gershwin, the Rhapsody in Blue, which he recorded with himself as piano soloist, and An American In Paris. Bernstein also championed the then neglected music of Charles Ives and made the first major orchestra recordings of contemporary pieces such as Atmospheres by Ligeti albeit from an edited version of the score. Such was his status and stature, that when he recorded a piece, even by a relatively little-known modernist or a contemporary composer, audiences felt obliged to look into it. He was, if anything, the reverse of Toscanini in his effect on music -- where the venerated Italian maestro had limited his repertory to a narrow strip of Romantic works and a relative handful of composers and, some say, limited the thinking about music for his hundreds of thousands of admirers in the process from the s to the s, Bernstein was always challenging his listeners with new names and new pieces. Unlike Mitropoulos, who was a specialist in the late Romantic repertory and modern music, Bernstein was a generalist in the extreme, conducting work from across history, from the Baroque to the contemporary. The Philharmonic itself was also altered radically during his tenure. From a schedule of five months annually, he helped turn the orchestra into a year-round institution, with concerts scheduled in each season, and a commensurate increase in salary for the members. One other factor in the incredible timing of his arrival and appointment was the retirement of Toscanini in, and the final dissolution of the NBC Symphony Orchestra -- a broadcast unit created for the older conductor by the radio network that had competed with the Philharmonic for record sales, audience, and press coverage -- and its successor ensemble, the Symphony of the Air, a couple of years later, which left the Philharmonic as the only institution of its size or reputation in New York. Additionally, the Philharmonic became a familiar and much-loved institution in New York under Bernstein, even among non-music fans, something that had never happened before; he made classical music seem friendly and accessible, rather than imposing, and audiences responded in kind. Page 4

5 Chapter 4 : Symphonic Dances from West Side Story West Side Story is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It was inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. He proposed that the plot focus on the conflict between an Irish Catholic family and a Jewish family living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, [6] during the Easterâ Passover season. The girl has survived the Holocaust and emigrated from Israel; the conflict was to be centered around anti-semitism of the Catholic "Jets" towards the Jewish "Emeralds" a name that made its way into the script as a reference. Bernstein wanted to present the material in operatic form, but Robbins and Laurents resisted the suggestion. They described the project as "lyric theater", and Laurents wrote a first draft he called East Side Story. When he opted to drop out, the three men went their separate ways, and the piece was shelved for almost five years. Cain novel Serenade, about an opera singer who comes to the realization he is homosexual, and he invited Laurents to write the book. Laurents accepted and suggested Bernstein and Robbins join the creative team. Robbins felt if the three were going to join forces, they should return to East Side Story, and Bernstein agreed. Sondheim auditioned by playing the score for Saturday Night, his musical that was scheduled to open in the fall. Laurents liked the lyrics but was not impressed with the music. Serenade ultimately was shelved. While in Hollywood, he contacted Bernstein, who was in town conducting at the Hollywood Bowl. The two met at The Beverly Hills Hotel, and the conversation turned to juvenile delinquent gangs, a fairly recent social phenomenon that had received major coverage on the front pages of the morning newspapers due to a Chicano turf war. The two contacted Robbins, who was enthusiastic about a musical with a Latin beat. He arrived in Hollywood to choreograph the dance sequences for The King and I, and he and Laurents began developing the musical while working on their respective projects, keeping in touch with Bernstein, who had returned to New York. When the producer of The Painted Veil replaced Gardner with Eleanor Parker and asked Laurents to revise his script with her in mind, he backed out of the film, freeing him to devote all his time to the stage musical. Bernstein had decided he needed to concentrate solely on the music, and he and Robbins had invited Betty Comden and Adolph Green to write the lyrics, but the team opted to work on Peter Pan instead. Laurents asked Sondheim if he would be interested in tackling the task. Initially he resisted, because he was determined to write the full score for his next project Saturday Night had been aborted, but Oscar Hammerstein convinced him that he would benefit from the experience, and he accepted. Language posed a problem; four-letter curse words were uncommon in the theater at the time, and slang expressions were avoided for fear they would be dated by the time the production opened. Laurents ultimately invented what sounded like real street talk but actually was not: With the help of Oscar Hammerstein, Laurents convinced Bernstein and Sondheim to move "One Hand, One Heart", which he considered too pristine for the balcony scene, to the scene set in the bridal shop, and as a result "Tonight" was written to replace it. He was outvoted on other issues: Another song, "Kid Stuff", was added and quickly removed during the Washington, D. Just as Tony and Maria, our Romeo and Juliet, set themselves apart from the other kids by their love, so we have tried to set them even further apart by their language, their songs, their movement. Wherever possible in the show, we have tried to heighten emotion or to articulate inarticulate adolescence through music, song or dance. Bernstein was despondent, but Sondheim convinced his friend Hal Prince, who was in Boston overseeing the out-of-town tryout of the new George Abbott musical New Girl in Town, to read the script. He liked it but decided to ask Abbott, his longtime mentor, for his opinion, and Abbott advised him to turn it down. Prince, aware that Abbott was the primary reason New Girl was in trouble, decided to ignore him, and he and his producing partner Robert Griffith flew to New York to hear the score. Robbins then announced he did not want to choreograph the show, but changed his mind when Prince agreed to an eight-week dance rehearsal period instead of the customary four, since there was to be more dancing in West Side Story than in any previous Broadway show, [17] and allowed Robbins to hire Peter Gennaro as his assistant. Getting the work on stage was still not easy. Everyone told us that [West Side Story] was an impossible project And we were told no one was going to be able to sing augmented fourths, as with "Ma-ri-a" Also, they said the score was too rangy for pop music Page 5

6 Besides, who wanted to see a show in which the first-act curtain comes down on two dead bodies lying on the stage? And then we had the really tough problem of casting it, because the characters had to be able not only to sing but dance and act and be taken for teenagers. Ultimately, some of the cast were teenagers, some were 21, some were 30 but looked Robbins kept the cast members playing the Sharks and the Jets separate in order to discourage them from socializing with each other and reminded everyone of the reality of gang violence by posting news stories on the bulletin board backstage. He gave the ensemble more freedom than Broadway dancers had previously been given to interpret their roles, and the dancers were thrilled to be treated like actors instead of just choreographed bodies. His painted backdrops were stunning, but the sets were, for the most part, either shabby looking or too stylized. Prince refused to spend money on new construction, and Smith was obliged to improve what he had as best he could with very little money to do it. Bernstein magnanimously removed his name as co-author of the lyrics, although Sondheim was uncertain he wanted to receive sole credit for what he considered to be overly florid contributions by Bernstein. Robbins demanded and received a "Conceived by" credit, and used it to justify his making major decisions regarding changes in the show without consulting the others. As a result, by opening night on Broadway, none of his collaborators were talking to him. They are warned by police officers Krupke and Lt. Schrank to stop fighting on their beat. The police chase the Sharks off, and then the Jets plan how they can assure their continued dominance of the street. Riff wants to convince his friend and former member of the Jets, Tony, to meet the Jets at the dance. Some of the Jets are unsure of his loyalty, but Riff is adamant that Tony is still one of them "Jet Song". Tony initially refuses, but Riff wins him over. Maria works in a bridal shop with Anita, the girlfriend of her brother, Bernardo. Maria confesses to Anita that she is not in love with Chino. Anita makes Maria a dress to wear to the neighborhood dance. They dance together, forgetting the tension in the room, and fall in love, but Bernardo pulls his sister from Tony and sends her home. She appears on her fire escape, and the two profess their love for one another " Tonight ". Riff helps them let out their aggression " Cool ". The Sharks arrive to discuss weapons to use in the rumble. This is followed by a monologue by the ineffective Lt. Schrank trying to find out the location of the rumble. Tony tells Doc about Maria. Doc is worried for them while Tony is convinced that nothing can go wrong; he is in love. Tony stabs Bernardo in the Broadway production. The next day, Maria is in a very happy mood at the bridal shop, as she anticipates seeing Tony again. However, she learns about the upcoming rumble from Anita and is dismayed. When Tony arrives, Maria asks him to stop the fight altogether, which he agrees to do. Before he goes, they dream of their wedding " One Hand, One Heart ". The gangs meet under the highway and, as the fight between Bernardo and Diesel begins, Tony arrives and tries to stop it. Though Bernardo taunts and provokes Tony, ridiculing his attempt to make peace, Tony keeps his composure. The two draw their switchblades and get in a fight "The Rumble". Tony attempts to intervene, inadvertently leading to Riff being fatally stabbed by Bernardo. Tony kills Bernardo in a fit of rage, which in turn provokes an all-out fight like the fight in the Prologue. The sound of approaching police sirens is heard, and everyone scatters, except Tony, who stands in shock at what he has done. The tomboy Anybodys, who stubbornly wishes that she could become a Jet, tells Tony to flee from the scene at the last moment and flees with the knives. Only the bodies of Riff and Bernardo remain. Later, as Maria dances on the roof happily because she has seen Tony and believes he went to stop the rumble, Chino brings the news that Tony has killed Bernardo. Maria flees to her bedroom, praying that Chino is lying. Tony arrives to see Maria and she initially pounds on his chest with rage, but she still loves him. They plan to run away together. They meet the rest of the gang. Anybodys arrives and tells the Jets she has been spying on the Puerto Ricans; she has discovered that Chino is looking for Tony with a gun. The gang separates to find Tony. Action has taken charge; he accepts Anybodys into the Jets and includes her in the search. In spite of her attempts to conceal it, Anita sees that Tony has been with Maria, and launches an angry tirade against him " A Boy Like That ". She admits that Chino has a gun and is looking for Tony. Doc arrives and stops them. Anita is furious, and in anger spitefully delivers the wrong message, telling the Jets that Chino has shot Maria dead. Doc relates the news to Tony, who has been dreaming of heading to the countryside to have children with Maria. Feeling there is no longer anything to live for, Tony leaves to find Chino, begging for him to shoot him as well. Just as Tony sees Maria alive, Chino arrives and shoots Tony. The Jets, Sharks, and adults flock around the lovers. Maria holds Page 6

7 Tony in her arms and sings a quiet, brief reprise of "Somewhere" as he dies. However, she is unable to bring herself to fire the gun and drops it, crying in grief. The Jets and Sharks form a procession, and together carry Tony away, with Maria the last one in the procession. Chapter 5 : [Bernstein - West Side Story] notes by Paul Serotsky 13/02/ Carnegie Hall, New York, NY New York Philharmonic / Lukas Foss. Chapter 6 : West Side Story - Wikipedia West Side Story, Bernstein employed vibrant instrumental combinations, complex rhythms, and a huge percussion section to create energetic dance numbers that tell both a love story and one of gang conflict. Chapter 7 : Works Works Leonard Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Bernstein composed the musical West Side Story in These Symphonic Dances were extracted from the score in, by the. Chapter 8 : Gershwin & West Side Story Huntsville Symphony Orchestra Symphonic Dances seamlessly ties together nine separate episodes from West Side Story-though not in their original dramatic sequence. Bernstein had toyed with the notion of a formal overture but wisely decided to open the musical in the middle of things instead. Chapter 9 : Symphonic Dances - Wikipedia Leonard Bernstein Symphonic Dances (9) from "West Side Story", for orchestra (orchestrated with Ramin & Kostal). Page 7