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108-468: Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient civilizations and are still used in various musical styles to this day. As Leonard Bernstein put it: "the universality of this scale is so well known that I'm sure you could give me examples of it, from all corners of the earth, as from Scotland, or from China, or from Africa, and from American Indian cultures, from East Indian cultures, from Central and South America, Australia, Finland ...now, that

216-453: A 20th century American composer; the coloratura aria "Glitter and Be Gay", which Barbara Cook sang in the original production; and the grand finale "Make Our Garden Grow". West Side Story (1957) The other musical Bernstein was writing simultaneously with Candide was West Side Story . Bernstein collaborated with director and choreographer Jerome Robbins , book writer Arthur Laurents , and lyricist Stephen Sondheim . The story

324-524: A fundamental frequency . This may be derived by proceeding with the principle that historically gives the Pythagorean diatonic and chromatic scales, stacking perfect fifths with 3:2 frequency proportions (C–G–D–A–E). Considering the anhemitonic scale as a subset of a just diatonic scale , it is tuned thus: 20:24:27:30:36 (A–C–D–E–G = 5 ⁄ 6 – 1 ⁄ 1 – 9 ⁄ 8 – 5 ⁄ 4 – 3 ⁄ 2 ). (A minor seventh can be 7:4, 16:9, or 9:5;

432-523: A guitar uses the notes of an E minor pentatonic scale: E–A–D–G–B–E, contributing to its frequency in popular music. Stevie Wonder employed the minor pentatonic for the funky clavinet riff on the track " Superstition " (1972). The Japanese mode is based on the Phrygian mode , but uses scale tones 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 instead of scale tones 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7. The pentatonic scale (containing notes C, D, E, G and A) has five modes, which are derived by treating

540-601: A Bachelor of Arts, cum laude . Curtis Institute of Music After graduating from Harvard, Bernstein enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia . At Curtis, Bernstein studied conducting with Fritz Reiner (who is said to have given Bernstein the only "A" grade he ever awarded); piano with Isabelle Vengerova ; orchestration with Randall Thompson ; counterpoint with Richard Stöhr ; and score reading with Renée Longy Miquelle . In 1940, Bernstein attended

648-410: A C major scale , for example, one might omit the fourth and the seventh scale degrees , F and B. The remaining notes then make up the major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G, and A. Omitting the third and seventh degrees of the C major scale obtains the notes for another transpositionally equivalent anhemitonic pentatonic scale: F, G, A, C, D. Omitting the first and fourth degrees of the C major scale gives

756-598: A Solemn Occasion with Sir Laurence Olivier narrating text from the UN Charter . The concert was televised by NBC Television Network . In April 1949, Bernstein performed as piano soloist in the world premiere of his Symphony No. 2: The Age of Anxiety with Koussevitzy conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. On December 2, 1949, Bernstein conducted the world premiere of the Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie , with

864-577: A broad swath of the classical music canon . Bernstein welcomed the Philharmonic's additions of its first Black musician, Sanford Allen , and its second woman musician, Orin O'Brien . Bernstein also shared the Philharmonic's commitment to connecting with as many New Yorkers as possible. That vision became a reality with the launch of the Concerts in the Parks in 1965, which Bernstein conducted often. Another milestone

972-440: A different note as the tonic : Ricker assigned the major pentatonic scale mode I while Gilchrist assigned it mode III. Each mode of the pentatonic scale (containing notes C, D, E, G and A) can be thought of as the five scale degrees shared by three different diatonic modes with the two remaining scale degrees removed: Each mode of the pentatonic scale (containing notes C, D, E, G and A) features different intervals of notes from

1080-423: A gapped or incomplete major scale, using scale tones 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 of the major scale. One construction takes five consecutive pitches from the circle of fifths ; starting on C, these are C, G, D, A, and E. Rearranging the pitches to fit into one octave creates the major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G, A. Another construction works backward: It omits two pitches from a diatonic scale . If one were to begin with

1188-531: A good American success story. The warm, friendly triumph of it filled Carnegie Hall and spread far over the air waves." Many newspapers throughout the country carried the story, which, in combination with the concert's live national CBS Radio Network broadcast, propelled Bernstein to instant fame. Over the next two years, Bernstein made conducting debuts with ten different orchestras in the United States and Canada, greatly broadening his repertoire and initiating

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1296-554: A ground-breaking Best Supporting Actress award for Puerto Rican-born Rita Moreno playing the role of Anita. A film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg opened in 2021. In addition to Bernstein's compositional activity for the stage, he wrote a symphonic work, Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" (1954); the score On the Waterfront (1954); and Prelude, Fugue and Riffs , composed in 1949, but only premiered in 1955, for jazz big band and solo clarinet. In 1953, Bernstein became

1404-492: A heavy emphasis on developing creativity through improvisation in children, largely through use of the pentatonic scale. Orff instruments , such as xylophones , bells and other metallophones , use wooden bars, metal bars or bells, which can be removed by the teacher, leaving only those corresponding to the pentatonic scale, which Carl Orff himself believed to be children's native tonality. Children begin improvising using only these bars, and over time, more bars are added at

1512-484: A leading role; a multiracial cast dancing as mixed race couples; and a Black concertmaster, Everett Lee , who eventually took over as music director of the show. On the Town became an MGM motion picture in 1949 , starring Gene Kelly , Frank Sinatra , and Jules Munshin as the three sailors. Only part of Bernstein's score was used in the film and additional songs were provided by Roger Edens . From 1945 to 1947, Bernstein

1620-513: A lifelong beloved friend. Sam took his son to orchestral concerts in his teenage years and eventually supported his music education. In May 1932, Leonard attended his first orchestral concert with the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler . Bernstein recalled, "To me, in those days, the Pops was heaven itself ... I thought ... it was the supreme achievement of the human race." It

1728-529: A lifelong frequent practice of conducting concertos from the piano. On January 28, 1944, Bernstein conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 1: Jeremiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and soloist Jennie Tourel . In the fall of 1943, Bernstein and Jerome Robbins began work on their first collaboration, Fancy Free , a ballet about three young sailors on leave in wartime New York City. Fancy Free premiered on April 18, 1944, with

1836-459: A major sixth can be 27:16 or 5:3. Both were chosen to minimize ratio parts.) Assigning precise frequency proportions to the pentatonic scales of most cultures is problematic as tuning may be variable. For example, the slendro anhemitonic scale and its modes of Java and Bali are said to approach, very roughly, an equally-tempered five-note scale, but their tunings vary dramatically from gamelan to gamelan. Composer Lou Harrison has been one of

1944-470: A performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor to explain that the soloist, Glenn Gould , had chosen an idiosyncratic approach to the work. Bernstein explained that while he did not totally agree with it, he thought Gould's interpretation was an artistically worthy exploration. Bernstein questioned: "In a concerto, who is the boss: the soloist or the conductor?" The incident created

2052-712: A quantum leap when, as the new music director of the New York Philharmonic, he put the orchestra's traditional Saturday afternoon Young People's Concerts on the CBS Television Network. Millions of viewers of all ages and around the world enthusiastically embraced Bernstein and his engaging presentations about classical music. Bernstein often presented talented young performers on the broadcasts. Many of them became celebrated in their own right, including conductors Claudio Abbado and Seiji Ozawa ; flutist Paula Robison ; and pianist André Watts . From 1958 until 1972,

2160-463: A second opera, A Quiet Place , which picked up the story and characters of Trouble in Tahiti in a later period. Wonderful Town (1953) In 1953, Bernstein wrote the score for the musical Wonderful Town on very short notice, with a book by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green . Like the 1940 play, directed on Broadway by George S. Kaufman , it

2268-494: A slow process of many stages. However, since 1960 Johnston had almost exclusively used a system of microtonal notation based on the rational intervals of just intonation, what Gann describes as a "lifelong allegiance" to microtonality. Johnston also studied with Burrill Phillips and Robert Palmer . Johnston composed music for multiple productions by the E.T.C. Company of La MaMa, Wilford Leach and John Braswell's company-in-residence at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in

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2376-471: A stir that reverberated in the press for decades; see New York Philharmonic concert of April 6, 1962 § Legacy . In 1960, Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic marked the centennial of Gustav Mahler's birth with a series of performances. The composer's widow, Alma , attended some of Bernstein's rehearsals. That same year, Bernstein made his first commercial recording of a Mahler symphony (the Fourth) . Over

2484-456: A third anhemitonic pentatonic scale: G, A, B, D, E. The black keys on a piano keyboard comprise a G-flat (or equivalently, F-sharp) major pentatonic scale: G-flat, A-flat, B-flat, D-flat, and E-flat, which is exploited in Chopin 's black key étude . Although various hemitonic pentatonic scales might be called minor , the term is most commonly applied to the relative minor pentatonic derived from

2592-542: A traditional composer of art music before working with Harry Partch . He helped the senior musician to build instruments and use them in the performance and recording of new compositions. Partch then arranged for Johnston to study with Darius Milhaud at Mills College . In 1952, Johnston met Cage, who invited him to come to New York to study with him in the summer. Though Johnston decided he did not have sufficient time to prepare for such studies, he did go to New York for several weeks and assisted, along with Earle Brown , in

2700-420: A turning point in musical theatre. In 1960, Bernstein prepared a suite of orchestral music from the show, titled Symphonic Dances from West Side Story , which continues to be popular with orchestras worldwide. A 1961 United Artists film adaptation , directed by Robert Wise and Robbins, starred Natalie Wood as Maria and Richard Beymer as Tony. The film won ten Academy Awards , including Best Picture and

2808-451: Is a true musico-linguistic universal." There are two types of pentatonic scales: those with semitones (hemitonic) and those without (anhemitonic). Musicology commonly classifies pentatonic scales as either hemitonic or anhemitonic . Hemitonic scales contain one or more semitones and anhemitonic scales do not contain semitones. (For example, in Japanese music the anhemitonic yo scale

2916-636: Is an updated retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , set in the mid-1950s in the slums of New York City's Upper West Side . The Romeo character, Tony, is affiliated with the Jets gang, who are of white Northern European descent. The Juliet character is Maria, who is connected to the Sharks gang, recently arrived from Puerto Rico . The original Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957, and ran 732 performances. Robbins won

3024-516: Is based on the autobiographical short stories, collectively titled My Sister Eileen , that were written by Ruth McKenney and published in the early 1930s by The New Yorker . They tell the story of two sisters from Ohio who move to New York City and seek success from their squalid basement apartment in Greenwich Village . Wonderful Town opened on Broadway on February 25, 1953, at the Winter Garden Theatre , starring Rosalind Russell in

3132-478: Is contrasted with the hemitonic in scale .) Hemitonic pentatonic scales are also called "ditonic scales", because the largest interval in them is the ditone (e.g., in the scale C–E–F–G–B–C, the interval found between C–E and G–B). (This should not be confused with the identical term also used by musicologists to describe a scale including only two notes.) Anhemitonic pentatonic scales can be constructed in many ways. The major pentatonic scale may be thought of as

3240-502: Is dated 1935. He majored in music with a final year thesis titled "The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music" (1939; reproduced in his book Findings ). One of Bernstein's intellectual influences at Harvard was the aesthetics Professor David Prall , whose multidisciplinary outlook on the arts inspired Bernstein for the rest of his life. One of Bernstein's friends at Harvard was future philosopher Donald Davidson , with whom Bernstein played piano duets. Bernstein wrote and conducted

3348-464: Is generally played using one of three five-tone subsets known as pathet , in which certain notes are avoided while others are emphasized. Somali music uses a distinct modal system that is pentatonic, with characteristically long intervals between some notes. As with many other aspects of Somali culture and tradition, tastes in music and lyrics are strongly linked with those in nearby Ethiopia , Eritrea , Djibouti and Sudan . In Scottish music ,

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3456-416: Is hexatonic. Jazz music commonly uses both the major and the minor pentatonic scales. Pentatonic scales are useful for improvisers in modern jazz, pop, and rock contexts because they work well over several chords diatonic to the same key, often better than the parent scale. For example, the blues scale is predominantly derived from the minor pentatonic scale, a very popular scale for improvisation in

3564-465: Is the basic scale of the music of China and the music of Mongolia as well as many Southeast Asian musical traditions such as that of the Karen people as well as the indigenous Assamese ethnic groups. The pentatonic scale predominates most Eastern countries as opposed to Western countries where the heptatonic scale is more commonly used. The fundamental tones (without meri or kari techniques) rendered by

3672-474: Is tuned so as to eliminate 'beating' (the result of vibrations interfering with each other). Just intonation is the easiest to achieve by ear. In this kind of tuning, all intervals have vibration rates related by small whole-number ratios. The larger the integers of the ratio, the greater the dissonance. He received many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1959, a grant from the National Council on

3780-495: Is used in Appalachian folk music . Blackfoot music most often uses anhemitonic tetratonic or pentatonic scales. In Andean music , the pentatonic scale is used substantially minor, sometimes major, and seldom in scale. In the most ancient genres of Andean music being performed without string instruments (only with winds and percussion ), pentatonic melody is often led with parallel fifths and fourths , so formally this music

3888-620: The Ballet Theatre (now the American Ballet Theatre) at the old Metropolitan Opera House , with scenery by Oliver Smith and costumes by Kermit Love . Bernstein and Robbins decided to expand the ballet into a musical and invited Comden and Green to write the book and lyrics. On the Town opened on Broadway's Adelphi Theatre on December 28, 1944. The show resonated with audiences during World War II , and it broke race barriers on Broadway: Japanese-American dancer Sono Osato in

3996-581: The Centennial Gala in 1983. An Artist's Response to Violence In 1961, Bernstein composed and conducted a fanfare for President John F. Kennedy 's pre-inaugural gala. Ben Johnston (composer) Benjamin Burwell Johnston Jr. (March 15, 1926 – July 21, 2019) was an American contemporary music composer, known for his use of just intonation . He was called "one of the foremost composers of microtonal music " by Philip Bush and "one of

4104-533: The East Village of Manhattan . His most significant work was Carmilla , which the company performed as part of their repertory throughout the 1970s. He also composed music for the company's production of Gertrude , a musical about the life of Gertrude Stein . His other works included the orchestral work Quintet for Groups (commissioned by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ), Sonnets of Desolation (commissioned by

4212-703: The NBC Symphony Orchestra , one of which featured Bernstein as soloist in Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major. In 1947, Bernstein conducted in Tel Aviv for the first time, beginning a lifelong association with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra , then known as the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. The next year, he conducted an open-air concert for Israeli troops at Beersheba in the middle of

4320-1005: The New England Conservatory . Two years later, he made his solo debut with orchestra in Grieg 's Piano Concerto in A minor with the Boston Public School Orchestra. Bernstein's first two education environments were both public schools: the William Lloyd Garrison School , followed by the prestigious Boston Latin School , for which Bernstein and classmate Lawrence F. Ebb wrote the Class Song. Harvard University In 1935, Bernstein enrolled at Harvard College , where he studied music with, among others, Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston . Bernstein's first extant composition, Psalm 148 , set for voice and piano,

4428-817: The Philharmonia Orchestra . On July 4, 1946, Bernstein conducted the European premiere of Fancy Free with the Ballet Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London. On August 6 he conducted opera professionally for the first time, with the American premiere of Benjamin Britten 's Peter Grimes at Tanglewood, commissioned by Koussevitzky. That same year, Arturo Toscanini invited Bernstein to guest conduct two concerts with

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4536-606: The Swingle Singers ), the Sonata for Microtonal Piano (1964), and the Suite for Microtonal Piano (1977). Johnston completed ten string quartets. The Kepler Quartet recorded all ten of his string quartets for New World Records , finishing in April 2016 just after the composer's 90th birthday. Johnston said: Tempered tuning is not the acoustically simplest kind. In just tuning, any interval

4644-604: The Tony Award for Best Choreographer, and Oliver Smith won the Tony for Best Scenic Designer. Bernstein's score for West Side Story blends "jazz, Latin rhythms, symphonic sweep and musical-comedy conventions in groundbreaking ways for Broadway". It was orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal following detailed instructions from Bernstein. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked

4752-521: The harmonization of a pentatonic melody does not necessarily have to be derived from only the pentatonic pitches. Most Tuareg songs are pentatonic, as is most other music from the Sahel and Sudan regions. The pentatonic scale plays a significant role in music education , particularly in Orff-based , Kodály-based , and Waldorf methodologies at the primary or elementary level. The Orff system places

4860-1322: The "Black Key" etude, in the major pentatonic. Western Impressionistic composers such as French composer Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel used the pentatonic scale extensively in their works. Giacomo Puccini used pentatonic scales in his operas Madama Butterfly and Turandot to imitate east Asian musical styles. Puccini also used whole-tone scales in the former to evoke similar ideas. Indian classical music has hundreds of ragas, of which many are pentatonic. Examples include Raag Abhogi Kanada (C, D, E-flat, F, A), Raag Bhupali (C, D, E, G, A), Raag Bairagi (C, D-flat, F, G, B-flat), Raag Chandrakauns (C, E-flat, F, A-flat, B), Raag Dhani (C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat), Raag Durga (C, D, F, G, A), Raag Gunakari (C, D-flat, F, G, A-flat), Raag Hamsadhwani (C, D, E, G, B), Raag Hindol (C, E, F#, A, B), Raag Kalavati (C, E, G, A, B-flat), Raag Katyayani (C, D, E-flat, G, A-flat), Raag Malkauns (C, E-flat, F, A-flat, B-flat), Raag Megh (C, D, F, G, B-flat), Raag Shivaranjani (C, D, E-flat, G, A), Raag Shuddha Sarang (C, D, F#, G, B), Raag Tilang (C, E, F, G, B), Raag Vibhas (C, D-flat, E, G, A-flat), Raag Vrindavani Sarang (C, D, F, G, B), and others. (For Tamil Music System, See here - Ancient Tamil music#Evolution of panns ) The major pentatonic scale

4968-641: The '50s and '60s, is to translate those radical approaches to the nature of music into a music that is immediately apprehensible". Most of Johnston's later works use a large number of pitches, generated through just-intonation procedures. In these works he formed melodies based on an " otonal " eight-note just-intonation scale made from the 8th through 15th partials of the harmonic series , or its "utonal" inversion. He then gained new pitches by using common-tone transpositions or inversions. Many of his works also feature an expansive use of just intonation, using high prime limits . His String Quartet No. 9 uses intervals of

5076-616: The 1940–41 season to be his assistant, but the plan fell through because of union issues. In 1937, Bernstein sat next to Aaron Copland at a dance recital at Town Hall in New York City. Copland invited Bernstein to his birthday party afterwards, where Bernstein impressed the guests by playing Copland's challenging Piano Variations , a work Bernstein loved. Although he was never a formal student of Copland's, Bernstein regularly sought his advice, often citing him as his "only real composition teacher". Bernstein graduated from Harvard in 1939 with

5184-537: The 53 Young People's Concerts comprised the most influential series of music education programs ever produced on television. They were highly acclaimed by critics and won numerous Emmy Awards . Some of Bernstein's scripts, all of which he wrote himself, were released in book form and on records. A recording of Humor in Music was awarded a Grammy award for Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (other than comedy) in 1961. The programs were shown in many countries around

5292-852: The Arts and the Humanities in 1966, two commissions from the Smithsonian Institution , and the Deems Taylor Award . In 2007, the American Academy of Arts and Letters honored Johnston for his lifetime of work. His Quintet for Groups won the SWR Sinfonieorchester prize at the 2008 Donaueschinger Musiktage . Heidi Von Gunden wrote a monograph on the composer, and Bob Gilmore edited the composer's complete writings, which were published as "Maximum Clarity" and Other Writings on Music by

5400-507: The Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York premiere in Carnegie Hall on the afternoon of December 10. Part of the rehearsal for the concert was recorded and released by the orchestra. When Koussevitzky died in 1951, Bernstein became head of the orchestra and conducting departments at Tanglewood . The 1950s comprised the most active years of Bernstein's career. He created five new works for

5508-670: The Broadway stage, composed several symphonic works and an iconic film score, and was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic with whom he toured the world, including concerts behind the Iron Curtain. Bernstein also harnessed the power of television to expand his educational reach, and he married and started a family. In 1950, Bernstein composed incidental music for a Broadway production of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan . The production, which opened on Broadway on April 24, 1950, starred Jean Arthur as Peter Pan and Boris Karloff in

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5616-717: The Department of State also sponsored Bernstein and the Philharmonic on a 50-concert tour through Europe and the Soviet Union, portions of which were filmed by the CBS Television Network. A highlight of the tour was Bernstein's performance of Shostakovich 's Fifth Symphony , in the presence of the composer, who came on stage at the end to congratulate Bernstein and the musicians. New York Philharmonic Innovations Bernstein's innovative approach to themed programming included introducing audiences to composers less-performed at

5724-491: The New York Philharmonic Bernstein was appointed the music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1957, sharing the post jointly with Dimitri Mitropoulos until he took sole charge in 1958. Bernstein held the music directorship until 1969 when he was appointed "Laureate Conductor". He continued to conduct and make recordings with the orchestra for the rest of his life. Bernstein's television teaching took

5832-403: The New York Philharmonic, Bernstein made his major conducting debut at short notice—and without any rehearsal—after guest conductor Bruno Walter came down with the flu. The challenging program included works by Robert Schumann , Miklós Rózsa , Richard Wagner , and Richard Strauss . The next day, The New York Times carried the story on its front page and remarked in an editorial, "It's

5940-508: The Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), Candide (1956), and his Mass (1971). Bernstein was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras, generating a legacy of audio and video recordings. Bernstein was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler , in whose music he

6048-538: The United States from Rivne , Russian Empire (now in Ukraine). His grandmother insisted that his first name be Louis , but his parents always called him Leonard . Bernstein legally changed his name from Louis to Leonard when he was 16. To his friends and many others, Bernstein was simply known as "Lenny". Bernstein's mother had moved to stay with her parents in Lawrence toward the end of her first pregnancy and, since he

6156-619: The University of Illinois Press. A three-part oral history covering all stages of his career is housed at the Oral History of American Music through Yale University . Johnston died from complications of Parkinson's disease in Deerfield, Wisconsin , on July 21, 2019. He is best known for extending Harry Partch 's experiments in just intonation tuning to traditional instruments through his system of notation. Johnston's compositional style

6264-537: The Waldorf curriculum. Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( / ˈ b ɜːr n s t aɪ n / BURN -styne ; born Louis Bernstein ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein

6372-468: The beginning of the 1980s he could say of his elaborately microtonal String Quartet no. 5 ... 'I have no idea as to how many different pitches it used per octave'". Johnston's early efforts in just composition drew heavily on the accomplishments of post- Webern serialism . His 7-limit String Quartet no. 4 "Amazing Grace", was commissioned by the Fine Arts Music Foundation of Chicago, and

6480-899: The best non-famous composers this country has to offer" by John Rockwell . Johnston was born in Macon, Georgia , and taught composition and theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1951 to 1986, before retiring to North Carolina. During his time teaching, he was in contact with avant-garde figures such as John Cage , La Monte Young , and Iannis Xenakis . Johnston's students included Stuart Saunders Smith , Neely Bruce , Thomas Albert , Michael Pisaro , Manfred Stahnke , and Kyle Gann . He also considered his practice of just intonation to have influenced other composers, including Larry Polansky . In 1946 he married dance band singer Dorothy Haines, but they soon divorced. In 1950 he married artist Betty Hall, who died in 2007. Johnston began as

6588-627: The center of the city. On December 10, 1949, Bernstein made his first television appearance as conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall . The concert, which included an address by Eleanor Roosevelt , celebrated the first anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly 's ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , and included the premiere of Aaron Copland 's Preamble for

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6696-571: The composer: "I'm so sympathetic to Mahler: I understand his problem. It's like being two different men locked up in the same body; one man is a conductor and the other a composer ... It's like being a double man." Opening Lincoln Center On May 14, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke ground for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts . On September 23, 1962, the New York Philharmonic moved from Carnegie Hall to its new home, Philharmonic Hall (now David Geffen Hall ). Bernstein conducted

6804-442: The corresponding relative minor pentatonic, scale tones 1, ♭ 3, 4, 5, ♭ 7 work the same way, either as minor triad tones (1, ♭ 3, 5) or as common extensions (4, ♭ 7), as they all avoid being a half step from a chord tone. U.S. military cadences , or jodies , which keep soldiers in step while marching or running, also typically use pentatonic scales. Hymns and other religious music sometimes use

6912-786: The death of president John F. Kennedy , and in Israel at a concert, Hatikvah on Mt. Scopus , after the Six-Day War . The sequence of events was recorded for a documentary entitled Journey to Jerusalem . At the end of his life, Bernstein conducted a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall . Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts , to Russian Jewish / Ukrainian Jewish parents, Jennie (née Resnick) and Samuel Joseph Bernstein, both of whom immigrated to

7020-728: The desert during the Arab-Israeli war . In 1957, he conducted the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv. In 1967, he conducted a concert on Mount Scopus to commemorate the Reunification of Jerusalem , featuring Mahler's Symphony No. 2 and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with soloist Isaac Stern . The city of Tel Aviv added his name to the Habima Square (Orchestra Plaza) in

7128-472: The dual roles of George Darling and Captain Hook . The show ran for 321 performances. In 1951, Bernstein composed Trouble in Tahiti , a one-act opera in seven scenes with an English libretto by the composer. The opera portrays the troubled marriage of a couple whose idyllic suburban post-war environment belies their inner turmoil. Ironically, Bernstein wrote most of the opera while on his honeymoon in Mexico with his wife, Felicia Montealegre . Bernstein

7236-543: The fifth is often sung and played in early childhood; progressively smaller intervals are emphasized within primarily pentatonic as children progress through the early school years. At around nine years of age the music begins to center on first folk music using a six-tone scale, and then the modern diatonic scales, with the goal of reflecting the children's developmental progress in their musical experience. Pentatonic instruments used include lyres, pentatonic flutes, and tone bars; special instruments have been designed and built for

7344-448: The first American conductor to appear at La Scala in Milan, conducting Cherubini's Medea , with Maria Callas in the title role. Callas and Bernstein reunited at La Scala to perform Bellini's La sonnambula in 1955. On November 14, 1954, Bernstein presented the first of his television lectures for the CBS Television Network arts program Omnibus . The live lecture, entitled "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony", involved Bernstein explaining

7452-440: The five holes of the Japanese shakuhachi flute play a minor pentatonic scale. The yo scale used in Japanese shomyo Buddhist chants and gagaku imperial court music is an anhemitonic pentatonic scale shown below, which is the fourth mode of the major pentatonic scale. In Javanese gamelan music, the slendro scale has five tones, of which four are emphasized in classical music. Another scale, pelog , has seven tones, and

7560-419: The gala opening concert featuring works by Mahler , Beethoven , and Vaughan Williams , as well as the premiere of Aaron Copland's Connotations . In 1964, Bernstein conducted at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time in Franco Zeffirelli 's production of Verdi's Falstaff . In subsequent years, Bernstein returned to The Met to conduct Cavalleria rusticana (1970) and Carmen (1972), as well as at

7668-424: The globe, including works by Dmitri Shostakovich , Pierre Boulez , and György Ligeti . Bernstein championed American composers, especially those with whom he had a close friendship, such as Aaron Copland , William Schuman , and David Diamond . This decade saw a significant expansion of Bernstein and the Philharmonic's collaboration with Columbia Records , together they released over 400 compositions, covering

7776-464: The harmonic series as high as the 31st partial. He used "potentially hundreds of pitches per octave," in a way that was "radical without being avant-garde"; in contrast with much twentieth-century music, he used microtones not for the creation of dissonance but in order to "return […] to a kind of musical beauty," which he perceived as diminished in Western music since the adoption of equal-temperament . "By

7884-672: The inaugural year of the Tanglewood Music Center (then called the Berkshire Music Center) at the Boston Symphony Orchestra 's summer home. Bernstein studied conducting with the BSO's music director, Serge Koussevitzky , who became a profound lifelong inspiration to Bernstein. He became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant at Tanglewood and later dedicated his Symphony No. 2: The Age of Anxiety to his beloved mentor. One of Bernstein's classmates, both at Curtis and at Tanglewood,

7992-567: The legendary jazz club the Village Vanguard . On April 21, 1942, Bernstein performed the premiere of his first published work, Sonata for Clarinet and Piano , with clarinetist David Glazer at the Institute of Modern Art in Boston. Bernstein would later make his New York Philharmonic conducting debut. On November 14, 1943, having recently been appointed assistant conductor to Artur Rodziński of

8100-561: The major pentatonic, using scale tones 1, ♭ 3, 4, 5, and ♭ 7 of the natural minor scale . (It may also be considered a gapped blues scale .) The C minor pentatonic scale, the relative minor of the E-flat pentatonic scale, is C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat. The A minor pentatonic, the relative minor of C pentatonic, comprises the same tones as the C major pentatonic, starting on A, giving A, C, D, E, G. This minor pentatonic contains all three tones of an A minor triad. The standard tuning of

8208-808: The most recent proponents and developers of new pentatonic scales based on historical models. Harrison and William Colvig tuned the slendro scale of the gamelan Si Betty to overtones 16:19:21:24:28 ( 1 ⁄ 1 – 19 ⁄ 16 – 21 ⁄ 16 – 3 ⁄ 2 – 7 ⁄ 4 ). They tuned the Mills gamelan so that the intervals between scale steps are 8:7 – 7:6 – 9:8 –8:7–7:6 ( 1 ⁄ 1 – 8 ⁄ 7 – 4 ⁄ 3 – 3 ⁄ 2 – 12 ⁄ 7 – 2 ⁄ 1 = 42:48:56:63:72) Pentatonic scales occur in many musical traditions: Examples of its use include: Beethoven , Quartet in F major, Op. 135 , finale: Chopin 's Etude in G-flat major, Op. 10, No. 5 ,

8316-503: The musical score for the production Davidson mounted of Aristophanes ' play The Birds , performed in the original Greek. Bernstein recycled some of this music in future works. While a student, Bernstein was briefly an accompanist for the Harvard Glee Club as well as an unpaid pianist for Harvard Film Society's silent film presentations. Bernstein mounted a student production of The Cradle Will Rock , directing its action from

8424-706: The neighborhood children to put on shows ranging from Bizet's Carmen to Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore . He would often play entire operas or Beethoven symphonies with his younger sister, Shirley. Leonard's youngest sibling, Burton, was born in 1932, 13 years after Leonard. Despite the large age differences, the three siblings remained close their entire lives. Sam was initially opposed to young Leonard's interest in music and attempted to discourage his son's interest by refusing to pay for his piano lessons. Leonard then took to giving lessons to young people in his neighborhood. One of his students, Sid Ramin , became Bernstein's orchestrator for West Side Story and

8532-541: The next seven years, he recorded the entire Mahler symphony cycle with the New York Philharmonic (except for the 8th Symphony , which was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra ). The combination of concert performances, television talks, and recordings led to a renewed interest in Mahler, especially in the United States. Bernstein claimed that he identified with the works on a personal level, and once wrote of

8640-647: The notation into higher prime limits . Johnston's method is based on a diatonic C major scale tuned in JI, in which the interval between D (9/8 above C) and A (5/3 above C) is one Syntonic comma less than a Pythagorean perfect fifth 3:2. To write a perfect fifth, Johnston introduces a pair of symbols representing this comma, + and −. Thus, a series of perfect fifths beginning with F would proceed C G D A+ E+ B+. The three conventional white notes A E B are tuned as Ptolemaic major thirds (5:4, Ptolemy's intense diatonic scale ) above F C G respectively. Johnston introduces new symbols for

8748-661: The pentatonic scale is very common. Seumas MacNeill suggests that the Great Highland bagpipe scale with its augmented fourth and diminished seventh is "a device to produce as many pentatonic scales as possible from its nine notes" (although these two features are not in the same scale). Roderick Cannon explains these pentatonic scales and their use in more detail, both in Piobaireachd and light music. It also features in Irish traditional music , either purely or almost so. The minor pentatonic

8856-507: The pentatonic scale; for example, the melody of the hymn " Amazing Grace ", one of the most famous pieces in religious music. The common pentatonic major and minor scales (C-D-E-G-A and C-E ♭ -F-G-B ♭ , respectively) are useful in modal composing, as both scales allow a melody to be modally ambiguous between their respective major ( Ionian , Lydian , Mixolydian ) and minor ( Aeolian , Phrygian , Dorian ) modes ( Locrian excluded). With either modal or non-modal writing, however,

8964-444: The piano as the composer Marc Blitzstein had done at the infamous premiere. Blitzstein, who attended the performance, subsequently became a close friend and mentor to Bernstein. As a sophomore at Harvard, Bernstein met the conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos . Mitropoulos's charisma and power as a musician were major influences on Bernstein's eventual decision to become a conductor. Mitropoulos invited Bernstein to come to Minneapolis for

9072-614: The piano for dance classes in Carnegie Hall . He found work with Harms-Witmark, transcribing jazz and pop music and publishing his work under the pseudonym "Lenny Amber". ( Bernstein means " amber " in German.) Bernstein briefly shared an apartment in Greenwich Village with his friend Adolph Green . Green was then part of a satirical music troupe called The Revuers, featuring Betty Comden and Judy Holliday . With Bernstein sometimes providing piano accompaniment, The Revuers often performed at

9180-515: The piano. Bernstein's works include the Broadway musical West Side Story , which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two ( 1961 and 2021 ) feature films, three symphonies, Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" (1954), and Chichester Psalms (1965), the original score for the Elia Kazan drama film On the Waterfront (1954), and theater works including On

9288-498: The production of Cage's eight-track tape composition, Williams Mix . Later, in 1957 and 1959, he studied with Cage, who encouraged him to follow his desires and use traditional instruments rather than electronics or newly built instruments. Unskilled in carpentry and finding electronics unreliable, Johnston struggled with how to integrate microtonality and conventional instruments for ten years. He also struggled with how to integrate microtones into his compositional language through

9396-491: The production was a box office disaster, running for only two months for a total of 73 performances, the cast album became a cult classic, which kept Bernstein's score alive. There have been several revivals, with modifications to improve the book. The elements of the music that have remained best known and performed over the decades are the Overture, which quickly became one of the most frequently performed orchestral compositions by

9504-470: The realms of blues and rock alike. For instance, over a C major triad (C, E, G) in the key of C major, the note F can be perceived as dissonant as it is a half step above the major third (E) of the chord. It is for this reason commonly avoided. Using the major pentatonic scale is an easy way out of this problem. The scale tones 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (from the major pentatonic) are either major triad tones (1, 3, 5) or common consonant extensions (2, 6) of major triads. For

9612-560: The role of Ruth Sherwood, Edie Adams as Eileen Sherwood, and George Gaynes as Robert Baker. It won five Tony Awards , including Best Musical and Best Actress. Candide (1956) In the three years leading up to Bernstein's appointment as music director of the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein was simultaneously working on the scores for two Broadway shows. The first of the two was the operetta -style musical Candide . Lillian Hellman originally brought Bernstein her idea of adapting Voltaire 's novella . The original collaborators on

9720-425: The septimal ( [REDACTED] & [REDACTED] ), undecimal ( ↑ & ↓ ), tridecimal ( [REDACTED] & [REDACTED] ), and further prime extensions to create an accidental-based exact JI notation for what he has named "extended just intonation". Though "this notation is not tied to any particular diapason " and the ratios between pitches remain constant, most of Johnston’s works used A = 440 as

9828-614: The show were book writer John Latouche and lyricist Richard Wilbur . Candide opened on Broadway on December 1, 1956, at the Martin Beck Theatre , in a production directed by Tyrone Guthrie . Anxious about the parallels Hellman had deliberately drawn between Voltaire's story and the ongoing hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee , Guthrie persuaded the collaborators to cut their most incendiary sections prior to opening night. While

9936-544: The symphony's first movement with the aid of musicians from the "Symphony of the Air" (formerly NBC Symphony Orchestra ). The program featured manuscripts from Beethoven's own hand, as well as a giant painting of the first page of the score covering the studio floor. Six more Omnibus lectures followed from 1955 to 1961 (later on ABC and then NBC) covering a broad range of topics: jazz, conducting, American musical comedy, modern music, J. S. Bach , and grand opera . Music director of

10044-507: The teacher's discretion until the complete diatonic scale is being used. Orff believed that the use of the pentatonic scale at such a young age was appropriate to the development of each child, since the nature of the scale meant that it was impossible for the child to make any real harmonic mistakes. In Waldorf education, pentatonic music is considered to be appropriate for young children due to its simplicity and unselfconscious openness of expression. Pentatonic music centered on intervals of

10152-439: The time such as Gustav Mahler , Carl Nielsen , Jean Sibelius , and Charles Ives (including the world premiere of his Symphony No. 2 ). Bernstein actively advocated for the commission and performance of works by contemporary composers, conducting over 40 world premieres by a diverse roster of composers ranging from John Cage to Alberto Ginastera to Luciano Berio . He also conducted US premieres of 19 major works from around

10260-474: The tonic according to the table below. Note the omission of the semitones above (m2) and below (M7) the tonic as well as the tritone (TT). Ben Johnston gives the following Pythagorean tuning for the minor pentatonic scale: Naturals in that table are not the alphabetic series A to G without sharps and flats: Naturals are reciprocals of terms in the Harmonic series (mathematics) , which are in practice multiples of

10368-469: The world, often with Bernstein dubbed into other languages, and the concerts were later released on home video by Kultur Video . In 1958, Bernstein and Mitropoulos led the New York Philharmonic on its first tour south of the border, through 12 countries in Central and South America. The United States Department of State sponsored the tour to improve the nation's relations with its southern neighbors. In 1959,

10476-496: Was Lukas Foss , who remained a lifelong friend and colleague. Bernstein returned to Tanglewood nearly every summer for the rest of his life to teach and conduct the young music students. Bernstein received a diploma in conducting from Curtis in 1941. Soon after he left Curtis, Bernstein moved to New York City where he lived in various apartments in Manhattan . Bernstein supported himself by coaching singers, teaching piano, and playing

10584-681: Was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history" according to music critic Donal Henahan . Bernstein's honors and accolades include seven Emmy Awards , two Tony Awards , and 16 Grammy Awards (including the Lifetime Achievement Award ) as well as an Academy Award nomination. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981. As a composer, Bernstein wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music, and pieces for

10692-665: Was a visiting music professor at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1956. In 1952, he created the Brandeis Festival of the Creative Arts , where he conducted the premiere of Trouble in Tahiti on June 12 of that year. The NBC Opera Theatre subsequently presented the opera on television in November 1952. It opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre on April 19, 1955, and ran for six weeks. Three decades later, Bernstein wrote

10800-578: Was at this concert that Bernstein first heard Ravel's Boléro , which made a tremendous impression on him. Another strong musical influence was George Gershwin . Bernstein was working as a music counselor at a summer camp when news came of Gershwin's death. Bernstein interrupted lunch in the mess hall, and then played Gershwin's second Prelude as a memorial. On March 30, 1932, Bernstein played Brahms 's Rhapsody in G minor at his first public piano performance in Susan Williams's studio recital at

10908-428: Was eclectic. He used serial processes, folk song idioms ( string quartets 4, 5, and 10), repetitive processes, traditional forms like fugue and variations, and intuitive processes. His main goal was "to reestablish just intonation as a viable part of our musical tradition." According to Mark Swed , "ultimately, what Johnston has done, more than any other composer with roots in the great American musical experiments of

11016-592: Was first recorded by the Fine Arts Quartet on Nonesuch Records in 1980 (then reissued on Gasparo as GS205). His String Quartet no. 4, perhaps Johnston's best-known composition, has also been recorded by the Kronos Quartet . The Kepler Quartet (Sharan Leventhal, Eric Segnitz, Brek Renzelman, and Karl Lavine) also recorded the piece for New World Records , as part of a complete 10-quartet series documenting Johnston's entire cycle of string quartets. The Third Quartet

11124-649: Was most interested. A skilled pianist, Bernstein often conducted piano concertos from the keyboard. He shared and explored classical music on television with a mass audience in national and international broadcasts, including Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein worked in support of civil rights , protested against the Vietnam War , advocated nuclear disarmament, raised money for HIV/AIDS research and awareness, and engaged in multiple international initiatives for human rights and world peace. He conducted Mahler's Resurrection Symphony to mark

11232-522: Was premiered as part of this series by the Concord String Quartet at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts , on March 15, 1976, the composer's fiftieth birthday. Beginning in the 1960s, Johnston proposed an approach to notating music in just intonation (JI), redefining the understanding of conventional symbols (the seven "white" notes, along with the sharps and flats) and adding further accidentals , each designed to extend

11340-759: Was sickly as an infant, he stayed there until he was strong enough to join his father in Boston , where he eventually attended the Boston Latin School . When he was 15, the family moved to nearby Newton, Massachusetts . Bernstein's father was the owner of the Samuel J. Bernstein Hair Company. It held the exclusive distribution rights for the Frederick's Permanent Wave Machine in the 1920s and 1930s, which made Samuel wealthy. In Bernstein's early youth, his only exposure to music

11448-530: Was the Philharmonic's first visit to Japan in 1961, when Bernstein led acclaimed Philharmonic concerts and engaged in cultural exchange. Over the years, he led the Orchestra on tours to 144 cities in 38 countries. Bernstein initiated the Philharmonic's informal Thursday Evening Preview Concerts, which included Bernstein's talks from the stage, a practice that was unheard of at the time. In one oft-reported incident, on April 6, 1962, Bernstein appeared on stage before

11556-650: Was the household radio and music on Friday nights at Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Roxbury , Massachusetts. When Bernstein was ten years old, Samuel's sister Clara deposited her upright piano at her brother's house. Bernstein asked for lessons, and subsequently had a variety of piano teachers in his youth, including Helen Coates, who later became his secretary. In the summers, the Bernstein family would go to their vacation home in Sharon, Massachusetts , where young Leonard conscripted all

11664-582: Was the music director of the New York City Symphony, which had been founded the previous year by the conductor Leopold Stokowski . The orchestra (with support from Mayor Fiorello La Guardia) had modern programs and affordable tickets. In 1946, Bernstein made his overseas debut with the Czech Philharmonic at the inaugural Prague Spring International Music Festival . He also recorded Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major as soloist and conductor with

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