“Music... can name the unnameable and convey the unfathomable.” Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, pianist, pedagogue, and musical educator. Browse our sheet music and scores, and explore all his ground-breaking works with Stretta Music today!
Bernstein studied music at Harvard and conducting with Sergei Koussevitzky at Tanglewood. His international conducting career got off to a quick start, when he jumped-in for Bruno Walter to conduct the New York Philharmonic. In the following years, he not only became music director of the New York Philharmonic, but he was also the first American to be guest conductor for numerous orchestras in Europe and around the world, including Vienna, London, Berlin, Boston, Prague, Israel, and many more.
His last concerts in 1989 and 1990 were of great importance. On Christmas Day 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he conducted one of the most impactful performances of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. He made a small, yet decisive change to Schiller’s text in the finale, “Ode to Joy”, the chorus and soloists sang “Freedom”, instead of “Joy”, which was a strong political statement. He also conducted the same work in June 1990, at the final concert of the Prague Spring Festival, only six months after the fall of the communist regime in former Czechoslovakia. Both concerts are still considered symbols of new found freedom, and have had a lasting impact on music history to this day.
Leonard Bernstein quickly recognized the power of the new, emerging medium, television. From as early as the 1950s, he brought music education programmes for both young and old to people’s living rooms all around America. His most popular series was the ’Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic’, which enjoyed 53 episodes. Bernstein was also instrumental in popularising modern American classical music, and he regularly performed works by Aaron Copland and many other American composers.
Bernstein was a polystylist who used elements of both classical and popular music, whichever served him best at any particular moment. His compositions often have a tonal basis, a pronounced irregular or off-beat rhythm, and creative, unusual instrumentation. He often uses several languages in his vocal compositions, most commonly English, Latin and Hebrew. He made a huge impact on American musical theatre, and his West Side Story is one of the most successful musicals of all time. Bernstein’s Three Symphonies, Sacred Music by Bernstein and Bernstein’s Chamber Music are also important additions to performance repertoire around the world today.
for: Voice (medium), piano
Music score
Item no.: 145958
for: Concert band
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1212178
for: Mixed choir (SATB), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 431867
From "West Side Story"
for: Piano 4 hands
Music score
Item no.: 791891
for: Choir
OTHER
Item no.: 1341452
for: Women's choir (SSA), piano
Choir score
Item no.: 1211519
for: Mixed Choir and Piano
Einzelstimme
Item no.: 1212300
for: Voice, piano [guitar]
Book
Item no.: 1212259
for: Mixed Choir and Piano
Choir score
Item no.: 1212198
for: Voice, piano [guitar]
Book
Item no.: 1211910
for: Voice (medium), piano
Music score
Item no.: 1211822
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 1211661
for: Voice (alto)
Single part(n)
Item no.: 349741
for: Voice (soprano) a cappella
Single part(n)
Item no.: 349740