Is WEST SIDE STORY overlooked as a Sondheim musical?- Page 2

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 8:06pm

kj, let's not get too self righteous about days past.

One of the reasons that Bernstein was a household name at that time was because he was on TV a lot. He had those Harvard Talks and the Carnegie Hall concerts especially for children.

That doesn't really happen anymore on the scale that Bernstein did.
It's where I learned what the word "incongruity" meant.

Anyway, my point is that there are many reaons beside a smug collectve ignorance that people don't know something. There is far more information at one's fingertips, so knowing something "off the top of your head" really doesn't have as much value as it once did.

I for one would rather people know Bernstein's music rather than who he was.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 8:31pm

Oh, I guess I actually played a part of mass--that's why I got confused. The music says "A Simple Song...from Mass" The fact that I thought there were different parts of the mass probably turned into me thinking there was more than one. And I think also playing psalm 23, I kind of thought it was mass 23 or something.

I wouldn't doubt age plays a part in knowing who Bernstein is. I went with a friend my young (relatively in comparison) age to the Bernstein concert, and the next youngest people to us might have been 60. But that seems to be true of theatre/classical/anything-that's-not-current-pop artists, no?

[kjklo]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 8:42pm

Fenchurch, I take your point. Wasn't trying to be self-righteous about the past, just attempting to put in perspective how widely Bernstein would have been recognized during the mid-twentieth century. And, yes, I personally do miss those days of a generalized middle-brow cultural literacy that's apparently been lost forever.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 9:00pm

I forgot that the Meditations from Mass also get played by orchestral musicians out of context, god they are beautiful aren't they?

oh Kj, point taken, my apologies. And I secretly long for days of middle class general cultural literacy too, but the truth is that there is no general culture anymore. Our technology has made it extremely easy to specialize your cultural aesthetic.

It's an amazing thing when you think about it, but the downside is that there is less for people to connect with as a whole.

[kjklo]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 9:12pm

I know. Ain't it a bitch?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 2/17/07 at 11:58pm

Berstein's score was never better presented, than in the film version of WSS. It's a masterpiece of orchestration. The same thing cannot be said about what Berstein did with it, years later, on that awful recording he did.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 2/18/07 at 8:22am

You mean the one that was on the program, Bernstein conducts WSS, Johnboy? I watched that at the Museum of TV(omg!), and they talked about how...I'm not quite sure, I think it had something to do with them getting short notice, but the musicians they gathered were the best they could get. I never actually heard the CD of it, but maybe that has something to do with it?

Yes, the mass is beautiful, but I think psalm 23 is even more beautiful!

"The truth is that there is no general culture anymore. Our technology has made it extremely easy to specialize your cultural aesthetic. "

That's a wonderful, profound way of putting it, fen. Thank you for those words.