Bernstein – West Side Story

Recording: From the 1961 movie

Lecture points

Review sheet for West Side Story

Bernstein

  • American conductor, composer, educator
  • internationally acclaimed conductor
  • popular music and classical influences combined
  • used TV to broadcast orchestra performances (mass media outreach to younger audience)
  • social change and increasing freedom: Bernstein was gay (along with Benjamin Britten)

West Side Story

  • musical: musical theatre, a play with spoken dialogue and “musical” numbers, the American singspiel
    • high art (opera: emphasis on music, archaic musical styles, “cultured” audience) versus low art (equal emphasis on drama and plot, popular music styles, mass market)
    • Stephen Sondheim, librettist and composer of many musicals (see Sweeney Todd)
  • Romeo and Juliet, modernized
  • social commentary (New York immigrants, gang culture)
    • pushing boundaries, contrast with sexuality (Debussy and Stravinsky)
  • hemiola: using a note grouping which differs than the time signature
    • example: groups of 2 (strong-weak) in triple meter (strong-weak-weak) (America)
    • polyrhythm suggests multiple time signatures, hemiola is an effect in one time signature
  • verse-chorus structure: used extensively in popular music, alternates between verse (new words) and a chorus (repeated words), contrast with strophic form
  • tritone: augmented 4th or diminished 5th
    • extensive use in modern music, defying common practice harmony (Maria)
  • mambo: Cuban dance and musical form brought to New York by Puerto Rican immigrants
  • cha-cha-cha: another Cuban dance and musical form with a divided 4th beat (the “cha-cha-cha”)
    • invented in 1953