Leonard Bernstein
Researched Bibliographic Dossier
Verified edition data and a musicological research note prepared specifically for this work.
- Title
- Leonard Bernstein
- Subtitle
- An American Musician
- Author
- Allen Shawn
- Series
- Jewish Lives
- Publisher
- Yale University Press
- Place
- New Haven and London
- Year
- 2014
- Extent
- 360 pages
- ISBN
- 9780300144284
- Language
- English
- Type
- Interpretive biography / composer-conductor study
SCOPE & CONTENT
Shawn’s biography is designed to integrate Bernstein’s life with the full range of his musical activity rather than allowing the conductor, celebrity or Broadway composer to eclipse the others. Written by a composer and pianist, it gives unusual weight to the scores themselves, moving from early formation at Harvard, Curtis and Tanglewood through symphonies, Serenade, Candide, West Side Story, the Young People’s Concerts, Kaddish, Dybbuk and A Quiet Place. Bernstein’s public visibility, Jewish identity, politics, sexuality and need for communication are treated as elements of the same artistic personality.
RESEARCH VALUE
The book’s particular strength is its refusal of the old hierarchy that separated “serious” Bernstein from Broadway Bernstein. Shawn reads stylistic plurality — jazz, tonal lyricism, modernist techniques, Jewish musical references and theatrical idioms — as central rather than embarrassing. The result is not a documentary biography on the scale of Humphrey Burton or a complete archival study, but a concise interpretive life with substantial musical judgment. It is especially useful for readers who want to understand why Bernstein’s roles as composer, conductor, teacher and media figure continually fed one another.
- Catalogue completeness
- 9 / 10 core bibliographic fields