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From: gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.music,rec.music.classical
Subject: Leonard Bernstein
Message-ID: <942@heurikon.heurikon.com>
Date: 17 Oct 90 18:35:48 GMT
References: <1990Oct15.014225.7883@jpradley.uucp>
Sender: news@heurikon.heurikon.com
Reply-To: gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Otium cum dignitatum)
Organization: Heurikon Corporation, Madison, WI
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The first time I ever saw Leonard Bernstein was on television. During
one of his "Young People's Concerts," he was in the process of trying
to talk about either modal harmony or parallel fifths (I don't recall
which, since I was pretty young), when he sat down at the piano and
demonstrated a simple sequence of two chords composed entirely of
fifths. He played them forward (ascending), and then backwards. The
sequence *did* seem fairly familiar to me. Just at the point when I'd
have figured out where I knew that sequence from, he broke into a
spirited and totally unexpected version of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me."
He went flying into a foot stomping, head-shaking first verse and chorus
from a complete, dead stop (something one sees conductors do with some
regularity when driving an orchestra, I guess), complete with vocals.
I was absolutely stunned-particularly because this was a *grownup* 
doing this on television. It sure had the desired effect, though-it
was, I think, the first moment that I really felt like all that high
culture nonsense was somehow using the same materials as the music I
*really* liked. I think that it was also the most explicit display
of violence and energy that I'd ever seen a conductor do, which always
left me wondering about whether they might actually do that about all
that ponderous, boring symphonic stuff. I think that I shall always
remember Leonard Bernstein at the moment when he finished his Kinks
performance, pushed that hair back out of his eyes and smiled broadly
at an audience of cheering kids. I know, I should remember all the
passion and high art of it, but that's my honest image of him.
--
a cooling system/burns out in the ukraine/trees and umbrellas/protect us 
from the new rain/armies of engineers/to analyze the soil/the food we
contemplate/the water that we boil/i can't run/but i can walk much faster
than this/gregory alan taylor/heurikon/madison, WI 53717/(608) 828-3385