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Film, Video Bernstein Meets Broadway

Event video

Transcript: TEXT

About this Item

Title

  • Bernstein Meets Broadway

Summary

  • The composer Leonard Bernstein once wrote that his now-famous "West Side Story" of 1957 included a plea for racial tolerance as materials reveal in the Bernstein Collection in the Music Division of the Library of Congress. This lecture traces Bernstein's composer-activism back to "On the Town" of 1944, which was his first Broadway show and grew out of a fruitful collaboration with Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Jerome Robbins. Produced with a racially integrated cast during WWII, On the Town crossed race lines boldly, and it did so in an era when racial segregation held firm yet faced increasing resistance. In the historical literature about Broadway, the show's racial advances have been ignored. Fusing musical and cultural history, this lecture draws upon manuscripts for "On the Town" in the Bernstein Collection to explore political activism embedded in the show, as well as to consider Bernstein's early fascination with the blues. 00:16 Sue Vita, Music Division, 2:10 Ann Walters Robinson, President of the American Musicological Society, 7:50 Carol Oja, Harvard University, 32:45 "It's Gotta Be Bad to Be Good," Samara Oster and David Sawicki, 39:05 "Ain't Got No Tears Left," Samara Oster and David Sawicki, 49:58 Questions

Names

  • Library of Congress
  • Library of Congress. Music Division, sponsoring body

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 2011-02-07.

Headings

  • -  Culture, Performing Arts
  • -  Performing Arts, Music

Notes

  • -  Classification: Music and Books on Music.
  • -  Carol J. Oja.
  • -  Recorded on 2011-02-07.
  • -  Librarians, Archivists.
  • -  Researchers.

Medium

  • 1 online resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021688600

Online Format

  • video
  • image
  • online text

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body Library Of Congress. Music Division. Bernstein Meets Broadway. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -02-07, 2011. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021688600/.

APA citation style:

Library Of Congress & Library Of Congress. Music Division, S. B. (2011) Bernstein Meets Broadway. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -02-07. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021688600/.

MLA citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body Library Of Congress. Music Division. Bernstein Meets Broadway. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -02-07, 2011. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021688600/>.