A place For Us – A Leonard Bernstein Tribute

Dr. Matthew Morse, conductor

Leonard Bernstein was a renowned American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the US to receive worldwide acclaim. His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with many of the world’s leading orchestras, and from his numerous orchestral works. He is also known for his works for the stage including West Side Story, Candide, On the Town, The Age of Anxiety, Mass, and a range of other compositions, including three symphonies and many shorter chamber and solo works. Bernstein was the first conductor to give a series of television lectures on classical music, starting in 1954 and continuing until his death. He was a skilled pianist, often conducting piano concertos from the keyboard. As a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and pieces for the piano. Many of his works are regularly performed around the world, although none has matched the tremendous popular and critical success of West Side Story.

Candide Suite is an adaptation by Clare Grundman of the music for the operetta written by Leonard Bernstein in 1956, which in turn is based on Voltaire’s satirical 1759 novella of the same name. Each of the movements is based on a number from the operetta. Although there have been many reincarnations of Candide, the movements in this suite are based on musical numbers that have remained virtually unchanged from the original Broadway production. The notes provided for each movement are the following: 

1. The Best of All Possible Worlds – Doctor Pangloss, Voltaire’s satirical portrait of the philosopher Gottfried von Leibnitz, tutors his Westphalian pupils.
2. Wesphalia Chorale and Battle Scene – the devout Westphalians sing a chorale praising the integrity of their homeland, after which they are massacred by the invading Bulgarian army. 
3. Auto-da-fé (What a Day) – Candide and Dr. Pangloss find themselves in Lisbon, where, being free-thinkers, they are prosecuted as heretics by the Spanish Inquisition; however, Candide and Dr. Pangloss escape.
4. Glitter and Be Gay – depicts Cunegonde, Candide’s true love, singing of her attempts to maintain a brilliant, carefree exterior, while she may (or may not) be tortured inwardly by self-doubt.
5. Make Our Garden Grow – At the conclusion of the musical, and of Voltaire’s novella, Candide realizes that the only purpose of living is to cultivate the earth, and to create a garden. He enjoins the others to assist him in bringing things to life, and even Cunegonde proposes to bake a loaf of daily break. Optimism is transformed into practical necessity, and the entire cast of characters join in a hymn full of hope.

The piece was premiered by Col. John Bourgeois and the United States Marine Band in July of 1993. 

Profanation is the second movement of Bernstein’s Symphony no. 1 Jeremiah. The Symphony is based on the biblical story of Jeremiah, a prophet who warned his people of the coming destruction of Jerusalem, was mocked by them for it, and famously lamented when it came to pass. Bernstein wrote the Symphony in 1942 in order to enter it in a competition at the New England Conservatory. He did not win, but the piece went on to bring him great success, earning him the New York Music Critics’ Circle award for best classical composition in 1944 and helping him reconcile with his father, to whom he later dedicated the score. Profanation is the Symphony’s scherzo. It dramatizes the savage mockery that Jeremiah experiences from the priests of the Temple of Solomon when he warns them that their corrupt ways will bring about its destruction. It opens with a distorted version of a liturgical melody, which multiplies into a chaotic pagan celebration. Jeremiah’s warning from the first movement (Prophecy) returns later, only to be drowned out by the chaos. (Andy Pease)

“On the Town”(1945/2016) marks Bernstein’s entrance into the world of Broadway. His combination of jazz-fueled dance, tender ballads, and energetic full-ensemble sounds hit just the right note and launched his well-known career as a composer of Broadway shows. Aside from the Broadway run and three successful revivals, there was also a film version of “On The Town”in 1949. Since World War II was the first major war in the age of cinema, “On The Town” became one of many stories that was adapted to contribute to the war effort through film. However, Bernstein boycotted this version because his music was removed and replaced in the film.  

Bernstein wrote in the original program note for Three Dance Episodes from “On The Town” in February 1946:

It seems only natural that dance should play a leading role in the show “On The Town,” since the idea of writing it arose from the success of the ballet, “Fancy Free.” I believe this is the first Broadway show ever to have as many as seven or eight dance episodes in the space of two acts; and, as a result, the essence of the whole production is contained in these dances. I have selected three of them for use as a concert suite:

1. Dance of the Great Lover (from the Dream Ballet, Act 2)
2. Pas de Deux (from the “Lonely Town” Ballet, Act 1)
3. Times Square Ballet (Finale, Act 1)

That these are, in their way, symphonic pieces rarely occurs to the audience actually attending the show, so well integrated are all the elements by the master-direction of George Abbott, the choreographic inventiveness of Jerome Robbins, and the adroitness of the Comden-Green book. Their use, therefore, as concert material is rather in the nature of an experiment.

The story of “On The Town” is concerned with three sailors on 24-hour leave in New York, and their adventures with the monstrous city which its inhabitants take so for granted.

1. Dance of the Great Lover: Gabey, the romantic sailor in search of the glamourous Miss Turnstiles, falls asleep on the subway and dreams of his prowess in sweeping Miss Turnstiles off her feet.
2. Pas de Deux: Gabey watches a scene, both tender and sinister, in which a sensitive high-school girl in Central Park is lured and then cast off by a worldly sailor.
3. Times Square Ballet: A more panoramic sequence in which all the sailors in New York congregate in Times Square for their night of fun. There is communal dancing, a scene in a souvenir arcade, and a scene in the Roseland Dance Palace. Cuts have been made in this music of those sections relating directly to the plot action.

Jack Gottlieb wrote the following notes on Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1967/2008):

The four shows On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and West Side Story show a progressive line of stylistic integration in Leonard Bernstein’s compositional development. An ever-advancing economy of musical means and tightening of structure proceeds from one show to the next. It was almost predictable from this trend that when West Side Story hit Broadway like a bombshell, in September, 1957, it would be hailed as a landmark in American theater. It was indeed recognized as a major leap toward an original kind of theatrical conception. Bernstein had speculated much earlier that a genuine, indigenous form of American musical theater would eventually arise out of what has been known as musical comedy. Many people think that, in West Side Story, this theory began to be implemented. Elements from the European and American musical stage traditions were fused into an original art form that is neither opera nor musical comedy.

From the Old World tradition came complicated vocal ensembles, such as the Quintet in Act I: the use of music to project the story line forward (as in the duet A Boy Like That); the dramatic device of leitmotifs—for instance, the one associated with the reality of gang violence, as in the Prologue, or the one associated with the diametrically deductive-inductive species of developing musical materials, by basing much of the West Side Story score on transformations of the tritone interval, or by immediately developing the opening statement of any given song with melodic or rhythmic variation.

From the New World came idiomatic jazz and Latin timbres and figurations (most of the dance music); a fluid and constant change from word to music and from scene to scene, such as the second-act ballet that goes from accompanied spoken word into song, into dance and back again; and most important, the kinetic approach to the stage—communication through choreographic music—delineated, in concentrated form, by these Symphonic Dances.

Why are these dances called symphonic? Simply because the dance music, even in its original format, is symphonically conceived. Relatively few thematic ideas, combined with each other and metamorphosed into completely new shapes, are all that are necessary to meet the varying dramatic requirements. This is music on its own terms, music that does not have to depend upon presupposed knowledge of the unfolding events on stage.

However, for those who are interested in knowing what transpires on stage during the course of the dances, the following summary outlines the principal sections of the music (which is arranged so that one section flows into the next without a break):

Prologue (Allegro moderato)
The growing rivalry between two teenage gangs: the Jets and the Sharks.

Somewhere (Adagio)
In a dream ballet, the two gangs are united in friendship.

Scherzo (Vivace e leggiero)
In the same dream, the gangs break away from the city walls, suddenly finding themselves in a playful world of space, air, and sun.

Mambo (Meno Presto)
In the real world again, the competitive dance at the gym between the gangs.

Cha-cha (Andantino con grazia)
The star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria see each other for the first time; they dance together.

Meeting Scene (Meno mosso)
Music accompanies their first words spoken to one another.

Cool Fugue (Allegretto)
An elaborate dance sequence in which Riff leads the Jets in harnessing their impulsive hostility, figuratively “cooling their jets.”

Rumble (Molto allegro)
Climactic gang battle; the two gang leaders, Riff and Bernardo, are killed.

Finale (Adagio)
Maria’s I Have a Love develops into a procession, which recalls the vision of Somewhere.

Bernstein wrote Slava! in 1977 on a commission from its namesake, the legendary Soviet-born cellist and conductor, Mstislav “Slava” Rostropovich.  Rostropovich at that point had just assumed the post of music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.  He asked Bernstein to help him present a concert of the composer’s own work early in his first season.  He got three new pieces out of that request: Three Meditations from “Mass”, Songfest, and an untitled “political overture” that was only barely finished in time for the concert.  The latter work turned out to be Slava!, a fun and irreverent tribute and welcome for Rostropovich, who conducted the premiere performance on October 11 of that year.  “Slava” is a common nickname for Russian men whose names contain “-slav”, and Mstislav Rostropovich was known as “Slava” to his closest friends.  “Slava” also means “glory” in Russian.  

Sacramento Symphonic Winds Music and Artistic Director Dr. Matthew Morse is currently Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Conducting in the School of Music at California State University, Sacramento, where he conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Concert Band, oversees the Marching Band, and teaches courses in undergraduate and graduate conducting. He is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor throughout California and nationwide. Under his direction, the Sacramento State Symphonic Wind Ensemble was selected to perform at the California All-State Music Education Conference in Fresno in February 2019.

Prior to his appointment at Sacramento State, Dr. Morse graduated in May 2017 with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Wind Conducting from the University of North Texas, where he was a conducting student of Eugene Migliaro Corporon. He also earned a Master of Arts degree in Instrumental Conducting in 2013 from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he was a student of Dr. Jack Stamp, and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Thomas Edison State University in Trenton, New Jersey, in 2011.

Concurrent with finishing his undergraduate degree in 2011, Dr. Morse retired as a chief warrant officer four following a 25-year military music career with the United States Army. Early in his career, Dr. Morse served for nearly 12 years as a multi-instrumentalist performing primarily on euphonium and trombone and serving two alternating tours each with the 4th Infantry Division Band at Fort Carson, Colorado, and the United States Army Japan Band, Camp Zama, Japan. In 1997, Dr. Morse was selected to become a warrant officer bandmaster and served as the commander and conductor of the 3rd Infantry Division Band at Fort Stewart, Georgia, the 1st Armored Division Band, then stationed Wiesbaden, Germany, and the 282nd Army Band at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He deployed as a band commander to combat zones in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2000 and twice to Iraq during a 15-month period in 2003-04. In 2007, Dr. Morse was selected by competitive audition for his capstone assignment as the associate bandmaster and director of the Jazz Knights of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, New York, where he shared the stage with numerous name artists and soloists.

Dr. Morse has appeared as a guest conductor with many groups, including the United States Army Field Band, the United States Army Europe Band and Chorus, and the West Point Band. He has conducted both the California Music Educators Association Capital Section High School Honor Band as well as the Northern California Band Association All Northern Honor Band. As an instrumentalist, he has performed on bass trombone in recent years with the North Texas Wind Symphony, the Keystone Wind Ensemble, various ensembles at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the Pueblo Symphony Orchestra in Pueblo, Colorado, along with various freelance settings, including an orchestra backing Bernadette Peters in 2012 and a big band backing Doc Severinsen in 2014.

Dr. Morse’s military decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters. Other awards and recognitions include being a finalist for The American Prize in the university conductor category, the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s Colonel George S. Howard Citation of Musical Excellence for Military Concert Bands for his work with the 282nd Army Band in 2007, and the South Suburban Conference (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota area) Achievement Award in Fine Arts in 2013. Additionally, Dr. Morse received the Thomas Jefferson High School (Bloomington, Minnesota) Fine Arts Hall of Fame award in 2009. Morse also holds a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do through Young Brothers Tae Kwon Do Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Morse’s professional affiliations include the College Band Directors’ National Association, National Band Association, National Association for Music Education and the California Music Educators Association, California Band Director’s Association, Northern California Band Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.