A short life of the author
Leonard Bernstein (25 August 1918 – 14 October 1990) was an American composer, conductor, pianist, educator, and author who was the most celebrated and versatile American musician of the twentieth century. His books and television scripts — The Joy of Music (1959), The Infinite Variety of Music (1966), The Unanswered Question (1976) — are the most eloquent works of musical popularisation ever written, and his Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, broadcast on CBS from 1958 to 1972, introduced classical music to an entire generation of Americans.
Life
Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants. He studied at Harvard (where he encountered the conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos) and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His career was launched spectacularly on 14 November 1943, when he substituted for the ailing Bruno Walter on the podium of the New York Philharmonic — with no rehearsal, on national radio — and delivered a performance that made front-page news.
He became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958 — the first American-born conductor to hold the position — and held it until 1969. He was one of the first classical musicians to become a television star, and his flamboyant, passionate podium manner divided opinion: some saw a great communicator, others a showman.
His personal life was complex. He married the Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre in 1951 and had three children, but he was bisexual, and his relationships with men were an open secret in the music world. Tom Wolfe’s essay “Radical Chic” (1970), about a party Bernstein hosted for the Black Panthers, cemented his image as a wealthy liberal whose politics were more performative than substantive.
The Books
The Joy of Music (1959) is a collection of essays, television scripts, and imaginary conversations that explain musical concepts — what makes Beethoven great, how to listen to a symphony, why jazz is an art form — with wit, erudition, and a complete absence of condescension. The book remains one of the best introductions to classical music ever written.
The Infinite Variety of Music (1966) continues in the same vein, covering topics from the Beatles to the crisis of tonality.
The Unanswered Question (1976) — based on Bernstein’s six Norton Lectures at Harvard — is his most intellectually ambitious work. Using Noam Chomsky’s transformational grammar as an analogy, Bernstein argues that music has a universal “grammar” rooted in the harmonic series, and he traces the history of Western music as a progressive exploration (and eventual dissolution) of tonal relationships. The lectures — filmed and broadcast on PBS — are a landmark of music education, though Bernstein’s Chomskyan framework has been questioned by subsequent musicologists.
Young People’s Concerts — fifty-three scripts for CBS television broadcasts (1958–1972) — are collected in book form. They are models of clarity: Bernstein explains sonata form, orchestration, and modern music to children without simplification, and his enthusiasm is infectious.
Critical Standing
Bernstein’s books are universally admired as the finest popular writing about music by a major practitioner. His combination of deep knowledge, verbal fluency, and genuine love of communication — qualities rare in classical musicians — makes his work enduringly accessible. The Unanswered Question lectures, in particular, remain essential viewing for anyone interested in the relationship between language and music.
Collecting Bernstein
The Joy of Music (1959, Simon & Schuster) in first edition brings $30–$80. Signed copies are available and prized. West Side Story vocal scores signed by Bernstein are major collectibles.