There's Always Room to Improve 187
Leonard Bernstein was a talented composer, conduc-
tor, pianist, teacher, and Emmy-winning television per-
sonality. He loved to talk about music and did so with
everyone: friends, colleagues, teachers, students, and
even children. Bernstein’s unique intelligence and wit
afforded him a reputation as music’s most articulate
spokesperson.
9
Variety magazine summed up his appeal
by stating “The [New York] Philharmonic’s conductor
has the knack of a teacher and the feel of a poet. The
marvel of Bernstein is that he knows how to grab atten-
tion and carry it along, measuring just the right amount
of new information to precede every climax.”
10
Of all the things Bernstein accomplished, leading the
Young People’s Concerts was one of his proudest lega-
cies. Several times a year, Carnegie Hall would fill with
young children who came to learn about classical music.
Bernstein would deliver a lecture-driven concert that
could hold the attention of small children for an hour
or more as he taught them complex music theory. The
lecture-concerts were successful because Bernstein
put the same energy and discipline into them that he
put into his music. www
Bernstein’s explanations, analogies, and metaphors
were delivered in a clear, simple, yet poetic presentation
Case Study: Leonard Bernstein
Young People’s Concerts
that consistently stayed at the children’s understanding
level. He isolated various layers of the music, explained
the theory behind it, played excerpts of it on the piano,
and used various instrumentalists to play portions of it.
Then, when the full piece was performed, the children
had a clearer understanding of the many nuances.
Below are three excerpts from one of the most dif-
ficult musical subjects to explain, “What is Symphonic
Music?” Bernstein uses items familiar to the children
as metaphors:
11
“How does development actually work? It happens •
in three main stages, like a three-stage rocket going
into space. The first stage is the simple birth of the
idea. Like a flower growing out of a seed. You all know
the seed, for example, that Beethoven planted at the
beginning of his [fifth] symphony, “dunt dunt dunt
duuuunt.” Out of it rises a flower that goes like this:
<plays piano>”
“[Brahms] puts two to three melodies together…and •
takes scraps of melodies and turns things upside
down like pancakes. But it’s not that it’s upside down
but that it sounds amazing upside down. Will it be
beautiful? That’s what makes Brahms so great. Music
doesn’t just change. It changes beautifully.”
“I’m hoping you’ll hear it with new ears and hear the •
symphonic wonders of it, the growth of it, and the
miracle of life in it that runs like blood through its
veins and connects every note to every other note
and makes it the great piece of music that it is.”
Bernstein worked for days on his Young People’s Concert
scripts and rehearsed them several times so that when
he was talking it would sound as if he were just having a
calm, casual conversation with the children.
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188 Resonate
Few of Bernstein’s viewers were aware of how much dogged work
went into his presentations. He was so adept at displaying an easy,
casual manner that his presentations appeared to be born effort-
lessly and spontaneously. The truth, of course, was that he worked
hard on his scripts. Weeks before, and right up to the last minute, his
offices, house, and dressing rooms were filled with scattered piles of
paper as he and his team wrote, planned, and rehearsed.
12
Bernstein generated ideas on yellow legal pads and collaborated with
his equally dedicated co-workers until a graceful, accessible script
was formed.
13
The team would make sure each metaphor and alle-
gory was appropriate for the audience. Bernstein himself would walk
through the script several times, marking and rehearsing as he went.
Bernstein and his team edited constantly, right up to the moment
he walked on stage. After each show, they would watch the record-
ing of what he said and evaluate it to improve it the next time. He’d
identify improvements he could make so he didn’t commit the same
mistakes over and over. While all good conductors review their con-
certs, Bernstein applied this practice to his presentations as well so
that each one got better than the last.
Conductors are trained to have a disciplined rehearsal process, so
editing a script through multiple iterations wouldn’t be a foreign
process for them. They read a musical score the way most people
read a book. Paging through Bernstein’s scores is like watching him
rehearse. He studied and reviewed a score several times, working
hard to represent the composer’s intent. He had a special pencil that
he used while reading scores that he called his “red-ee blue-ee” (one
end wrote in red pencil, the other in blue). As he continued through
the score, he flipped the pencil back and forth as he thought about
the expression of the music from his point of view as the conductor
or that of the individual musicians (his audience).
14
The blue markings were conductor markings for Bernstein him-
self that helped identify phrasing, instrumental cues, and musical
Bernstein put just as much rehearsal energy
into his presentation scripts as he did into his
musical scores.
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There's Always Room to Improve 189
This excerpt from the script for “Humor in Music”
shows how carefully Bernstein and his team planned.
emphasis. The red markings were notes to the musicians that would
be transferred to each of their specific parts. These markings are
particularly interesting. He was a literary conductor that didn’t just
draw attention to a marking; he poetically described what he wanted
the musician to feel. John Cerminaro, who played for years in the New
York Philharmonic’s horn section, said, “You couldn’t just play a solo
according to the notes on the page; [Bernstein] wanted something
special on an emotional level every time.”
15
Bernstein tried to anticipate everything while he rehearsed and
refined his presentation scripts. He planned every word and audi-
ence reaction carefully. He developed his scripts to the point of
anticipating multiple audience responses—even writing alternate
sections based on how people might react to the previous point. He
even made notations of where and how he would stand while on the
stage. The New York Philharmonic archives contain copies of scripts
that show as many as ten revisions (in addition to the rounds on his
yellow pads), which is a reflection of the thoroughness of Bernstein’s
thought process and rehearsals.
16
Bernstein wrote about his Young People’s Concerts experience in
1968 using words that can stand as his credo. “These concerts are
not just concerts—not even in terms of the millions who view them
[on TV] at home,” he wrote. “They are, in some way, the quintessence
of all I try to do as a conductor, as a performing musician. There is a
lurking didactic streak in me that turns every program I make into a
discourse, whether I utter a word or not; my performing impulse has
always been to share my feelings, or knowledge, or speculations about
music—to provide thought, suggest historical perspective, encourage
the intersection of musical lines. And from this point of view, the Young
People’s Concerts are a dream come true, especially since the sharing
is done with young people—that is, people who are eager, unpreju-
diced, curious, open, and enthusiastic.”
17
Regardless of your subject matter, passion and practice make perfect.
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190 Resonate
Practice makes perfect—kind of. An old adage says, “if anyone does not
stumble in word, he is a perfect man.” And no one is perfect. There is
always room to improve. So be tenacious in preparing yourself ahead of
time. Rehearse and re-rehearse. Then afterward, solicit feedback—and if
it was taped, review the recording and then start the refinement process
all over again.
Successful people plan and prepare. To be successful in any profession
requires discipline and mastery of skills. Applying that same discipline
to the skill of communication will attach the audience to your idea and
improve your professional trajectory.
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