May 13, 2012 - Easter 6: Celebration of the Arts

Chichester Psalms - Leonard Bernstein
MASS: "Simple Song" - Leonard Bernstein
Hymns: #412 Earth and All Stars, #292 Kingsfold,

              #787 Siyahamba

Chichester Psalms was commissioned in December 1963 by Dean of Chichester Cathedral, Rev. Dr. Walter Hussey for performance at the annual Southern Cathedrals Festival of 1965. Hussey had a great interest in contemporary arts and said of himself: “I’m not a frustrated artist. Really, I’m very happy as I am. But it’s always been my endeavor to get live, vigorous contemporary art in the service of the church.” He asked for a piece for the choir of men and boys that used a modest instrumental ensemble (strings and perhaps brass consort and piano or organ) and suggested a setting of Psalm 2 with a “hint of West Side Story.” What he got was a three movement set of Psalms scored for a choir of men and boys and an instrumental ensemble consisting of strings, brass, two harps and “the most elaborate battery of percussion ever to be heard in a cathedral.” The work received its premiere not at the Southern Cathedrals Festival, but instead in an all Bernstein performance at Philharmonic Hall in New York City with Bernstein conducting on July 15, 1965. The Southern Cathedrals Festival is regarded as the “true premiere” because it was the first performance with a choir of men and boys, as Bernstein intended.

Leonard Bernstein took a sabbatical to focus on composition from 1964-1965. It was his intention during this time to write a musical called The Skin of Our Teeth based on the 1941 Thorton Wilder play. This project never panned out but some of the music for this abandoned project went into Chichester Psalms. In fact most of the thematic material for Chichester Psalms comes from sketches of discarded music from West Side Story and The Skin of Our Teeth. This no doubt accounts for the theatrical nature of the piece as well as the popular style that Hussey was looking for with the commission.

The work is organized into three movements with the second and third being played without break. Each movement is a setting of one complete psalm and a fragment of another complementary psalm. In a letter dated May 11, 1965 Bernstein describes the work:

Movement 1: Opens with a chorale (Ps.108:3) evoking praise; and then swings into Ps. 100    

                      complete, a wild and joyful dance in the Davidic spirit.

Movement 2: Consists mainly of Ps. 23 complete, featuring a boy solo and his harp, but

interrupted savagely by the men with threats of war and violence (Ps. 2:1- 4). This movement ends in unresolved fashion with both elements, faith and

         fear, interlocked.

Movement 3: Begins with an orchestral prelude based on the opening chorale, whose

                      assertive harmonies have now turned to painful ones. There is a crisis; the tension    
                      is suddenly relieved, and the choir enters humbly and peacefully singing Ps. 131,   
                      complete, in what is almost a popular song (although in 10/4 time!). It is something like
                      a love duet. In this atmosphere of humility, there is a final chorale coda, (Ps. 133:1) – a 
                      prayer for peace.

The work was also orchestrated in a version for organ, harp and percussion, the version that will be presented today – probably at the request of Bernstein’s publisher. This piece is perhaps the only work in the standard choral literature that is entirely in Hebrew. The piece reflects Bernstein’s heritage, his penchant for drama and a quest for peace, both in the world and on a personal level. Dr. Hussey said of the artists that he worked with “I don’t ask them to say a Creed, but I do insist they have a blazing sincerity.” Bernstein’s sincerity shines through especially in the concluding chorale on the text:

Hineh mah tov, umah naim, Shevet ahim gam yahad. Amen.

Behold how good, and how pleasant it is, For brothers to dwell together. Amen.

Bernstein’s MASS was commissioned for the 1971 dedication of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Bernstein had long had a connection with John F. Kennedy. His Third Symphony, Kaddish is dedicated to him; indeed he was orchestrating the third movement when he received news of the assassination. Bernstein had also been chosen to consult and conduct the music for the funeral. The work is subtitled “A Theatre piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers, and deals with, as does much of Bernstein’s oeuvre, a crisis of faith. The backbone of the piece is the Catholic liturgy. There are interspersed throughout hymns and psalm texts, some by the lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz who had recently risen to notoriety for his musical, Godspell. In MASS a young man called only “the Celebrant” who wrestles with the deterioration of his faith. Simple Song comes from Bernstein’s preoccupation with St. Francis of Assisi. Bernstein had been approached by Franco Zeffirelli to compose the soundtrack for his biopic on St. Francis, Brother Sun, Sister Moon. The listener can hear the bird song (played by the solo flute stop on the organ) that is often associated with this saint. Bernstein also identified the Celebrant as an extension of himself. Humphrey Burton writes in his biography of Leonard Bernstein, “When he [the Celebrant] sings ‘A Simple Song’ he must be not only St. Francis and the Celebrant but also an incarnation of Bernstein himself – the child inside the man who, like his image of Beethoven, ‘never grew up and to the end of his life remained a creature of grace and innocence and trust.’”