Leonard Bernstein

This volume of essays and images explores Leonard Bernstein's Harvard period, and his achievements as scholar, teacher, composer. The book illuminates Bernstein's grappling with American music, and searching for one that synthesized the diverse influences he had heard (Jewish music, Stravinsky, American pop). Bernstein's composing career, like Gershwin's, gives the complexity of American music a sound, and as Gershwin went from Tin Pan Alley to the opera house, Bernstein experienced many different types of music before finding his voice among them.