Leonard Bernstein: Young People's Concerts | What Does Music Mean (Part 1 of 4)

What Does Music Mean?

Aired date: Jan 18, 1958

Plot: Leonard Bernstein told the television audience at the start of the first young People's Concert: "No matter what stories people tell you about what music means, forget them. Stories are not what music means. Music is never about things. Music just is. It's a lot of beautiful notes and sounds put together so well that we get pleasure out of hearing them. So when we ask, 'What does it mean; what does this piece of music mean?' we're asking a hard question. Let's do our best to answer it." During the course of this first program the New York Philharmonic performs portions of Rossini's William Tell Overture, Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, and Ravel's La Valse.

For full script: http://leonardbernstein.com/ypc_scrip...

Distributor: KULTUR International Films, Inc.

• Category

  Education

[Michael Lee]

Thanks for posting this. What an incredible, creative force this man was. Two conductors on TV were instrumental in my embracing classical music: Arthur Fielder and Lenny Bernstein.

[ArtfulLearning]

You are very welcome! Glad to read that these videos bring back fond memories.

[ArtfulLearning]

@garix51: You are very welcome. I am glad that the videos bring back some fond memories. All the best!

[drclavus]

Great! Thank you very much form Italy for all the Young People's Concerts.

[ArtfulLearning]

@drclavus: Prego :)

[ArtfulLearning]

Glad that you like it. Other episodes will be posted in due course. Happy viewing!

[homeystary1]

Haha, Lenny's the only conductor in history awesome enough to fix his hair mid-piece and get away with it. 2:16

[stardude3396]

I know that feeling!

[Joseph Chevrolet]

I want to hear him play more boogie woogie

[homeystary1]

I love these. It's also hilarious in the beginning when Leonard Bernstein's like, "Get me the spray... The spray... What, there's no time?". Haha.

[rbdbety]

my teacher showed us this on a class at my university, since that i love this guy :D

[Felipe Pasini]

Incredible. All videos. Thanks so much for posting.

[bhaggen]

It's deja-vu. I started my journey this evening with an article on the Natalie Wood case. Then watched clips from West Side Story which Bernstein wrote the music for. Then found these which I used to watch as a kid. How multi-talented he was. Pops & I can't thank you enough for posting these. Great!

[Bonnie Speeg]

Your comment touches me deeply. I was ten years old in 1958, in the U.S., when the Concerts came on TV. My mother made me watch them. I consider it a juvenile degree in the humanities after watching all of them.

[Bonnie Speeg]

I'm thrilled you homeschool and use this as a teaching tool. I was 10 years old when these came out. I lived in a rural town, no exposure to much in the arts. My mother made me watch them all, and it helped form my artistic sensibilities. Bernstein's genius is a gift to humanity, hands down. How wonderful to have universal access to these precious films not everything got captured as magnificently as Young People's Concerts). Just wonderful.

[Bonnie Speeg]

Yes, Bernstein....helped form everything I own as beautiful, artistic sensibilities that are mine in my adult arts life. A beautiful teacher, L.B. I agree with you, Michael Lee