The Unanswered Question - Six Talks at Harvard by Leonard (Musical Movie News)

The Unanswered Question - Six Talks at Harvard by Leonard Bernstein

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Kultur

20 November, 2001

Always absorbing and frequently brilliant, Leonard Bernstein's The Unanswered Question is a very lucid and convincing discussion of music's history and forms, with particular emphasis on modern music. It addresses the average intelligent listener who is not musically trained but wants to know what makes music work--what is meant, for example, by "tonal" and "atonal." It requires some concentration, but Bernstein, a superb teacher, keeps technical jargon to a minimum, illustrates what he means with musical examples and graphics, and repeats key points. Delivered in 1973, the talks were transcribed for a book, but in it Bernstein insists "The pages that follow were written not to be read, but listened to," really an endorsement of the video edition. The talks are, in fact, performances. Television was always kind to Bernstein; he had magnetism and knew how to use it. To illustrate various points in his analyses, he plays the piano frequently, sings occasionally, and conducts significant works of key composers: Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner, Ravel, Debussy, Ives, Mahler, and Stravinsky. Bernstein traces the development of music from its origins to the 20th-century struggle between tonality (championed notably by Stravinsky) and atonalism (represented mainly by Schoenberg). The last two talks, devoted to these composers, are particularly enlightening, but all six are outstanding. He argues persuasively that humans are born with an ability to grasp musical forms, and that rules of musical syntax are rooted in nature--in mathematically measurable relations between tones and overtones. These talks are a key document. They coincide chronologically, as cause and/or symptom, with the movement of America's leading composers back from Schoenbergian forms toward a tonal orientation. Bernstein predicts and promotes this movement, which is still in progress. He is clearly an advocate of tonality, but he discusses atonal music with sympathy and understanding. --Joe McLellan

Lenny develops the common analogy with language to explain to a mostly non-musician audience what music is all about. So he talks about music in terms of linguistics ... musical phonology, musical syntax, musical semantics. 
 
 In his ramblings on musical syntax, he extensively uses Chomsky's transformational grammar - linguistic transformations from deep structure to surface structure according to grammatical rules - to illuminate musical transformations ... and, as he says, maybe even the secret of the creativity of the human mind in general. 
 
 But his ramblings on musical semantics are simply mindblowing --- he likens the variation of musical motives to linguistic metaphor. Just read what some of the best contemporary linguists like Fauconnier/Turner and Lakoff/Johnson write today about conceptual blending and metaphor, and you'll realize that Lenny's intuitions were right on even in 1973. 
 
 What a treat, and a feast for gourmet thinkers and listeners! This set has been a much-treasured discovery for me. Anybody with
 an interest in music should have it for a better understanding of
 musical structure. If you want a survey of western music that reveals both the deep inner dynamics of music and the external flow and inter-dynamics of the history of music from Mozart to 20th century and that afterwards lifts you to a higher plane of music appreciation and enjoyment, then you've found it here. The ideas Berstein presents and the way he presents them are indeed intriguiing, engrossing and inspired (he exudes with the typical Berstein genious). But the truly moving, revealing and enjoyable parts I find are Bernstein as the conductor (one of the greats of all time in my opinion); the lectures are interspersed with Bernstein's conducting of full length pieces such as the Mozart G minor symphony, Beethovens Sixth Symphony, Belioz, particulary Wagner's Liebestod, Schonberg and Stravinsky -- these are truly marvelous and opens your eyes wider and wider each time to the sense of what music making/conducting is and, indeed, what music is. His analysis of the 20th century crisis in music, with correlation of the significance of Mahler as the end of the tonal era, brings to light the rationale behind major movements as well as imparting a sense of understanding of the philosophical pattern in 20th century music. I highly recommend this to anyone with more than a casual interest in music.

Newsies (Collector's Edition)

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Disney Studios

15 January, 2002

Except for feature-length animation, the musical has gone the way of the dinosaur. The Walt Disney company took a stab at reviving the live-action musical in 1992 with Newsies, a throwback picture with a curious subject. In 1899, the pint-sized newsboys delivering the New York papers go on strike against the unfair practices of news magnates Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. The production is heavy on kiddie humor, although Christian Bale (the child star of Spielberg's Empire of the Sun) is charismatic as one of the older leaders of the revolt. The adult stars don't fare as well, with Robert Duvall doddering around as Pulitzer and Ann-Margret and Bill Pullman doing decorative duty. The film was not well received when first released, but hindsight reveals its charm (and allowed the young target audience to catch up with the picture on video). The first-time director is Kenny Ortega, the choreographer of Dirty Dancing, who brings plenty of energy to the action. --Robert Horton

I loved this movie. I borrowed it from a friend and promply purchased it. I could barely wait to recieve it so I could watch it again. The cast is stellar as is the choreography and music. I love the song "Seize the Day" which I heard on a Disney compilation (I've also got the soundtrack for the movie now). I liked this flim it was very realistic.It has a EXCELLENT plot and the acting is OK the casting could of been better.I gave it three star for the singing as a "MUSICAL" it sucks. Great movie, good inspiration. This is a great story of newsies who decided that the people at the top of the news corporations were being unfair by raising the price of newspapers for the newsies. There were some akward moments in this, but overall a great movie!