CCCLXXXIII. BERNSTEIN, Leonard (1918-1990)
Highly recommended reading:
"ABSTRACT: This paper reads Leonard Bernstein's Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" as a careful interpretation of and commentary on Plato's text. While a straightforward reading of Diotima's speech in Plato's Symposium suggests that human relationships are merely an instrumental step toward higher loves, Bernstein's music emphasizes the intrinsic goodness of interpersonal love. The connections between the two works have been dismissed as superficial by critics, but Bernstein's piece is actually carefully engaged with the narrative structure of Plato's text. It therefore encourages a re-reading of Plato's dialogue in which its form shapes and complicates the meaning. By depicting in music the interpersonal relationships in both the Symposium and his own life, Bernstein inspires the careful listener to see those relationships as a necessary component of the philosophical life."
1. Phaedrus: Pausania
[solo violin part]
[solo violin part]
The love motif:
Bernstein spells out the tonic chord in the first five notes, but it's the next three that are important -- they are the exact same notes he would use in West Side Story to spell Ma-ri-a!
"Maria is a song about desire and love for a specific person, and the melody mirrors this as the #4 scale degree longs to resolve upward to 5." [Parks]
There is more: At
3:38 we hear this:
compare with
Parks's paper goes into great detail about the relative relationship of pederasty in both the Symposium and Bernstein's own personal love life. It is not a pleasant subject, but I urge all who are interested to investigate the above-referenced source material and essay.
2. Aritophanes
3. Eryximachus
4. Agathon
5. Socrates: Alcibiades
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