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LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918–90)
Chichester Psalms
Scored for three trumpets, three trombones, timpani,
chime, suspended cymbals, cymbals, bass and
snare drums, xylophone, glockenspiel, tambourine,
triangle, woodblock, three bongos, whip, rasp, temple
block, two harps, strings, chorus, and boy solo
Leonard Bernstein’s personal physician, Cyril
(“Chuck”) Solomon, introduced his famous cli-
ent to the Very Reverend Walter Hussey (1909–
85), a visiting Anglican priest, after a rehearsal of
the New York Philharmonic in the early 1960s.
By then, Hussey had developed a widespread
reputation for commissioning contemporary
visual art and music, first as Vicar of Saint Mat-
thew’s Church in Northampton (1943–55) and
later as Dean of Chichester Cathedral (1955–77).
The encounter went no further than a brief
greeting until, a year or two later, Hussey mailed
Bernstein a letter via Dr. Solomon proposing a
new choral composition for the Southern Ca-
thedrals Festival.
The festival has taken place annually since its re-
vival in 1960 as a collaboration among the cathe-
dral choirs at Chichester, Winchester, and Salis-
bury, with each cathedral hosting the festival in
rotation. Hussey and organist-choirmaster John
Birch were determined to unveil a commis-
sioned work at the 1965 festival in its beautiful
Norman-Gothic sanctuary, as demonstration
that the English cathedral music tradition
“should not be regarded as a tradition which has
finished, and that we should be very much con-
cerned with music written today.” Bernstein’s
music, especially the musical-turned-film
West
Side Story
, which enjoyed widespread populari-
ty in England, captured the exciting potential of
modern music.
Hussey outlined his initial ideas in an introduc-
tory letter dated December 10, 1963: “The sort
of thing we had in mind was perhaps, say, a
setting of the Psalm 2, or some part of it, either
unaccompanied or accompanied by orchestra
or organ, or both.” Much to his surprise and
delight, Hussey received a reply on January 30,
1964, stating that Bernstein would be honored
to accept the commission, though he was uncer-
tain whether his schedule would allow work that
year or the following. Bernstein also requested
freedom to set other texts. Hussey responded
enthusiastically on February 10, granting lat-
itude in the literary selections. The Southern
Cathedrals Festival commission was under way.
A long period of silence followed, which Hus-
sey broke with a letter on August 14 outlining
the performing forces available at the festival:
combined choirs of 70–75 men and boys, strings
from the Philomusica of London, keyboards,
and a brass consort. The Chichester Dean wrote
again on December 22 with an exhortation to
write something that would provide English ca-
thedral music a “sharp and vigorous push into
the middle of the 20th century.” Bernstein re-
mained silent, understandably so since he had
begun a highly publicized 1964–65 sabbatical
from his post as music director of the New York
Philharmonic.
The music director duties left little time for Ber-
nstein to compose. Since accepting the position
in 1958, he had produced only one major com-
position: Symphony No. 3 (“Kaddish”), whose
premiere he conducted in Tel Aviv with the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, choruses, speak-
er Hannah Rovina, and mezzo-soprano Jennie
Tourel on December
10, 1963. His planned sab-
batical project marked a return to musical the-
ater, a form he had neglected since
West Side
Story
in 1957. In anticipation of his leave, Ber-
nstein began assembling an artistic team for a
musical setting of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer
Prize–winning 1942 play
The Skin of Our Teeth
.
Wilder granted adaptation rights to lyricists Bet-
ty Comden and Adolph Green. Bernstein’s date-
book records meetings—often dinners—with
Comden and/or Green beginning in May 1964.
Director and choreographer Jerome Robbins
came onboard sometime in early September.
The
New York Times
announced the
Skin of Our
Teeth
project on September
4, 1964. Columbia
Broadcasting System would serve as sole un-
derwriter, and the opening was announced for
September 1965. The four collaborators contin-
ued to meet periodically during the fall. Lela
Hayward agreed to produce the musical. Bern-
stein, his wife Felicia, and their children Jamie,
Alexander, and Nina, departed for Chile, where
they would spend the holidays with Felicia’s
family. On January
5, 1965, The
New York Times
announced the termination of the project. Ber-
nstein conveyed his profound disappointment
in a poetic sabbatical report published months
later by the newspaper, on October
24, 1965:
“We gave it up, and went our several ways,
/ Still
loving friends; but there was the pain
/ Of seeing
six months of work go down the drain.”
Now lacking a sabbatical project, Bernstein refo-
cused attention on the Southern Cathedrals Fes-
tival commission and resumed correspondence
with Dean Hussey. He outlined an expanded
conception for the choral work on February 24,
1965: “a suite of Psalms, or selected verses from
Psalms [Psalms 2, 23, 100, 108, and 131], and it
would have a general title like
Psalms of Youth
.
The music is all very forthright, songful, rhyth-
mic, youthful. The only hitch is this: I can think
of these Psalms only in the original Hebrew.”
Hussey assured Bernstein there would be no li-
turgical objection to Hebrew texts, though they
could challenge the singers and audience and
thus should be printed phonetically.
Though he composed primarily in his Manhat-
tan apartment, Bernstein completed the draft
score on May 7 at his home in Fairfield, CT.
Four days later, he wrote triumphantly to Hus-
sey: “The Psalms are finished, Laus Deo, are be-
ing copied, and should arrive in England next
week.” Bernstein anticipated completion of the
orchestration in June with delivery of the full
score and parts in time for rehearsals in Chich-
ester. He professed satisfaction with the score
and proudly announced to Hussey, “It is quite
popular in feeling (even a hint, as you suggested,
of
West Side Story
).”
Under its new title,
Chichester Psalms
, the
composition is divided into three movements,
which Bernstein outlined in literary, musical,
and spiritual terms. The first movement opens
with a chorale-like setting of the praise-filled
third verse from Psalm 108 and the entire Psalm
100, with its joyous dance. The next movement
begins with an innocent setting of Psalm 23 for
boy soprano and harp that is “interrupted sav-
agely by the men with threats of war and vio-
lence,” based on Psalm 2. The final movement of
the “suite” opens with an acerbic variation of the
opening chorale for orchestra that surrenders to
the simplistic, peaceful Psalm 131, “something
like a love duet between the men and the boys,”
in the composer’s words.
In the same letter, Bernstein mentioned chang-
es in instrumentation (the addition of percus-
sion and increasing the number of strings) then
dropped a bombshell. The New York Philhar-
monic had invited him to conduct a concert
Leonard Bernstein with the Very Reverend Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester Cathedral
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