123 / 140
golden shovel used for the Lincoln Memorial
and Jefferson Memorial, on December 2, 1964.
By mid-1966, Bernstein had received two invita-
tions from Jacqueline Kennedy connected to the
emerging cultural center. The composer-con-
ductor initially agreed to serve as the center’s
artistic director, but later declined the position.
However, Bernstein gladly accepted Mrs. Ken-
nedy’s commission for a new composition to
celebrate the opening of the center: “the highest
honor I have ever been accorded.” Conducting
engagements had ruthlessly limited his time for
composition; Bernstein had produced only two
major compositions over the previous decade
since
West Side Story
: Symphony No. 3 (
Kad-
dish
) and the
Chichester Psalms
.
Construction delays pushed the Kennedy Cen-
ter opening beyond the scheduled 1969 date.
Meanwhile, Bernstein had begun envisioning
a large-scale theatrical setting of the Mass—in
honor of the Kennedys, who were Catholic—
that confronted current issues in a contem-
porary style. This approach mirrored recent
changes in the Catholic Church, instituted by
the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), that
emphasized ecumenical dialogue, vernacular
languages in worship, and popular styles of li-
turgical music and art.
Seemingly with time to spare before the opening,
Bernstein turned his attention to other projects.
Immediately he flew to Los Angeles to oversee
a revival of
Candide
at Royce Hall. His second
collection of essays,
The Infinite Variety of Music
,
was published in August 1966. Two months later,
Bernstein announced plans to retire as music di-
rector of the New York Philharmonic at the end
of his current contract (1969), when he would
receive the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor.
His guest conducting engagements, most nota-
bly with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and
Vienna Philharmonic, increased.
One project that consumed much of Bernstein’s
time was a film directed by Franco Zeffirelli,
who had turned his attention to religious sub-
jects after the successes of two recent Shake-
speare films,
The Taming of the Shrew
(1967) and
Romeo and Juliet
(1968). Zeffirelli and Bernstein
labored for three months on a portrayal of the
life of Saint Francis of Assisi. When creative dif-
ferences drove Bernstein and his lyricist, Leon-
ard Cohen, from the project, Zeffirelli turned to
Italian film composer Riziero (“Riz”) Ortolani
and pop singer-songwriter Donovan to write
the
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
(1972) soundtrack.
Bernstein did not leave the project empty-hand-
ed. Two remnants eventually made their way
into
Mass
: the well-known “Simple Song” heard
in the
Devotion before Mass
and a quatrain by
Paul Simon (“Half of the people are stoned”),
which emerged as a Trope in the
Gloria
. Any
disappointment Bernstein suffered from the
collapse of the Saint Francis project quickly dis-
sipated amid work on a musical theater adap-
tation of Bertolt Brecht’s
The Caucasian Chalk
Circle
, which also fizzled after two months.
The new opening date for the Kennedy Cen-
ter—September 8, 1971—crept closer. Though
Bernstein’s concept for
Mass
had come into
focus, actual composition lagged far behind
schedule. Back in New York after conducting
the New York Philharmonic on a tour of Japan
and the southern United States in August and
June 1970, Bernstein learned that his Kennedy
Center colleague Roger L. Stevens had suffered
a heart attack. While visiting the hospital, Bern-
stein asked what he could do for his convalesc-
ing friend. “Lenny, one thing I’d like to have you
do for me is finish
Mass
,” Stevens replied. This
was the incentive Bernstein needed to quicken
his work.
In December, Bernstein retreated to the Mac-
Dowell Colony in Peterborough, NH, for artis-
tic inspiration and concentrated work on
Mass
.
There, a large portion of its music was assem-
bled from existing material or was newly com-
posed. Engagements with the Vienna Philhar-
monic—live filming of Mahler symphonies and
a European tour—occupied February through
May. Back in the US, Bernstein resumed his
frenzied work on
Mass
, refining references to
Christian ritual and political resistance, devel-
oping English lyrics to match the Latin liturgical
text, and imposing order and coherence on the
overall dramatic structure.
His consultations with antiwar activist Catholic
priests Father Daniel Berrigan and Father Phil-
ip Berrigan, who was imprisoned in the Fed-
eral Correctional Institution at Danbury along
with six others (the “Harrisburg Seven”) for
allegedly plotting to kidnap National Security
Advisor Henry Kissinger, caught the attention
of President Richard Nixon and the FBI under
J. Edgar Hoover. Based on information from an
unknown prison informant, the FBI issued two
memos on “Proposed Plans of Antiwar Elements
to Embarrass the United States Government.”
Bernstein’s forthcoming
Mass
stood at the cen-
ter of this imagined conspiracy. In the second
memo (August 16, 1971), R.L. Shackelford wrote
to C.D. Brennan “To advise that information re-
garding a previously reported plot by Leonard
Bernstein, conductor and composer, to embar-
rass the President and other government offi-
cials through an antiwar and anti-Government
musical composition to be played at the dedica-
tion of the Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts has been reported by the press.” The memo
stated that, based on this information, President
Nixon had decided not to attend the Kennedy
Center opening “in order to minimize the ef-
fectiveness of Bernstein’s plot to embarrass the
administration.”
Bernstein still had not identified a collabora-
tor to write the English lyrics by June, leaving
the composer “terribly depressed,” according
to his sister Shirley. (Stephen Sondheim, who
Leonard Bernstein (1971)
President John F. Kennedy with architect Edward Durell Stone (to his left) and the model of the National Cultural
Center that would later bear his name
JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
121