Bernstein Meets Broadway by Carol Oja
When Leonard Bernstein first arrived in New York, he was an unknown artist getting to know other twenty-somethings like Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. Yet by the end of the 1940s, these aspiring artists were world famous. Their collaborations defied artistic boundaries, subtly pushed a progressive political agenda, and forever altered the landscape of musical theater, ballet, and nightclub comedy. In Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War, award-winning author and scholar Carol J. Oja examines the early days of Bernstein's career at the height of World War II. As a composer and conductor, Bernstein had a meteoric rise to fame, thanks in no small part to his visionary collaborations. While Rodgers and Hammerstein imagined an idealized countryside, Bernstein focused on urban contemporary life and popular culture. His shows featured the iterant sailors who bore the brunt of military service, causing them quickly to stand out. Rather than accepting traditional distinctions between high and low art, his music was wide-open, inspired by everything from opera to jazz. To the dismay of some critics - and the delight of others - Bernstein freely coupled a reference to Rossini or Tchaikovsky with a hit song. Bernstein was not only provocative artistically but politically as well. In a time of race riots and Japanese internment camps, he and his colleagues promoted racial equality by featuring African-American and Asian-American performers. Oja combines a thorough exploration of Bernstein's collaborative work with rich descriptions of the time period that influenced him at the beginning of his career. Bernstein Meets Broadway is an indispensable work for any fan of Broadway musicals, dance, and cultural history.
[a] broad and sonorous view.. [this book] is to Oja's credit. * Russell Davies, Times Literary Supplement *
I mourn the loss of George Abbott and I celebrate Carol J. Oja's intriguing and absorbing book. * Bob Maram, The Writer's Drawer *
I mourn the loss of George Abbott and I celebrate Carol J. Oja's intriguing and absorbing book. * Bob Maram, The Writer's Drawer *
Carol J. Oja is the William Powell Mason Professor of Music at Harvard University. She is author of Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s (OUP, 2000), which won the Lowens Book Award from the Society for American Music and an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. Her other books include Copland and his World (co-edited with Judith Tick, 2005) and Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds (2004),
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780199862092 |
| ISBN 10 | 0199862095 |
| Title | Bernstein Meets Broadway |
| Author | Carol Oja |
| Series | Broadway Legacies |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press Inc |
| Year published | 2014-09-25 |
| Number of pages | 416 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |