September 8, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Monday, September 8.
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. has been in the news a lot lately. But its story began over fifty years ago on September 8, 1971, with a premier performance of a piece by musical legend, Leonard Bernstein. An exceedingly eclectic work, it blended the styles of classical, jazz, and pop, and featured an orchestra, three choirs, and a rock band. He called it “Mass”.
Bernstein was the first American to take the world stage as a conductor. But he was also a renowned pianist, educator, author, and larger than life personality. And, on top of all that, he was a composer of Broadway music - “West Side Story” - as well as a long list of classical works. Many of these “serious” pieces, like Mass, were centered on religious themes.
His first symphony, “Jeremiah”, followed the story of the famous Old Testament prophet, and featured verses from the Book of Lamentations. A work for orchestra and chorus, “Chichester Psalms”, sung in Hebrew, focused on the poetry of King David. I had the blessing of being part of a performance of it in 1984, as a college student in Houston. It was conducted by the Maestro, and was the most memorable musical moment of my life.
In late 1963 Bernstein wrote another symphony and called it Kaddish, for the Hebrew prayer for the dead. It was performed as a solemn tribute to John F. Kennedy, shortly after his assassination. And so it was not surprising that Jackie Kennedy commissioned Bernstein to write the music to open the performing arts center that was built to honor the legacy of the fallen president.
Another president, Richard Nixon, was notably absent from that first concert. Bernstein, a longtime liberal, was on Nixon’s infamous “enemies list”, and, as the Vietnam War raged, Nixon was afraid that the work would include anti-war themes. In a way, it did, but not through modern messages. It employed the ancient language of the Church. The choir, in a deeply moving passage, repeated the Latin prayer phrase, “dona nobis pacem” (“grant us peace”).
In 2022, the Kennedy Center celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of notable events. The final one was a restaging of this work, this vision, this message by Leonard Bernstein. And once again, just like on the evening of September 8, 1971, the piece closed with these words - “The mass has ended. Go in peace”.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
