Bernstein: Vocal Works
View all works by Bernstein in the main appExplore the complete catalog of Vocal compositions by Bernstein. This curated list includes composition years, historical Wikipedia context, and interactive audio to add specific tracks directly to your listening queue.
| Title | Year | Actions |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Love Songs |
"Love Shack" is a song by American new wave band the B-52's from their fifth studio album, Cosmic Thing (1989). It was released on June 20, 1989, by Reprise Records, and was produced by Don Was. The song was a comeback for the band, following their decline in popularity in the mid-1980s and the death of guitarist Ricky Wilson in 1985. "Love Shack" is considered one of the band's signature songs and has been a concert staple since its release. Commercially, the single topped the charts of Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand and reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 (becoming their first top-40 hit), and number five on the Canadian RPM 100 Singles chart. Its accompanying music video was directed by Adam Bernstein and won an award at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards. The song was later named one of the 365 Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America and one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone. |
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| A White House Cantata |
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is a 1976 musical with music by Leonard Bernstein and book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. It is considered to be a legendary Broadway flop, running only seven performances. It was Bernstein's last original score for Broadway. |
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| Arias and Barcarolles |
Arias and Barcarolles is a 78-minute contemporary classical studio album of music by Leonard Bernstein, performed by Thomas Hampson, Frederica von Stade, Simon Carrington, Neil Percy and the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition to the song cycle which gives it its name, the album includes the Suite from Bernstein's opera A Quiet Place and the Symphonic Dances from his musical West Side Story. It was released in 1996. |
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| Chichester Psalms |
Chichester Psalms is an extended choral composition in three movements by Leonard Bernstein for boy treble or countertenor, choir and orchestra. The text was arranged by the composer from the Book of Psalms in the original Hebrew. Part 1 uses Psalms 100 and 108, Part 2 uses 2 and 23, and Part 3 uses 131 and 133. Bernstein scored the work for a reduced orchestra, but also made a version for an even smaller ensemble of organ, one harp, and percussion. The work premiered at the Philharmonic Hall in New York City on 15 July 1965, conducted by the composer. That was followed by a performance at Chichester Cathedral as part of the Southern Cathedrals Festival, for which it was commissioned, on 31 July that year, conducted by John Birch. |
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| Dream With Me, for voice and piano, with obbligato cello |
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1958. |
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| Dybbuk, Suite no. 1 |
This is a list of compositions by the American composer Leonard Bernstein. |
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| Hashkiveinu |
Hashkiveinu is a work for solo cantor (tenor), mixed chorus, and organ composed by Leonard Bernstein in 1945. The work is six minutes in length and uses the prayer text from the Jewish Sabbath evening service. The work is in Hebrew, and the transliterated score uses Ashkenazic pronunciation. |
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| I Hate Music |
I Hate Music: A cycle of Five Kid Songs for Soprano and Piano is a song cycle by Leonard Bernstein. Composed in 1942, the work was premiered by vocalist Jennie Tourel with Bernstein as pianist in 1943. The song has remained a part of the song repertoire and has been recorded by numerous artists; including singers Blanche Thebom, Barbara Bonney, Harolyn Blackwell and Roberta Alexander among others. |
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| In Our Time, song for voice and piano |
Leonard Bernstein ( BURN-styne; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history" according to music critic Donal Henahan. Bernstein's honors and accolades include seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and 16 Grammy Awards (including the Lifetime Achievement Award) as well as an Academy Award nomination. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981. As a composer, Bernstein wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music, and pieces for the piano. Bernstein's works include the Broadway musical West Side Story, which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (1961 and 2021) feature films, as well as three symphonies, Serenade (after Plato's Symposium) (1954) and Chichester Psalms (1965), the original score for Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), and theater works including On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), Candide (1956), and his Mass (1971). Bernstein was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras, generating a legacy of audio and video recordings. Bernstein was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler, in whose music he was most interested. A skilled pianist, Bernstein often conducted piano concertos from the keyboard. He shared and explored classical music on television with a mass audience in national and international broadcasts, including Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein worked in support of civil rights; protested against the Vietnam War; advocated nuclear disarmament; raised money for HIV/AIDS research and awareness; championed Janis Ian at age 15 and her song about interracial love, "Society's Child", on his CBS television show; and engaged in multiple international initiatives for human rights and world peace. He conducted Mahler's Resurrection Symphony to mark the death of president John F. Kennedy, and in Israel at a concert, Hatikvah on Mt. Scopus, after the Six-Day War. The sequence of events was recorded for a documentary entitled Journey to Jerusalem. Bernstein was a member of the executive committee for Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. On Christmas Day, 1989, Bernstein conducted a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. Less than a year later, in October 1990, he died of a heart attack brought on by mesothelioma in New York, aged 72. |
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| La Bonne cuisine: 4 recipes |
La Bonne Cuisine: Four Recipes for Voice and Piano is a 1947 song cycle of recipes by Leonard Bernstein. |
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| Maria; Tonight; O paese d'o sole; Cielito lindo | ||
| Mass |
Mass (formally: MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers) is a musical theatre work composed by Leonard Bernstein. The text includes the Latin mass text, with additional lyrics by Bernstein and by Stephen Schwartz. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy, it premiered on September 8, 1971, directed by Gordon Davidson, conducted by Maurice Peress and choreographed by Alvin Ailey. The production used costume designs by Frank Thompson. The performance was part of the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Mass premiered in Europe in 1973, with John Mauceri conducting the Yale Symphony Orchestra in Vienna. The work is based on the Tridentine Mass of the Catholic Church. The liturgical passages are sung mostly in Latin, though the "Sanctus" includes portions in Hebrew. Mass also includes additional texts in English written by Bernstein, Stephen Schwartz, and Paul Simon (who wrote the first quatrain of the trope "Half of the People"). The work is intended to be staged theatrically, but it has also been performed in a standard concert setting. Music critic Peter G. Davis in an analysis of the work's musical merits described Mass as a "work [of] vertiginous stylistic gamut with acid rock and 12-tone serialism, Renaissance polyphony and Mahler, jazz, Broadway and down-home Americana. ... Yes, Bernstein could manipulate a 12-tone row with the best of them." Initial critical reception, including a review in The New York Times, was largely negative. The Columbia Records recording of the work enjoyed excellent sales, and in 2025 Richard Morrison commented at BBC Music that in recent years it has undergone something of a revival, with listeners more open to its chaotic blend of styles. |
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| Missa Brevis, for alto, chorus and percussion |
The Missa Brevis by Leonard Bernstein is a musical setting of parts of the mass ordinary in Latin for a mixed a cappella choir with countertenor solo and percussion. It is also Bernstein's last complete choral work, due to his death a year after its completion in 1989. |
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| Olympic Hymn, for chorus and orchestra |
The Olympic Hymn is a 1981 composition by Leonard Bernstein to a text by Günter Kunert. It was written for the International Olympic Congress of 1981 in Baden-Baden, West Germany. It was premiered by the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Baden-Baden Youth Choir under conductor David Shallon on 23 September 1981. The piece opened the proceedings of the International Olympic Congress. The piece is six minutes in length. The hymn bears some similarity to the song "To Make Us Proud" that formed the finale of Bernstein's 1976 musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The first recording of the Olympic Hymn was made by the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus under John Williams on Williams's 1996 album Summon the Heroes. Lyrics to the piece were written by the German author and poet Günter Kunert. The piece was the last of Bernstein's compositions to be orchestrated by Hershy Kay. |
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| Piccola serenata |
This is a list of compositions by the American composer Leonard Bernstein. |
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| Psalm 148 |
Psalm 148 is the 148th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Praise ye the Lord from the heavens". In Latin, it is known as "Laudate Dominum de caelis". The psalm is one of the Laudate psalms. Old Testament scholars have also classified it as a creation psalm and a wisdom psalm. The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies. It has often been set to music, including a four-part metered setting in German by Heinrich Schütz as part of the Becker Psalter, and Psalm 148, a setting for voice and piano of an English metered adaptation written and composed by Leonard Bernstein in 1935, his earliest surviving work. |
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| Rinah, Hebrew folksong for chorus and orchestra | ||
| Sean Song |
"Oh Yeah" is a single released in 1985 by the band Yello and featured on their album Stella. The song features a mix of electronic music and manipulated vocals. "Oh Yeah" became a staple in pop culture after being featured in the films Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Secret of My Success, and being the theme for Duffman in The Simpsons, among others. The song was also used in a Twix commercial in the 1980s. |
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| Silhouette |
This is a list of compositions by the American composer Leonard Bernstein. |
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| Simchu Na, for chorus and piano |
This is a list of compositions by the American composer Leonard Bernstein. |
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| So Pretty | ||
| Songfest, for 6 singers and orchestra |
This is a list of compositions by the American composer Leonard Bernstein. |
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| Spring Will Come Again |
Leonard Bernstein ( BURN-styne; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history" according to music critic Donal Henahan. Bernstein's honors and accolades include seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and 16 Grammy Awards (including the Lifetime Achievement Award) as well as an Academy Award nomination. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981. As a composer, Bernstein wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music, and pieces for the piano. Bernstein's works include the Broadway musical West Side Story, which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (1961 and 2021) feature films, as well as three symphonies, Serenade (after Plato's Symposium) (1954) and Chichester Psalms (1965), the original score for Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), and theater works including On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), Candide (1956), and his Mass (1971). Bernstein was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras, generating a legacy of audio and video recordings. Bernstein was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler, in whose music he was most interested. A skilled pianist, Bernstein often conducted piano concertos from the keyboard. He shared and explored classical music on television with a mass audience in national and international broadcasts, including Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein worked in support of civil rights; protested against the Vietnam War; advocated nuclear disarmament; raised money for HIV/AIDS research and awareness; championed Janis Ian at age 15 and her song about interracial love, "Society's Child", on his CBS television show; and engaged in multiple international initiatives for human rights and world peace. He conducted Mahler's Resurrection Symphony to mark the death of president John F. Kennedy, and in Israel at a concert, Hatikvah on Mt. Scopus, after the Six-Day War. The sequence of events was recorded for a documentary entitled Journey to Jerusalem. Bernstein was a member of the executive committee for Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. On Christmas Day, 1989, Bernstein conducted a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. Less than a year later, in October 1990, he died of a heart attack brought on by mesothelioma in New York, aged 72. |
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| The Firstborn |
This is a list of compositions by the American composer Leonard Bernstein. |
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| The Lark |
Leonard Bernstein ( BURN-styne; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history" according to music critic Donal Henahan. Bernstein's honors and accolades include seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and 16 Grammy Awards (including the Lifetime Achievement Award) as well as an Academy Award nomination. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981. As a composer, Bernstein wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music, and pieces for the piano. Bernstein's works include the Broadway musical West Side Story, which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (1961 and 2021) feature films, as well as three symphonies, Serenade (after Plato's Symposium) (1954) and Chichester Psalms (1965), the original score for Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), and theater works including On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), Candide (1956), and his Mass (1971). Bernstein was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras, generating a legacy of audio and video recordings. Bernstein was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler, in whose music he was most interested. A skilled pianist, Bernstein often conducted piano concertos from the keyboard. He shared and explored classical music on television with a mass audience in national and international broadcasts, including Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein worked in support of civil rights; protested against the Vietnam War; advocated nuclear disarmament; raised money for HIV/AIDS research and awareness; championed Janis Ian at age 15 and her song about interracial love, "Society's Child", on his CBS television show; and engaged in multiple international initiatives for human rights and world peace. He conducted Mahler's Resurrection Symphony to mark the death of president John F. Kennedy, and in Israel at a concert, Hatikvah on Mt. Scopus, after the Six-Day War. The sequence of events was recorded for a documentary entitled Journey to Jerusalem. Bernstein was a member of the executive committee for Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. On Christmas Day, 1989, Bernstein conducted a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. Less than a year later, in October 1990, he died of a heart attack brought on by mesothelioma in New York, aged 72. |
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| Vayomer Elohim |
This is a list of compositions by the American composer Leonard Bernstein. |
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| Yigdal |
This is a list of compositions by the American composer Leonard Bernstein. |