I Hate Music (song cycle)

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I Hate Music
Song cycle by Leonard Bernstein
The composer in 1944
TextFive kid songs by Bernstein
LanguageEnglish
Composed1942 (1942)
DedicationEdys Merril
PerformedAugust 24, 1943 (1943-08-24) Lenox Public Library in Lenox, Massachusetts
Duration7 min.
Scoring
  • soprano
  • piano

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.

Composition and history

Leonard Bernstein composed the song cycle I Hate Music in the autumn of 1942, just prior to his composition of the ballet Fancy Free, the musical On the Town, and the Jeremiah Symphony.[1] It is dedicated by Bernstein to his friend Edys Merril, who was his flatmate at the time of the composition.[1] Merrill reputedly uttered the phrase "I hate music" due to her exasperation with Bernstein's constant piano playing and coaching of singers.[2]

I Hate Music consists of five songs sung from the perspective of a ten-year old girl named Barbara.[1][3] Written in a light-hearted and satyrical style, the work has inflections of jazz idioms and at times has an improvised quality which reflects the spontaneity of a child's singing.[1] The work is organized by mood and tempo into a 'palindrome structure' in which songs one ("My name is Barbara") and five ("I'm a person too") act as bookend pieces in which Barbara's personality is revealed through a slower more contemplative style; songs two ("Jupiter has seven moons") and four ("A big Indian and a little Indian") exhibit faster tempos with uneven meter; and the titular song, I Hate music!, lies at the center of these flanking songs.[1]

In notes for the piece Bernstein writes that when performing the songs "...coyness is to be assiduously avoided. The natural, unforced sweetness of child expressions can never be successfully gilded; rather will it come through the music in proportion to the dignity and sophisticated understanding of the singer".[2] A complete performance of the song cycle takes about 7 minutes.[2]

I Hate Music received its premiere at the Lenox Public Library in Lenox, Massachusetts on 24 August 1943. Bernstein performed the piece at its premiere with the soprano Jennie Tourel.[2] Bernstein and Tourel performed the piece again on 13 November 1943 at Tourel's New York City debut at The Town Hall.[3] The critic Virgil Thomson described it as "witty, alive and adroitly fashioned" in the New York Herald Tribune.[2]

In 1946

Sony Classical included it on the 1997 album Leonard Bernstein The Early Years, Volume 4.[5]

The title song opened Highbrow/Lowbrow: An American Sampler, a 1991 concert at

Merkin Hall in Manhattan. New York magazine described it as "deftly summing up this country's long standing bifurcated attitude towards the arts in general: a desperate yearning for high culture on the one hand and a deep-rooted suspicion of it on the other".[6]

The soprano Barbara Bonney performed I Hate Music at a 1994 recital at the Wigmore Hall in London. Musical Opinion described the piece as "irresistibly witty".[7] Bonney included the piece on her 2005 Onyx Records album, My Name is Barbara. The album was named after the first song of I Hate Music.[8] Several other artists have recorded the work including, Harolyn Blackwell (1996, in Blackwell Sings Bernstein, a Simple Song[9]), Lyne Comtoi (1998, in Songs of the Americas[9]), Judith Vindevogel (1997, in The Nursery[9]), and Roberta Alexander (2014, in Leonard Bernstein Songs[9]).

Songs

  1. "My Name Is Barbara"
  2. "Jupiter Has Seven Moons"
  3. "I Hate Music!"
  4. "A Big Indian and a Little Indian"
  5. "I'm a Person Too"

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9781423412809
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e "Works: Vocal: I Hate Music! A Cycle of Five Songs (1943)". LeonardBernstein.com. Archived from the original on 2021-03-07. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8153-3517-7
    .
  4. ^ "Artists On Parade: Blanche Thebom". Musical Courier. 133: 82.
  5. ^ "Reviews: Leonard Bernstein The Early Years, Volume 4". Gramophone. Vol. 75, no. 2. 1997. p. 56.
  6. ^ New York Media, LLC (11 February 1991). New York Magazine. New York Media, LLC. p. 58.
  7. ^ Musical Opinion. Musical Opinion. 1994. p. 119.
  8. ^ "My Name is Barbara". Gramophone. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  9. ^
    ISBN 9780810841376.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )

External links
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