‘A Celebration of Life’ for a Divided Nation

It was 1968, and America was bitterly divided by the Vietnam War. When conductor, composer and educator Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) left the New York Philharmonic a year later, Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy commissioned him to compose a Mass in commemoration of her late husband and the opening of the Kennedy Center. Even with unlimited funds, it took him three years to write it.

He collaborated with lyricist Stephen Schwartz to compose the ultimate summation of Bernstein’s diverse musical powers: a liturgy of opposites. It’s based on the structure of the traditional Catholic liturgy, but Bernstein injects classical music (Stravinsky, Orff and more) and Broadway (“Godspell” and “Hair”) into the score. It contains rock music, gospel music, the blues, Hebrew chants, operatic arias, and Broadway songs.

Formally called “Mass, A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers,” it employs 200 performers – a children’s choir, soloists, a rock combo, street singers, altar servers, marching bands, a full symphony orchestra and the Alvin Ailey Dance Troupe.

The theme was Bernstein’s life story: the loss of faith. The libretto is the tale of a young male celebrant, dressed in jeans with an electric guitar, who celebrates God. He journeys through doubt, anger (hurling the sacraments on the floor in a fit of rage), and finally affirms his faith. Conductor Marin Alsop called it Bernstein’s Mahler’s Eighth Symphony: conflict and resolution tied into a complete package. Bernstein ends the work by stating the traditional benediction: “Go in Peace.”

At the end of the 1971 premiere, the audience sat silent for three minutes, and then erupted into wild applause. Rose Kennedy (JFK’s mother), a devout Catholic, sat stunned at the composer’s brazen dissection of the traditional liturgy. Bernstein cried, and a reporter commented that, “The handful of men who’d lingered at the VIP reception stiffened …”

The work was a popular success, especially with the young, selling over 200,000 albums. Productions ensued in Los Angeles and Cincinnati. But The Catholic Standard called it a “perversion of the liturgical act” and “a sacrilege.” Critics were divided. Paul Hume called it “the greatest music Bernstein has ever written,” but John Simon said it was “derivative and attitudinizing drivel.”

Listening to the Mass 55 years after its premiere, the diversity of musical styles would fit comfortably into today’s musical world. The eclectic combination of the formal Latin Mass and Steven Schwartz’s hip language fits the radical political era of the 1960s. His libretto has some gems: the rock singer’s words of doubt: “What I say, I don’t feel. What I feel, I don’t show. What I show isn’t real. What is real, Lord, I don’t know.”

Paul Simon’s trope in the Gloria: “Half the people are stoned. The other half are waiting for the next election” is still irreverently famous. Here it is: https://tinyurl. com/6brerdre However, Stephen Sondheim criticized the libretto, saying to the composer, “Have you ever thought of translating it into Latin? So you won’t have to listen to the words.”

The Mass lacks the dramatic coherence of “West Side Story.” The celebrant’s angry rant (his disbelief in God) and desecration of the altar feels overly dramatic. But the celebrant is Bernstein, and many were very angry about the Vietnam War. Perhaps some of the rock segments have lost their shock value, but the lyrical moments are touching. There are great musical moments.

There’s an innocent joy to the “Kyrie eleison.” Here it is: https://tinyurl.com/mfxcyuc3 The “First Orchestral Meditation” brilliantly creates a mood of doubt and anger. Here it is: https://tinyurl.com/4z6294tm The “Lord’s Prayer” and the “Sanctus” are stunningly beautiful. “A Simple Song” is one of the composer’s best. Here it is: https://tinyurl.com/325m3eys There is also a wistful sadness that predicts Bernstein’s later years. Today, America is looking for more than a simple song to heal our divided nation.

Robert Moon can be reached at moon2780@comcast.net