Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918, and died in New York on October 14, 1990. The first performance of Songfest took place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on October 11, 1977, with soloists Clamma Dale, soprano, Rosalind Elias, mezzo-soprano, Nancy Williams, mezzo-soprano, Neil Rosenshein, tenor, John Reardon, baritone, and Donald Gramm, bass-baritone. The composer conducted the National Symphony Orchestra. 

Songfest is scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass solos, three flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, fender bass, timpani, percussion (six players), harp, celesta/piano/electric piano, and strings. Approximate performance time is forty minutes.

Leonard Bernstein’s Songfest originated as a commission to celebrate the United States Bicentennial. Bernstein did not complete the piece within the allotted time. Nonetheless, he continued to work on Songfest, and the premiere finally took place on October 11, 1977, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC. The composer conducted soloists and the National Symphony Orchestra. Prior to the premiere, several of the movements from Songfest were performed with the New York Philharmonic, and the Inaugural Gala for President Jimmy Carter. Bernstein dedicated the score of Songfest “To My Mother.”

In Songfest, Bernstein surveys the experiences of American artists, as expressed by 13 poets whose works span three centuries. Bernstein was, of course, a master song composer, as evidenced by such theater works as On The Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and West Side Story. Songfest embodies Bernstein’s genius for unforgettable melody, expressed in his all-embracing, eclectic approach. The result is a work as moving as it is quintessentially American.

Opening Hymn: Sextet

I. To the Poem (Frank O’Hara)

An ode in praise of “a real right thing”—honest, unpretentious artistic expression.

Three Solos

II. The Pennycandystore Beyond the El (Lawrence Ferlinghetti). Baritone

A recollection of an early, fleeting sexual encounter.

III. A Julia de Burgos (Julia de Burgos). Soprano

The poet passionately expresses the conflict between what society expects of her as a woman, and her true voice, embodied in her writing.

IV. To What You Said (Walt Whitman). Bass (with other voices humming in unison)

In this poem, unpublished during Whitman’s life, the poet contemplates his homosexuality.

Three Ensembles

V. I, Too, Sing America (Langston Hughes) / Okay “Negroes” (June Jordan). Duet for mezzo-soprano and baritone

The juxtaposition of two poems contrasts Hughes’s expectation of equal rights with Jordan’s more pessimistic outlook.

VI. To My Dear and Loving Husband (Anne Bradstreet). Trio for soprano, mezzo-soprano and alto

The poet’s celebration of her love.

VII. Storyette H. M. (Gertrude Stein). Duet for soprano and bass

A portrait of an unhappy marriage (the initials “H.M.” refer to Henri Matisse).

Sextet

VIII. if you can’t eat you got to (e.e. cummings)

Reflections of a struggling bohemian poet.

Three Solos

IX. Music I Heard With You (Conrad Aiken). Mezzo-soprano

A tender reminiscence of a departed lover.

X. Zizi’s Lament (Gregory Corso). Tenor

The ruminations of an aging, North African belly dancer.

XI. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed (Edna St. Vincent Millay). Alto

A nostalgic lament for past loves, and reflections on mortality.

Closing Hymn: Sextet

XII. Israfel (Edgar Allan Poe)

A paean to Israfel, the archangel who, according to Islam, will sound the trumpet to signal the Day of Judgment. Poe contrasts the inspiration of Israfel, “who despisest an unimpassioned song” with the creations of mere mortals.