August 25 - Leonard Bernstein (The Musical Birthday Series)

Leonard Bernstein (25 August 1918 – 14 October 1990) was a dominant force in virtually all areas of music during his busy career.

Two couplets, a tercet, a quatrain, and a limerick walked into a bar...

Getting Personal 1

It must have been flattering when he

Said, “Please, all my friends call me Lenny.”

Getting Personal 2

Those young people’s shows on TV

Made a lasting impression on me.

And It Was Goddam Good

The glorious mess that is Mass

Exults in excess and in sass,

And much, I confess, that’s first class.

Resurrection 

Mahler might have persisted

   As an occasional curiosity 

Had Bernstein not insisted

  That length was not loquacity

It Must Be So

Take care that you listen and heed

The advice that you get in Candide:

Give thanks for your birth

On this optimal earth,

Viel Glück, et bon chance, and godspeed!

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