The Leonard Bernstein Collection at the Library of Congress is as exceptional as its name would suggest. Bernstein, arguably the most prominent figure in American classical music of the twentieth century, made his impact as a conductor, as a composer of classical and theater music, and as an educator through books, conducting students at Tanglewood, and especially through various televised lecture series that helped define the potentials of that medium.
Bernstein came to national prominence virtually overnight through a last-minute conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic, when he substituted for Bruno Walter on November 14, 1943. He was twenty-five. Because Bernstein was a national figure from the very beginning of his career, his friend and teacher Helen Coates, who became his secretary in 1944, maintained his papers meticulously and extensively annotated many of them. The Bernstein Collection therefore offers a remarkably complete record of his life and is one of the Music Division's richest repositories in the variety and scope of its materials.
The Music Division has acquired the Leonard Bernstein Collection over a forty-four year span. From 1953 to 1967, Leonard Bernstein gave many of his most significant music manuscripts to the Library of Congress, including those of his musicals West Side Story and Wonderful Town; his first and second symphonies, Jeremiah and The Age of Anxiety; his operatic works Trouble in Tahiti and Candide; the ballet Fancy Free; the Chichester Psalms; the score for the film On the Waterfront, his Prelude, Fugue and Riffs; and his Serenade for Violin Solo, Strings and Percussion. From 1965 to 1983, Bernstein gave 104 scrapbooks to the Library; five additional scrapbooks were given by Brandeis University in 1973.
In 1991, Helen Coates, Bernstein's longtime friend and secretary, left ninety-four letters, music manuscripts and other items related to Bernstein to the Library in her will. In the same year an additional six hundred letters that had been in the possession of Helen Coates were also given to the Library by the Springate Corporation, representatives of the Bernstein estate. In 1993, the Springate Corporation greatly increased the size of the Bernstein Collection by giving the Library hundreds of thousands of additional items. These included not only additional music manuscripts, but correspondence, writings of all types, photographs, commercial and non-commercial recordings and audio-visual materials (now housed in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division), business papers, programs, fan mail, date books, and regalia. In addition to Bernstein's personal business papers, the extensive archives for his corporate identity, Amberson Inc., were also part of the gift. Lastly, in 1997, Burton Bernstein, brother of Leonard Bernstein, gave the Library ninety-five additional items to add to the Bernstein Collection. These were originally in their sister Jennie Bernstein's possession and consisted primarily of letters to their parents, including fifty-two from Leonard Bernstein, one from Felicia Bernstein, one from Aaron Copland and four from Helen Coates.
The online Leonard Bernstein collection makes available a selection of 85 photographs, 177 scripts from the Young People's Concerts, 74 scripts from the Thursday Evening Previews, and over 1,100 pieces of correspondence. Three categories have been included from the Personal Correspondence: correspondence between Bernstein and his family; between Bernstein and Helen Coates, his teacher, friend, and assistant for most of his professional life; and between Bernstein and his two most significant mentors, Aaron Copland and Serge Koussevitzky. Bernstein's scripts for The Young People's Concerts and the Thursday Evening Previews have been included from the Writings.
The contents of the Leonard Bernstein Collection are available for examination and study in the Performing Arts Reading Room at the Library of Congress. Both the Finding Aid, available online here for the first time, and the collection itself should be considered works in progress. Rather than waiting until the entire collection is processed before making it generally available to researchers--the Music Division's usual practice-- each series is being made available as it is completed. For access to collection materials as yet unprocessed, address written requests to: Head, Acquisitions and Processing Section, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC 20540-4710.
As each series is completed, an introduction to that material will be added at the beginning of the content list for that series. Because much of the music in the Bernstein Collection is being held in New York in readiness for new or in some cases initial publications, the music will be the last series in the collection to be processed.
Mark Eden Horowitz
Music Division