Today would have been Leonard Bernstein's 96th birthday. Like many of my generation, I watched his 1960s TV programs on classical music, although I didn't listen to them intently. They did make an impression and helped fuel a later love for music. During my college years I had his own recording of Mass, a theologically and musically stunning piece, and I played it till the vinyl became crackly and the box broken. (I've written about this piece elsewhere on this blog.) During the lonely, rewarding years of my first parish position, I loved another LP set, pieces by Richard Wagner, as well as an LP with the Chichester Psalms. I enjoyed his then-recently published book of occasional writings, Findings. The "Brainy Quote" website gives some memorable quotations from him:
"To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time."
"Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable."
"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."
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