Maestro: The Music of Leonard Bernstein
Friday, December 15, 2023
Browsing Apple Music for another reason, I stumbled onto a playlist of new music selections from film and television. I stopped scrolling when I saw Maestro: The Music of Leonard Bernstein.
The song featured in the playlist is the second movement of The Chichester Psalms, which is the most dramatic of the three movements in the piece. I loved singing it in high school and later as an adult in the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus with the Columbus Children’s Choir.
But the second movement isn’t my favorite. The finale is my favorite.
The finale (Psalm 133, vs. 1 ) is the one that makes me cry every time I listen deeply to its message. I find both profound hope and a longing sorrow in its words and melody. I feel it. I don’t know how else to describe it, I just feel it from the deepest parts of whatever plane it is we’re all tapped into. Even as, or maybe especially being, an atheist.
From Wikipedia:
הִנֵּה מַה־טּוֹב, וּמַה־נָּעִים– שֶׁבֶת אַחִים גַּם־יָחַד.
Hineh mah tov, Umah na’im, Shevet aḥim Gam yaḥad
Behold how good, And how pleasant it is, For brethren to dwell Together in unity.
The finale comes in from the third movement without interruption. The principal motifs from the introduction return here to unify the work and create a sense of returning to the beginning, but here the motifs are sung pianississimo and greatly extended in length. Particularly luminous harmonies eventually give way to a unison note on the last syllable of the text—another example of word painting, since the final Hebrew word, Yaḥad, means “together” or, more precisely, “as one”. This same note is that on which the choir then sings the Amen, while one muted trumpet plays the opening motif one last time and the orchestra, too, ends on a unison G, with a tiny hint of a Picardy third.
It’s truly one of the most beautiful, quietly powerful parts I’ve ever sung. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to experience it.