Adams: The Succesor to Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein represented a turning point in the musical fortunes of American History. He was the first native born American to conduct the New York Philharmonic, and went on to have an illustrious career both as ca conductor and educator. While having moderate successes as a composer, he never was able to achieve the notoriety in the field of composition as a composer such as Copland was able to.

Bernstein did have a highly talented conducting student in the mid 1970's whom he wanted to be a conducting major, sensing this individual had a great deal of promise. This particular student also had established himself as a competent Clarinetist, subbing with the Boston Symphony with regularity while in school. Instead of taking Bernstein's invitation, he turned it down, in favor of pursuing a career as a composer. This student was John Adams.

Adams, obviously has gone on to have an immensely successful compositional career since then, but in addition he has also had a highly profitable career as a conductor. He has been very careful during the course of career to distinguish himself as a composer who also conducted, not a conductor who also composed.

A logical and highly pertinent question, then can and should be raised: how could Adams be Bernstein's successor, when their careers in the end took two widely divergent paths?

Bernstein established himself as a showman early on in his career. One need only watch old videos of his conducting to see how much of a visual display he put on while leading an orchestra. Yet at the same time, he desired to write music. This is evidenced by his three symphonies (the same number, incidentally as Aaron Copland) as well as his hit musical "West Side Story" and Opera "Candide." Yet despite his desire to write musical masterpieces, none of his compositions achieved the successes that he so greatly desired and sought.

Adams also at the beginning of his career demonstrated his capabilities as a performer but instead did not take after Bernstein's showmanship. Instead of following in his path in this regard, he became Bernstein's successor in writing the orchestral and vocal works that Bernstein long desired and tried to write on several different occasions, always falling short.

So while Bernstein established the fact that a Native Born American could become an internationally acclaimed Artist, Adams serves as the capstone to this achievement, writing music that is not only recognizable as being American, but as being relevant to a broad audience throughout the World. Bernstein demonstrated the initiative to create an American Career, while Adams demonstrated the ability to fulfill such lofty intentions.

Again, one does not need to totally emulate their predecessor in order to be considered the predecessor's heir. Instead, the successor needs to be willing to pick up where the predecessor left off. It is almost like Bernstein spent his entire life trying to find his compositional voice, while Adams finished the search and created not only his voice, but his own language. They both are great as individuals, but the impact of both would be lessened if the other had not done what he had.

Granted, Adams may have gone on to have just a successful career without Bernstein's tutelage, but if Bernstein didn't become a musician, then American music would have been radically different on both the national and international levels. Adams might have never had the instruction in conducting he needed from Bernstein, resulting in potentially a dramatically different career path.

Had Adams not succeeded Bernstein, the American music would still be searching for its voice. While there existed many American composers during the course of this hemisphere's history, there has never been a composer such as Adams who lived off of commissions while writing works that would gain numerous performances on the international scene.

In conclusion, both Adams and Bernstein need to be viewed as musicians who had great careers independently but legendary ones when viewed together. These two composers helped shape music, not only in the USA, but also throughout the Americas, into the form that we know it today.