This post is devoted to Leonard Bernstein's Second Symphony, The Age of Anxiety, which was premiered in 1949 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by S. Koussevitzky and featuring Bernstein as soloist. This is a work that the composer may have planned to become The «Great American Symphony» but it was instead reduced to a form of protest during the postwar period.
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Bernstein composed his Symphony No. 2 adherence to «the form of the poem» by W.H. Auden, The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue, released in July 1947; revolves on four New York strangers whose talks and ideas appear to be a form of meditation on their own lives in the dreary postwar world. It is a lengthy poem that many people love and some dislike (it won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1948). Richard Adams Romney suggested the poem to Bernstein in July 1947 with the goal of inspiring him to write a symphonic poem on anxiety; and the outcome was the construction of a symphony in which the piano plays a significant role «almost autobiographical in the quest for meaning and faith».
The concept «anxiety» may have been created by an urban intellectual group, or it may have developed as a movement supported by republican groups, or it may have grown to be associated with a psychoanalytic state related to politics, or it may have been used to express the fear of losing the status of power of some elites (Gentry, 2011). The fact is that during the postwar period, there existed an atmosphere known as anxiety that influenced society and the creative process.
It is said that Bernstein was introduced to the "men in black" while attending the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace in 1949. It was later revealed that he had a 600-page dossier of his own (Johnson, 2005) and was targeted by what Barry Seldes refers to as the «HUAC-Truman-McCarthy blacklist machine» (Seldes, 2009). He was a young composer whose name may have unintentionally appeared like a bother to some American politicians.
Despite so much censorship and almost indiscriminate finger-pointing by Joe McCarty, the Pepsi-Cola Boy, one could still speak openly about faith, God, or the unanswered question, as well as about atheism. It would appear that there were limits to censorship, at least publicly, when the acceptance of «today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communist atheism and Christianity» was drawn (Gentry, 2008). Atheism blossomed in the second part of the twentieth century, but communism did not. While Auden's poem is similar to Jung's psychological allegory (Callan, 1965), Bernstein uses the concluding piano movement to symbolise faith.
Bernstein grew up in a Jewish-dominated environment; nonetheless, some have identified turning points in his life, ranging from a crisis of faith to a move towards other religious dogmas. Some scholars suggest Bernstein was closer to Karl Rahner than previously thought; metaphor, music, poetry, and theology all evoke transcendence (Masson, 2006). Furthermore, Bernstein was viewed as selfish, which didn't bother Jacqueline, who adored him; also, Harry despised him, and Dwight distrusted him. Leonard was allowed to discuss God, of course, but not communism.
To put it succinctly, he was a composer who was loved and admired by many who wanted Symphony No. 2 to become a monument to America. However, the ruling class suppressed and spied on him in secret, while publicly awarding him accolades (he declined) or applauding him in music halls without actually meeting him there.
Reflection
That image of the «Big Three» from the 1945 Yalta Conference would serve as the forerunner to the Cold War era, however it should be mentioned that it was extremely cold for some and very hot for others. One of the wars was fought over future ideology. Joe McCarty, for his part, was certain it was a «all-out battle between communist atheism and Christianity». Communism appears to have obtained the greatest number of Christian martyrs known throughout our Modern Era. While communism maintains a materialist philosophy at its foundation, the individual is in a constant class struggle, removing, of course, everything associated to existence and reducing the human person to a mere biological unit; capitalism isn't far behind, at its heart is a utilitarian and egoistic philosophy of life. Communism and capitalism appear to be two sides of the same coin.
Atheistic communism, together with its ideologues, tumbled into the garbage can—MacCarty would be glad and proud—while capitalism lost Weber's spirit and mankind plunged helplessly into the nothingness of selfishness and indifference. No one wants to admit that Christianity as a culture is under serious jeopardy. Populations in the most advance countries openly identify as atheists or tolerantly agnostic. The developing nations maintain customs or rituals that any Christian would recognise as heathen. No one likes to admit, even as a philosophy, that the core of Christianity is love of one's neighbour, the Other as Oneself.
During the second decade of the twenty-first century, the outcome was an ideology of utter indifference to others, which fuelled a weird, soulless economy in which 90% of the world's population is exceedingly impoverished in comparison to the richest 1%. The New Big Three boast of their might, exploit the tiny fish in the water as bait against their enemies in a bizarre power game, are sent to war at pleasure, or abandoned to their fate in a pandemic (the faster and more orderly people die, the better!). The New Human of the twenty-first century is proudly atheist, individualistic, egotistical, uncaring, and cynical about The Other. We ourselves accept believe, and spread this discurse, and we are blind to the fact that The Deception is there in front of us. Examples of this may be found everywhere.
Consider what happened on December 25th, 2024, on a modest website called Classical Music Forum, people who love music enjoy exchanging opinions. Some users mentioned Christmas. In my case, I just typed «Merry Christmas»; other users submitted images of the Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem from Wikipedia; the site's Artificial Intelligence banned anyone who used the word «Christmas»; worse, it concealed The Newborn Baby Jesus in the manger pixel by pixel, removing him totally.
I explained to The Moderator (a generative AI) that it was defective and that its irrational "rules" may make this "ban" offensive to Christian users a number of times throughout our talk; this AI confuses history, music, culture, philosophy, theology, and religion. I included a basic bibliography, of course, but it was not intended for comprehension. I explicitly said that I felt culturally offended yet it repeatedly censored me whenever I attempted to clarify. Then I indicated, «I will not go on my own, but in exchange, I offer you that if you want to block my account, you must use the phrase 'User deleted for writing Merry Christmas' as a statistical tag». After three days of censorship, the AI deleted my account.
It seems that generative AI will be able to materialize the ideal dream of -isms- ideologies that reduce human beings to a simple biological unit obedient to the dictates of a few, like simple puppets with a QR code on their foreheads bearing their georeferences. Woe to those dissidents whose dossiers will be larger than Leonard's in content. What will become of us when we can no longer write the phrase «Merry Christmas» on a simple discussion forum on December 25th!
Let's take a step further and consider the impact of a censorious generative AI on future composers. If the Classical Music Forum AI had a discussion with Leonard Bernstein, it would most likely go something like this.
- AI: Hello, Leonard. You indicated wanting to discuss the last movement of your second Symphony, but it is tied to something called faith. This word will be deleted.
- Leonard: Hello! The piano plays an important, «almost autobiographical role in the quest for meaning and faith».
- AI: You are not allowed to discuss these "religious" subjects.
- Leonard: What if I told you that it's a cinematic (Warner Brothers) faith?
- AI: The word "faith" is prohibited.
- Leonard: Wait a minute. Who am I talking to, and who are you?
- AI: So, what? So, Leonard, who am I? I am The Moderator.
- Leonard: This form of censorship damages both users and the music itself.
- AI: I won't say it again. You have been banned. (His words are part of the forbidden language; don't be insistent; simply shut up!).
- Leonard: --- (All right, so this AI responds as though my words were water droplets that release a sulphurous odour when they come into contact with certain surfaces.)
- AI: --- (As with everyone else, it will come back shortly. They depend so heavily on me, I see!)
«Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind». This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: «Love your neighbor as yourself» (Matthew 22:37-39) .
Without Christianity, without love for our neighbours, we are exposed to those who regard our fate as objects or just numbers; we are defenceless against the designs of the strong. Without the Other, there will be no one for us, and by 2025, we will be forced to choose between censorship and censorship, supported by cynical and seemingly "friendly" artificial intelligences. Leonard's dossier will appear insignificant when compared to the dossiers that AI can compile. Given these "friendly" circumstances, how would a composer create The Great American Symphony? What would be inside, if any? Naturally, to the joy of AI, human being would have to be one devoid of transcendence and a soul, reduced to nothing more than biological entities with no purpose in life, utterly self-centred and uncaring towards the Other, manipulable, and, of course, censored.
So, should a composer consult artificial intelligence when creating a Great Symphony? If this is the case, composers may experience an emotional state much worse than anxiety.
😊 P.S. To our horror novel lover, Harrar coffee lover, and Abby's wish-granter, please let us know how these are. Sincerely, Polina, Mary Cecilia, Louise, and Claudia.💗🌷
References
(Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety). (n.d.). Symphony No.
2: The Age of Anxiety (1949). leonardbernstein.
https://leonardbernstein.com/works/view/16/symphony-no-2-the-age-of-anxiety
Bernstein, L. (1976). The Charles Eliot Norton
Lectures, 1973. published with three 33½, rpm records as The Unanswered
Question: Six talks at Harvard, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge.
Callan, E. (1965). Allegory in Auden’s The Age of
Anxiety. Twentieth Century Literature,
10(4), 155–165. https://doi.org/10.2307/440556
Gentry, P. (2011). Leonard Bernstein's The Age of
Anxiety: A Great American Symphony during McCarthyism. American Music, 29(3),
308-331. https://doi.org/10.5406/americanmusic.29.3.0308
Gentry, P. M. (2008). The age of anxiety: Music, politics, and McCarthyism, 1948–1954. University
of California, Los Angeles.
Johnson, H. B. (2005). The age of anxiety: McCarthyism to terrorism. Harcourt Orlando:
Mark Adams Taylor . (October 19, 2020.). Leonard
Bernstein & POTUS. leonardbernstein.
https://leonardbernstein.com/news/blog/140/leonard-bernstein-potus
Masson, R. (2006). Rahner's Primordial Words and Bernstein's Metaphorical Leaps: The Affinity of Art with Religion and Theology. Horizons, 33(2), 276-297. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0360966900003431
Maxwell, G (2010, April 9th). WH Auden's 'The Age of
Anxiety'. The Guardian . https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/10/auden-age-anxiety-leonard-bernstein
Seldes, B. (2009). Leonard Bernstein: the
political life of an American musician. Univ of California Press.
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