Violence In Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story

Leonard Bernstein was born on August 25th, 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. At age 10 is when he first found himself playing music. His aunt had recently got a divorce, and stored her upright piano in Leonard’s home. Leonard was adamant about learning the instrument, but his father refused him lessons. He decided that he’d save up the money himself. He earned enough and took a few lessons and was a natural at the piano. He met his lifelong coach Helen Coates while in high school. He attended Harvard University and studied music theory. Bernstein’s first big break was conducting the New York Philharmonic in 1934. (West 's Encyclopedia of American Law, 2015)
West Side Story is an American Broadway musical written in 1957. At its time, it was considered a modern day Romeo and Juliet. The play takes place in modern-day New York, where two young people fall in love amidst a war between two gangs, the Sharks and the Jets. The violence is caused social differences due to the different ethnicities of the gangs. The Sharks are of Puerto Rican descent and the Jets are white. Tony, a former member of the Jets, falls for Maria, the sister of the Shark’s leader.
This play best represents the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. The Civil Rights Act was President Eisenhower’s move …show more content…
With the intense energy of this song, anything below those dynamics is out of the question. The instruments come in at forte, then diminuendo. The entrance of the vocals is about a mezzo-forte. The only time fortissimo is truly reached is toward the end of the piece with the layering of all the vocals, and the two high notes sung by Tony and Maria. Each time a new vocalist enters a piece, the backing band decrescendos, and then they reappear with the vocals. It’s actually like a forte-piano. The range of dynamics is not too apparent until the end of the piece, because it basically stays at a