In 1958, the American composer and conductor, the late Leonard
Bernstein, whose birthday it is today, gave the first two in a
series of popular televised performances for young people about
the nature of music. In many ways, these were revolutionary
lectures, since they opened up the world of classical music for
a mass audience, making it available to the millions of children
who would otherwise never be able to attend a concert in
Carnegie Hall. Bernstein tried to make the music that parents
and grandparents listened to on the radio with hushed reverence
exciting for youngsters, knowing that unless he got them
interested in traditional music forms, they'd be heading for the
land of Rock 'n' Roll which was beginning to appear on the
horizon. Bernstein was young, charismatic, articulate,
telegenic, and a gifted teacher. he began at the beginning, with
the meaning of music and with the simple fact that music, in and
of itself, had a different meaning than that of words. Here he
is explaining that part of that i