Bernstein’s son Jamie once wrote that his father’s teaching career was his proudest accomplishment. He considered himself a link in a longer musical chain and greatly valued passing knowledge down to the younger generations. Even several decades into his illustrious career, Bernstein never hesitated to give master classes to university students or film a documentary for the benefit of music lovers worldwide.
One of the composer’s first major forays into music education was his participation in the series Omnibus, diving deep into some of history’s greatest musical works for the benefit of the American public.
Omnibus: music teaching for modern times
By the 1950s, television was becoming an increasingly prominent part of everyday American life, and producers quickly saw the educational potential in the little black box sitting in the living room.
Created by the Ford Foundation with the goal of expanding Americans’ general education, the cult television program Omnibus was an educational variety series that aired on public television. Hosted by Alistair Cooke and running from 1952 to 1961, the series featured diverse programming about science, humanities, and the arts as well as interviews with noted public figures like architect Frank Lloyd Wright and filmmaker Orson Welles, who starred in a heavily abridged version of King Lear in a 1953 telecast. The series won eight Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards, and today it is held in the United States Library of Congress.
It was on Omnibus that Leonard Bernstein became a household name, known nationwide as America’s most engaging music teacher. Over the course of seven episodes, Bernstein explained and analyzed the fundamentals of classical music in an inviting, approachable, and often humorous manner. The programs earned a cult following, and Bernstein received several pieces of fanmail, including the following telegraph from Bernstein’s friend, actor Humphrey Bogart:
If my hat had not been blown off years ago, I would take it off to you. Betty [the given name of actress Lauren Bacall, Bogart’s wife], who still has a hat, throws hers in the air. Just wonderful. Bogie.
The best of cultural programming: Bernstein’s Omnibus episodes
Leonard Bernstein’s seven episodes with Omnibus marked the beginning of a long career in television and music education for the conductor-composer, and they also endure as some of the most beloved episodes of the series. Spanning several centuries and musical genres, Omnibus presented a robust musical program and introduced us to a passionate and prepared educator.
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
Bernstein’s series debut remains perhaps the best known of his Omnibus programs. In this episode, he provides a speculative analysis of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and demonstrates what the work would have looked and sounded like at various phases of Beethoven’s revisions. By approaching the work in this experimental way, Bernstein demonstrates the intricacies and uniqueness of the symphony by showing us what it isn’t. Bernstein’s aim here is to give audiences a glimpse into Beethoven’s mind and into the process of composing, but he also cues us in to his own gift for musical interpretation and reconstruction.
“The World of Jazz”: An all-American conductor explains an all-American artform
“I love (jazz) because it’s a natural expression of my times and my country,” says Bernstein in this episode.
A tireless advocate of classical music, Bernstein championed the movements and artists of the 20th century. His second episode for Omnibus, “The World of Jazz,” demonstrates his versatility and attunement to different musical genres. Rather than the typical historical accounts of jazz (“up the river from New Orleans, Kansas City, Chicago and all the rest of it"), Bernstein decides to walk the audience through “the very innards of jazz” and blends pedagogy with immersive storytelling, personal anecdotes, and live musical performances.
Omnibus goes to the opera
From the stage of an unusually empty Metropolitan Opera, in this episode, Leonard Bernstein “turns this huge theater into a laboratory” to “put a microscope on grand opera” and answer the question of what makes it so grand to begin with.
Bernstein’s pedagogical approach relies on establishing an emotional connection between audiences and music. With live singers and in-depth explanations, Bernstein homes in on some of our most basic human emotions, starting with love, and demonstrates how opera — an ideal medium for such expression — gives musical form to those feelings. From La Boheme to Faust, Bernstein’s sentimental approach to operatic education encourages a personal relationship with the artform.
Through his Omnibus episodes, Bernstein leaves no musical stone unturned. From the music of Bach to the American musical tradition to, of course, the art of conducting, Bernstein and his series are committed to a comprehensive music education.
Watch all seven Bernstein Omnibus episodes on medici.tv
As today’s premier streaming service dedicated to the classical arts, medici.tv wishes to follow in the steps of Omnibus and Bernstein and make high quality musical pedagogy as accessible to today’s audiences as possible. You can stream hundreds of documentaries and master classes, and now, you can enjoy Bernstein’s historic collaboration with the iconic Omnibus series, a cornerstone of public cultural programming.
Both entertaining and informative, Omnibus is the perfect place to start if you are just entering the world of classical music. Bernstein’s warm yet authoritative screen presence, combined with his simple, visual heavy approach to teaching, makes him an effective and charismatic music educator. And thanks to the preservation of this precious television footage, Bernstein can continue to teach the newer generations of music lovers, just as he always wanted.
