Symphony No. 3 (Bernstein)
Kaddish is Leonard Bernstein's third symphony. The 1963 symphony is a dramatic work written for a large orchestra, a full choir, a boys' choir, a soprano soloist and a narrator. The name of the piece, Kaddish, refers to the Jewish prayer that is chanted at every synagogue service for the dead but never mentions "death."
The symphony is dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy who was assassinated on November 22, 1963, just weeks before the first performance of the symphony. Some see the symphony as a reaction to the Holocaust, in part because of the narration and dedication recently added by Samuel Pisar, in memory of Leonard Bernstein. The text Pisar added was about his personal experiences and how his family suffered and perished in the Holocaust.
Read more about Symphony No. 3 (Bernstein): Instrumentation, Performance, Recordings
Famous quotes containing the word symphony:
“The truth is, as every one knows, that the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man—that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense—has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)