Five Anniversaries
{{Short description|Collection of piano pieces by Leonard Bernstein}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox musical composition
| name = Five Anniversaries
| type = Piano music
| composer = Leonard Bernstein
| image = Leonard Bernstein - 1950s.JPG
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption = The composer in the 1950s
| catalogue =
| related =
| dedication = {{plainlist|
- Elizabeth Rudolf
- Lukas Foss
- Elizabeth B. Ehrman
- Sandy Gellhorn
- Susanna Kyle
}}
| composed = 1949–1951
| performed =
| published = {{start date|1964}}
| movements = 5
| scoring = Piano
| duration = 7 minutes
}}
Five Anniversaries is a set of short pieces for piano by American composer Leonard Bernstein and the third installment in the series of Anniversaries for piano. It was composed between 1949 and 1951. It is known for presenting some of the musical ideas that were later developed in other works.
Composition
Bernstein's Anniversaries are short pieces that were dedicated to different people that played different parts in his life. The other three installments were Seven Anniversaries (1942–43), Four Anniversaries (1948), and 13 Anniversaries (1988). Generally, the anniversaries were dedicated to other musicians or people that were important to the composer. Unlike the other sets, this composition's dedicatees are mostly lesser-known friends of Bernstein, except for fellow pianist and collaborator Lukas Foss, with whom Bernstein first recorded his Second Symphony. The last two movements were dedicated to friends's children. Sandy Gellhorn was the adopted son of Martha Gellhorn{{cite book |last1=Laird |first1=Paul R. |last2=Lin |first2=Hsun |title=Historical Dictionary of Leonard Bernstein |date=2019 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-1345-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UgqfDwAAQBAJ&dq=Five+Anniversaries+Bernstein&pg=PA17 |language=en}} and Susanna Kyle is Betty Comden's daughter, born in 1949.{{cite book |last1=Laird |first1=Paul |title=Leonard Bernstein: A Guide to Research |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-69678-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6fRTAQAAQBAJ&dq=Five+Anniversaries+Bernstein&pg=PA153 |accessdate=14 April 2020 |language=en}} The other two were Elizabeth Rudolf, a friend's mother, and Elizabeth Ehrman, college friend Kenneth Ehrman's mother.
The whole set was composed between 1949 and 1951 and it was initially published by Jalni Publications in 1964, Amberson Holdings being the copyright holder and Boosey & Hawkes the sole agent.{{cite book |last1=Bernstein |first1=Leonard |title=Complete anniversaries: for piano |date=2014 |publisher=Boosey & Hawkes |isbn=978-1-4803-9358-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jJzQoAEACAAJ&q=9781480393585 |accessdate=14 April 2020 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Bernstein |first1=Leonard |title=Five anniversaries: for the piano |date=1988 |publisher=Jalni Publications |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GcUHAQAAMAAJ&dq=Five+Anniversaries+Bernstein&pg=PP8 |accessdate=14 April 2020 |language=en}}
Structure
This seven-minute set of Anniversaries consists of five short movements. The movement list is as follows:
{{ordered list|list_style_type=upper-roman
| For Elizabeth Rudolf (born Jan. 23, 1894). Allegretto
| For Lukas Foss (born Aug. 15, 1922). Allegro con anima
| For Elizabeth B. Ehrman (born Jan. 22, 1883). Gay
| For Sandy Gellhorn (born April 23, 1951). Grazioso
| For Susanna Kyle (born July 24, 1949). Peacefully
}}
The first three movements of the set include music that Bernstein used years later in Serenade after Plato's "Symposium", in 1954. In particular, Rudolf is found in the A section of the second movement, Aristophanes; Foss appears in the B section of the same movement; finally, material from Ehrman is found in the finale, beginning three measures after rehearsal number 30. The last two movements, on the other hand, are not related to Bernstein's Serenade. Gellhorn is a quick and jazzy movement united by dotted rhythms and the last movement, Kyle, is a Copland-like movement, that was also used in the Prelude to Act II of Peter Pan, finished in 1950.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Leonard Bernstein}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anniversaries, Five}}