My Twelve Tone Melody
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"My Twelve-Tone Melody" is a 1988 composition for voice and piano by Leonard Bernstein written in tribute to Irving Berlin in celebration of Berlin's 100th birthday.[1] It was performed by Bernstein at the concert to celebrate Berlin's birthday at Carnegie Hall on May 11, 1988.[1]
The piece was poorly received by Berlin's family at the concert; Bernstein's biographer, Joan Peyser, described it as a "dour, mean little piece" and that the piece could be interpreted as a "shot fired in a battle" between "late twentieth-century masters".[2] Bernstein was the only performer at the concert not to perform one of Berlin's compositions.[3]
The piece is written in the twelve-tone technique and adapts Berlin's songs "Always" (1925), and "Russian Lullaby" (1927) which Bernstein remembered from his youth.[1] The piece is two minutes in length.[1][4]
Isabel Leonard performed the song in several all-Bernstein concerts.
An unpublished and unrelated work by Bernstein from the unfinished musical theatre work Alarums and Flourishes (1980), named "12-tone Serenade", is also called "My Twelve Tone Melody".[5]
