-
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Featured Objects 
NOTES ON BERNSTEIN'S MASS
Notes on Bernstein’s Mass
Notes on Mass, made at The MacDowell Colony, 1970.
Index cards. Leonard Bernstein Collection,
Music Division, Library of Congress.
By permission of Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company, LLC Digital ID #mc0062
Notes on Bernstein’s Mass
Leonard Bernstein composed his Mass for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D. C., on September 8, 1971. His notes, made on index cards at The MacDowell Colony in December of 1970, show the piece taking shape. It is modeled on the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Mass, but its theme of doubt and reconciliation and its clear anti-war message made Mass a controversial work in the era of Vietnam and the Washington of President Richard Nixon.
