The Olympic Hymn is a 1981 composition by Leonard Bernstein to a text by Günter Kunert.[1] It was written for the International Olympic Congress of 1981 in Baden-Baden, West Germany.[2] It was premiered by the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Baden-Baden Youth Choir under conductor David Shallon on 23 September 1981.[3] The piece opened the proceedings of the International Olympic Congress.[1]
| Olympic Hymn | |
|---|---|
| by Leonard Bernstein | |
 The Olympic flag | |
| Composed | 1981 |
| Performed | 23 September 1981: Baden-Baden |
The piece is six minutes in length.[3]
The hymn bears some similarity to the song "To Make Us Proud" that formed the finale of Bernstein's 1976 musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.[3] The first recording of the Olympic Hymn was made by the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus under John Williams on Williams's 1996 album Summon the Heroes.[4][1] Lyrics to the piece were written by the German author and poet Günter Kunert.[2][1]
The piece was the last of Bernstein's compositions to be orchestrated by Hershy Kay.[5]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Works: Olympic Hymn (1981)". LeonardBernstein.com. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
- ^ a b "Best Olympic anthems: a timeline of the finest music written for the games". Classic FM (UK). Archived from the original on 2021-01-20. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
- ^ a b c Paul R. Laird; Hsun Lin (31 July 2019). Historical Dictionary of Leonard Bernstein. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 195. ISBN 978-1-5381-1345-5.
- ^ The Gramophone. Gramophone. June 1996. p. 10.
- ^ John Arthur Garraty; Mark Christopher Carnes (1999). American National Biography. Oxford University Press. p. 410. ISBN 978-0-19-512791-1.
External links
edit- Work details, Boosey & Hawkes
- Video performance on YouTube, Quincy Choral Society
