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WORK TITLE: On the Road and Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE: FL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | no 99036945 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/no99036945 |
| HEADING: | Harmon, Charlie |
| 000 | 00742nz a2200205n 450 |
| 001 | 927434 |
| 005 | 19990525052018.5 |
| 008 | 990524n| acannaabn |a aaa c |
| 010 | __ |a no 99036945 |
| 035 | __ |a (OCoLC)oca04992680 |
| 035 | __ |a (DLC)no 99036945 |
| 040 | __ |a PPi-MA |c PPi-MA |
| 100 | 10 |a Harmon, Charlie |
| 500 | 10 |a Harmon, Charles |
| 670 | __ |a Bernstein, L. Leonardo’s vision, 1998, c1994: |b prelim. p. 4 (Charlie Harmon) |
| 670 | __ |a Bernstein, L. Candide, 1994: |b p. iii (Charles Harmon) |
| 670 | __ |a OCLC database, May 18, 1999 |b (hdg.: Harmon, Charles; usage: Charles Harmon, Charlie Harmon) |
| 675 | __ |a Ww in Amer. mus., classical, 2nd ed.; |a Int. ww in mus., 8th-16th eds.; |a ASCAP, 4th ed. |
| 953 | __ |a xx00 |
| 985 | __ |c OCLC |e LSPC |
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, music editor, and music arranger. Editor for the estate of Leonard Bernstein, 1989-1999; then freelance editor.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Charlie Harmon was Leonard Bernstein’s assistant and archivist for the last several years of the composer’s life. As a music editor and arranger, he also served as the music editor for Bernstein’s estate, which led Harmon to edit the first publications of the full score of West Side Story and Candide. Harmon also edited numerous other scores and new editions of scores for use by various symphonies, from the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra to the Vienna Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra.
An accomplished pianist, Bernstein became a renowned American composer and conductor, one of the first Americans to achieve such acclaim around the world. Prodigiously talented, he composed the music for musicals such as West Side Story and Candide, as well as for numerous films, including On the Town and On the Waterfront. Bernstein was widely known among the general public due to his series of television lectures on classical music, which ran from 1954 until Bernstein died in 1990 at the age of 72.
In his memoir, On the Road & off the Record with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the Exasperating Genius, Harmon provides an intimate look at the brilliant composer, from Harmon’s exhilaration of working with Bernstein to Bernstein’s struggles with alcohol, depression, and a hectic schedule that left no time for rest. Harmon reveals that he served numerous roles for Bernstein. In addition to serving as a music copyist and itinerant orchestra librarian, he was Bernstein’s valet and social director who tried to keep Bernstein on schedule and protected from overwhelming demands on his time. Harmon would even be summoned for late night piano duets with the maestro.
Harmon relates that, after four years serving as Bernstein’s valet and personal assistant, Harmon had a nervous breakdown and went into therapy. That did not stop Harmon from stepping in a few years later to help Bernstein’s estate and catalogue the Leonard Bernstein Collection for the Library of Congress’s music division. Harmon describes the entourage that surrounded Bernstein, one that increased whenever Bernstein was required to travel. Harmon writes that one of his many assignments was to make sure that Bernstein’s thirty suitcases and bags made it to Bernstein’s various destinations around the world. Bernstein’s luggage included voluminous scores and sets of formal wear that Bernstein needed for performances.
In addition to making sure that Bernstein made it to his appointments after late nights partying, Harmon also provided a more discrete service, making sure that the young men who Bernstein picked up late at night did not overextend their welcome. Harmon notes that he is also gay, but he informed Bernstein early on that their relationship was to be strictly professional. Harmon “gives us a ‘warts and all’ portrait of ‘LB’ as only he, a true ‘insider’ could,” wrote Ludwid van Toronto website contributor Paul E. Robinson.
According to Harmon, despite Bernstein’s drinking and partying, he continued to work hard and produce. For example, Bernstein composed the opera A Quiet Place while Harmon worked for him. Harmon recounts a bad experience when the Houston Grand Opera was to conduct its premiere performance of the opera in 1983. Bernstein and his entourage traveled to Houston and quickly became disenchanted as bad rehearsals and less-than-flattering reviews upset Bernstein and, as a result, everyone around him. In addition, Bernstein’s entourage was less than impressed with overzealous Baptists and the tackiness of rich women with big hair. Harmon also recounts how Bernstein called Harmon to him before he died and ask Harmon to make sure that Harmon looked after his music. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called On the Road & off the Record with Leonard Bernstein “an affectionate portrait of an eminent musician who was driven by demons.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 15, 2018, review of On the Road & Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the Exasperating Genius, p. 12.
Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2018, review of On the Road & Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein.
ONLINE
Ludwig van Toronto, https://www.ludwig-van.com/toronto/ (May 23, 2018), Paul E. Robinson, “Record Keeping: New Biography from Bernstein’s Valet Casts Ligh on His Hard Living Years.”
Charlie Harmon is a music editor and arranger. From 1989 to 1999 he was the music editor for the estate of Leonard Bernstein, editing the first publications of full scores of West Side Story and Candide, and piano-vocals of On the Town and Wonderful Town, as well as new editions of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Mass (all music by Leonard Bernstein). He has also worked in the orchestra libraries of the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Now a freelance editor, he lives in Florida.
On the Road & Off the Record with
Leonard Bernstein: My Years with
the Exasperating Genius
June Sawyers
Booklist.
114.16 (Apr. 15, 2018): p12. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
On the Road & Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the Exasperating Genius. By Charlie Harmon.
May 2018. 272p. Imagine, $24.99 (9781623545277). 780.92.
Harmon knew that most of Leonard Bernstein's personal assistants didn't last very long on the job. He quickly learned, too, that working for "Lenny" meant that he would have to give up any semblance of a personal life. Putting his life on hold, though, and "working alongside a creative genius" gave him, he writes, "the strongest sense of purpose I'd ever had." For four "scorching" years, Harmon's responsibilities included answering the phones, handling Bernstein's mail and appointments, and carrying his luggage while also acting as gatekeeper, valet, and librarian. Harmon's account of life working for an "exasperating" genius is breezy and anecdotal even when he is discussing his own mental-health issues and self-doubt. He meets countless movers and shakers in the arts and politics as he travels with Bernstein and his entourage around the globe and works alongside Bernstein at the famous Dakota building on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Harmon's personable and warm account of what it was like to work for one of the twentieth century's musical giants casts new light on Bernstein and his world.--June Sawyers
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Sawyers, June. "On the Road & Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the
Exasperating Genius." Booklist, 15 Apr. 2018, p. 12. Book Review Index Plus,
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http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537268002/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=0eee05c0. Accessed 19 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A537268002
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Harmon , Charlie: ON THE ROAD
AND OFF THE RECORD WITH
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 15, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Harmon , Charlie ON THE ROAD AND OFF THE RECORD WITH LEONARD BERNSTEIN Imagine Publishing (Adult Nonfiction) $24.99 5, 8 ISBN: 978-1-62354-527-7
A gossip-filled memoir of life with a musical superstar.
In his debut book, music editor and arranger Harmon recounts in vivid detail four exhausting, exhilarating years as assistant to the mercurial maestro Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). At the age of 30, the author was a clerk at a music library when he answered an advertisement to work for a "world-class" musician. The applicant, the ad noted, "must read music, be free to travel," and "possess finely-honed organizational abilities." In the course of a three-hour interview, Harmon learned that the musician was Bernstein (called LB throughout the book), who was embarking on a strenuous schedule of performances around the world. The author was not sure he had the stamina for the job, which involved handling phone calls, mail, and appointments; packing and unpacking scores of suitcases for every trip; taking notes during rehearsals and performances; and--a task that proved especially challenging--making sure LB, infamous for his "celebrated libido" and drunken rants, did not generate negative publicity. Despite some reservations about his capabilities, in January 1982, Harmon set off with Bernstein and his entourage to Indiana University for a six-week residency, during which the composer began work on an opera. LB was a handful: demanding, impatient, and given to "bouts of fury and bratty behavior," which Harmon attributed to his enduring grief over his wife's death, in 1978. That behavior was exacerbated by heavy drinking and use of Dexedrine, fueling "drug-induced mania" followed by overwhelming depression. Drawing on his daybook, Harmon gives intimate accounts of LB's performances, teaching, creative process, and uncompromising standards--in the midst of a "three-ring circus" peopled by a large and sometimes-divisive cast of characters. Most troubling to Harmon was LB's imperious, "blatantly self-serving" manager, who wore Harmon down with cruel bullying. Exhaustion and depression eventually led Harmon to seek psychiatric help, though he admits that his intimacy with LB's musicianship gave him "a remarkable education."
An affectionate portrait of an eminent musician who was driven by demons. Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
3 of 4 5/19/18, 4:23 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
"Harmon , Charlie: ON THE ROAD AND OFF THE RECORD WITH LEONARD BERNSTEIN." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2018. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A527247900/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=87c64d4e. Accessed 19 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A527247900
4 of 4 5/19/18, 4:23 PM
RECORD KEEPING | New Biography From Bernstein's Valet Casts Light On His Hard Living Years
By Paul E. Robinson on May 23, 2018
Charlie Harmon: On the Road & Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the Exasperating Genius. Watertown: Imagine Books, 2018. 272 pages.
As the philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) famously said: “No man is a hero to his valet,” adding by way of explanation that “this is not because the hero is not a hero, but because the valet is a valet.”
As it happens, Hegel’s words only partially characterize Charlie Harmon, Leonard Bernstein’s personal assistant for about four years in the early 1980s. Charlie was Bernstein’s valet, his chauffeur, the guy in charge of phones, luggage, mail, appointments, scores and parts, music copying, and much more.
Was Bernstein a hero to this overburdened valet? Sometimes “yes” and sometimes “no”. Bernstein or “LB” as Charlie Harmon refers to his boss throughout the book, was indeed “exasperating” but also very much a “genius” as indicated by the book’s subtitle. It is true that after four years of service to this remarkable man, Charlie Harmon had a nervous breakdown and went into therapy. It is also true that after leaving Bernstein’s employment, Charlie went on to catalogue what is now known as the Leonard Bernstein Collection for the Music Division of the Library of Congress and for all practical purposes became Bernstein’s music editor.
To say that Bernstein had an “entourage” is akin to stating that Buckingham Palace is a small house in the heart of London. After Bernstein’s wife Felicia passed away in 1978, Bernstein came to depend on Harry Kraut (his manager), an assistant (Charlie Harmon was but one of a succession of such people), a cook/housekeeper (Julia Vega, like Bernstein’s late wife, a Chilean) and a secretary/archivist (Helen Coates, his first piano teacher). But this was his support team only in New York when he was in residence at Apartment 23 at the Dakota. When he travelled — and he did this almost constantly in his later years — the team doubled or tripled in size, not including hangers-on who nearly always turned up with their own coterie of hangers-on.
Over time Charlie learned the strengths and weaknesses of each member of Bernstein’s support group, which was not exactly a well-oiled machine. While Bernstein himself was frequently well-oiled, his mostly motley group of eccentric supporters stepped on each other’s toes to an alarming degree. And then there were the suitcases – thirty of them, to be exact — that accompanied Bernstein wherever he went, suitcases filled with music, both scores and parts for everything to be played on the tours, as well as the various sets of formal wear required for performances. One of Charlie’s jobs was to see the suitcases through airports and hotels all over the world. God help him if music or concert attire was lost or misdirected.
While Bernstein kept his homosexuality a private matter for most of his life, in later years he “came out” with a vengeance. He continually sought the company of young men and seemed to have no trouble finding them. Charlie Harmon too was a gay man, but he made it clear to Bernstein early on that theirs was to be a professional relationship and that there would be no mixing of business and pleasure. It was Charlie’s unpleasant task to shoo away the late-night pickups who overstayed their welcomes. It was also his job to get the notoriously late-sleeping Bernstein out of bed and ready to deal with his endless rehearsals, appointments and compositional deadlines.
Bernstein smoked too much — this is probably what killed him at the age of 72 — drank too much, took too many Dexedrine pills to keep going, and partied too much. Charlie Harmon gives us all the gory details, and probably more than most readers care to handle, especially those like myself for whom Bernstein was a childhood idol revealing the mysteries of classical music on television as few teachers had ever done before.
By the 1980s, Bernstein had settled into a pattern of working regularly with his favourite orchestras, both for concerts and recordings, among them the Vienna Philharmonic (VPO), for whose tradition and style of playing he had great admiration. He also had an affection for the VPO musicians, who in turn adored him and looked forward to his every visit. During this period, nearly every Bernstein appearance was recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and videotaped by Unitel, which together produced incomparable versions of the Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Mahler symphonies and most of the Sibelius symphonies.
While the globe-trotting, guest conducting and partying went on and on at a frenetic pace, Bernstein continued to compose. His major work from this period is the opera A Quiet Place, scheduled for a premiere by Houston Grand Opera in June, 1983. Rehearsals for this performance did not go well, the reviews were mixed, to put it mildly, and everyone involved hated Houston. Bernstein himself presided over the proceedings, although he did not conduct the performances, and his family, friends and acolytes descended on Houston to be a part of this important event. It turned out to be a depressing experience for all. Charlie Harmon gives us a devastating picture of the guests gathered for departure at the airport:
Shirley (Bernstein’s sister) put out her cigarette and delivered the most incisive line I have ever heard her say: “Let’s never come here again,” she said flatly, a reaction not only to the pea-green atmosphere outside the window but also to the whole Texan landscape: the haphazard Houston Grand Opera, Bible-thumping Baptists, power-crazed women with big hair and bigger checkbooks. Quite a list. I silently added the despondency around the opera’s premiere. Let’s never repeat this, please. The despair we felt after A Quiet Placeshould not be revisited.
Yes, Charlie Harmon was Bernstein’s “valet”, but as he himself records, he was so much more than that because he needed to be.
Thirty-one when he went to work for Bernstein, with a degree in composition from Carnegie-Mellon University under his belt, several years of experience as a music librarian, Charlie Harmon was also a decent pianist. Some valet!
Charlie gives us a “warts and all” portrait of “LB” as only he, a true “insider” could. Being so close to such a gifted, driven and complicated man took its toll on him, but with time came perspective and maturity. In short, Charlie found himself and in so doing was able to appreciate more fairly Leonard Bernstein and his legacy.
It was LB who gave Charlie his life’s mission. Hours before he passed away, Charlie went to see LB in his apartment for what he knew was the last time. After kind words back and forth, LB took his hand and said, “Please look after my music.” Charlie said “Yes” and has spent the rest of his life carrying out that mission.
In 2018, the 100th-anniversary of his birth, Bernstein’s music is more popular than ever. Charlie Harmon deserves at least part of the credit.