Bernstein Postpones Talks

Leonard Bernstein '39, Norton Lecturer, will deliver his six Norton lectures next Fall instead of in April as scheduled, but he will return April 8 to Eliot House as planned to begin his second six week period in residence here.

Bernstein said yesterday that he will "atone for spending half his time here last fall with the Boston Symphony Orchestra by spending six more weeks at Harvard." He added that the reasons for postponing the lectures were "largely technical."

Harry Levin '33, chairman of the Committee on the Charles E. Norton Lecturer, announced yesterday that Bernstein's residence period has been extended through the first part of the next academic year. His lectures will be delivered on six Tuesday evenings from October 9 to November 13.

Financial Reasons

The committee on the lectureship was not planning to select a Norton professor for next year, according to Levin, for financial reasons. We intended "to let the endowment lie fallow," Levin said.

Bernstein will not receive additional salary for his extended stay, Levin said.

Levin attributed the delay in the lecture series to the innovative nature of the presentations which have taken more time to prepare than originally expected. Bernstein and Robert Saudek '32, visiting lecturer on Visual Studies, made video tapes last Fall to accompany the lectures.

In residence this Spring, Bernstein will write the lectures as he continues to go to class and "rap" with students, he said. He will edit the video tapes and give the lectures in the Fall. He had previously planned to be on sabbatical from conducting next year.

The Norton lectureship, established in 1925, has gone to a different lecturer "nearly every year," according to Levin. Bernstein's predecessors in music have included Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copeland, Paul Hindeminth, and Roger Sessions '15.

Normally, the Norton lecturer is required to be in residence for the academic year. When Harvard offered to reduce the term of residence to 12 weeks each term, Bernstein said he could not accept because of his professional committments. "But when they made it six weeks, I couldn't refuse," he said.

Bernstein, for many years the musical director of the New York Philharmonic, is the composer of "West Side Story," "Candide," "Wonderful Town," several symphonies and recently "Mass."