Bernstein, L. - Symphonic Suite from 'On the Waterfront' 

Bernstein's music will last until the last cultural sunset of humanity.

Undoubtedly one of the finest scores ever written for any movie. It always supports the movie without overpowering it. Great emotional range and use of all elements of the orchestral ensemble.

1:28, those damn drums. One of the scariest orchestrations I've heard, it's incredible.

Brando & Eva Marie Saint were born to play these roles! Oscar well deserved! The story takes off when Eva Marie Saint says "I remember you"... Wonderful. This was the first adult film I seen as a boy - and NOTHING can knock it out of first place for me... Love it still. Watch it about once a year or more. AM

The influence of this soundtrack in the musical work of John Williams is very clear. Master Williams said in a TV program "On the Waterfront is one of the most important incidental music of the Cinematography History. Perfect combination of Jazz, symphonic music and deep human emotions".

"You don't understand, I could've had class! I could've been a contender! I could've been a somebody!"

A brilliant score to a masterpiece of a film.

Eat 'em up, Boston!

Haunting, innocent and intense all in one. Bernstein was a master.

when this film came out in the 50's , I was floored. Must have seen it at least 8 times. Perfection and the music tied it all together!!

Everyone connected with this film was at the top of their game!

Leonard Bernstein was the best composer of the 20th century, brilliant and talented and superb conductor, loved by millions all over the world !!!!!

I dont know, its just something about this glorious music, that brings me to tears at times, maybe it reminds me of my father who was a roughneck during the period when this film was made.

Not only is this one of the greatest movie scores to one of the greatest pictures ever, but it is historically significant as a the bridge to his West Side Story (1957) score. Without this score, there would be no WSS, at least not on the musical level that WSS achieved. And without that music, Jerome Robbins would not have been inspired to create the greatest choreography in Broadway history. Nicholas Stix, Uncensored

I'm glad so many other people love this amazing score by Bernstein. The Love theme is the most beautiful of all time, too.

What strikes me about this piece is not only its beauty and brilliance but the debt that its composer owes to his friend/lover/teacher Aaron Copland and his superb,"Quiet City." Even down to the use of the trumpet carrying the solo. Bernstein adds more anguish, dissonance and a more striking and varied rythmic structure (see around 2:00 until 5:00, for instance) and a greater orchestral pallette. A great piece (and a terrific movie). Here, Copland's "Quiet City" quickly becomes Bernstein's troubled "City that has Gone Wrong."

Apparently wrote this suite because he felt some of his best stuff ended up on the cutting room floor. Never wrote for the movies again. Love this, Amazing horn parts.

Bernstein should have won the Oscar, instead of Tiomkin.

10:00 That drone of the basses just fills in everything…

The best musical score ever for the best movie ever!

Brando and Bernstein were two of my favorites. So listening to this score is heaven.

perfect music for a great film

My high school band was supposed to perform this piece in Carnegie Hall in NYC my senior year of high school (2020), the perfect ending to my high school life. For context, I didn't come from a big school by any means, so getting this opportunity to perform at such a prestigious performing arts center was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. Then covid happened, so we never got to go. Now, this song always feels weird to listen to. It's beautiful and I love it so much, but it always hurts a little bit listening to this piece. Honestly, I don't know if I'll ever get over it, but for me, this piece serves as a reminder of what could have been one of the best things to ever happen in my life.

This is quite beautiful. I remember going to see On the Waterfront at a revival house and the score making me cry almost as soon as the movie started.

if ever a score fit a film better, i have not seen it. the tough, tender, introspective fits like a glove. it gets inside

Omg love Bernstein! Such rich visual musical imagination, uninhibited, passionate

My goddess - that devastatingly tender and plangent woodwind melody at 7:10 over strings and harp! There is a great deal here of Copland (Appalachian Springs) and Shostakovich (1st Piano Concerto), but thoroughly absorbed and incorporated into Bernstein's own musical fingerprints. An anthem for the doomed possibilities of love and kindness and soaring dreams ..... all to be drowned in the swill and poison of filthy corruption. Seemingly impossible and ludicrous dreams of even a few minutes of decency amidst political graft and dockland gangsterism. Then its transference at 9:56 to tutti strings to convey the conflict re-enacted at titanic levels, as if in the very skyline above Manhattan, between virtue and clasping at hints of nobility and dignity ...... and an unrelenting cynicism and crushing malevolence. This is unbelievably heart-breaking. Can humanity really be both these things - the dreamers of heavenly kindness and the snarling destroyers of civilisation? It is so sharp a divergence and splitting as to be truly schizoid. A genius-level use of orchestral resources! Five cheers for Lenny. Love andrea

It's been way too long since I last listened to this music! Glad to report that it's still amazing!

so grateful to be able to play this piece as a violist! wish i could see the movie and piece these themes together

The themal interplay between the French horn and the trumpet and then the whole orchestra at 13:13 or so is amazing and oh, so beautiful.

One of the greatest film scores ever written. One of my other favorites is the Shostakovich score for Gamlet by Kozyntsev.

This is one of the most amazing and thrilling screenplay written in the past century . I'm sure that the screenwriter had a great knowledge about the wishes and hopes human .

My mother choreographed to OTW and it was breathtakingly brilliant just like Bernstein! My solo was the tender music with the beautiful crescendos

Beautiful and powerful! What a masterpiece soundtrack and film! Brando was amazing and this music fit perfectly to intensify scenes!

Evrything is beautiful in this movie.

Fabulous. Been a fan of since my early explorations in music used on TV at my early 12 or 13 years old.

A great score which added so much to the emotional elements of the story. It's a shame that so much of what Bernstein wrote was cut. Working with Hollywood was so disheartening for him he never wrote another film score. Hollywood's loss -- and ours as well!

I honestly think the Zimmer-isation of scores is why contemporary films don't feel 'magical' to me, however well-told the story is. This is film music. Wow.

elegance and power never have comingled so wondrously....

Fantastic score

One of my favorites films.👍

Bernstein loved the City. After Covid and DeBlasio I wonder if we'll ever get it back.

Oh, Lenny, you could have been a movie star, you are so handsome.

This is real Music. We must remember, reflect and revere those that have gone on leaving us with this fine work of Art. Thank God, Music is a Universal Language. Understood in English, French German or Latin, or speak not at all, Music is understood, especially if it is great.

This is so good! Make that GREAT! The film was equally great and together they make a "must see and hear" movie! Love it!

such a inspiring peace of music. that makes me realize I have a long way to go as a flutist.I am playing thus piece and realize how far apart I am form the professionals

I went to see not long after its release in the early 60s, largely because of me hearing it had ben scored by Bernstein. Unfortunately, the 'art cinema' where it way playing in Toronto had lousy, distorted audio. I've seen the film since of course. This it truly a terrific score. One of the best things Bernstein had done. Too bad he didn't get along with the director. He could have done much more valuable film work.

We played this for marching season and we played it for the last time ever yesterday as the season was coming to a close.. I’m gonna miss this song so much ❤️

Incredible piece of music.

There’s a very distinct Aaron Copland influence throughout. About 18:00 to the end is very reminiscent of Copland’s Introduction to his Billy the Kid Suite. Not surprising given their mutual respect and that Bernstein is widely considered the authoritative interpreter of Copland’s music.

A great loss when he died. He should have taken better care of himself. This piece shows how a masterpiece can be written with a simple melodic line

Inspired. Wish he had composed more than conducted.

Powerful!! I wish I could have seen it on the big screen must have been epic! and emotional on a whole different level thanks for this post!

I love this.

Amazing music. Maybe his best work.

most of this wonderful music didn't make it into the movie but ended up on the cutting room floor This is why Bernstein wrote the Suite.

if you notice w Marlon and Eva Saint walking in the park the score starts up when Eve says " Yes I remember you" and Marlon says "I've got one of those faces ..." Bernsteins score was top drawer all the way

Grande professor, showman. Salve Bernstein!

Bravissimo!!!!!!!

Great! Thanks for sharing.

17:28 variation on the theme is beautiful, so haunting and melancholy

Jerry Goldsmith totally nicked a bit of this for the soundtrack of L. A. Confidential. But all of great art is theft, I suppose. Glorious soundtrack... As soon as I heard those few notes at the beginning of Waterfront I looked up the main theme for L. A. Confidential (which I loved so much) and recognized it instantly.

The original soundtrack was only released at the late date of 2014, and makes very interesting listening, with quite a bit of additional music.

Great music!! 4 a great film!! thank you 4 sharing this.

my question is why hasn't this ever been made into a ballet?...so evocative and beautiful!

Damn he's good...

Measurements of a true champion...it's not about how many times you hit or get hit....start what you finish...even if your beat down...it's all about the 12th round ...game 7....if theirs still oxygen, keep giving 110 ...until the win.

Showed this film to my history class as part of the Cold War unit. Connecting the threat of communism/Elia Kazan, etc. Students loved it!!

Score perfectly matches this groundbreaking film. Despise him or not Kazan changed the film-making landscape as did Brando.

أحلى ما تسمع ليلة راس العام ❤

My marching band is doing an arrangement of this

If you listen closely you can hear the seeds of West Side Story (Broadway score).

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY LENNY!!!

The Philadelphia Orchestra will be performing this piece on the 4th and 5th of October for Bernstein's 100th birthday

OMG! Haven't head this in years. It is more effective as concert music.

Love it!!!!!

I love the trumpet/timpani parts near the end.

i opened another tab and the 60s doctor who theme started playing and it fit pretty well for some reason with the later bits

You can just picture Terry - Torn between being one of Johnny Friendly's henchmen - Or - On the side of doing what's right . . .

El movimiento final: ¡Santo Dios!🙌👌🙏

3:01, scariest moment in the flick -- Charlie has to go and find his brother and...

Aaron tewelde 7 months ago "The Philadelphia Orchestra will be performing this piece on the 4th and 5th of October for Bernstein's 100th birthday"

I'm here cos of year 12 too. But I do really love this score.

Pretty cool to be honest!

Yes But he did write the score for West Side Story but that was about it They took out some of his music from " 1949 " On The Town" and he was upset

This is Lenny at his best. It is engaging and gorgeous from start to finish. I only wish his "classical" stuff was this good.

This is a brilliant score. However, I would love to see the film that was in Bernstein's head he thought he was writing for.

Nice

Around the 10:00 mark. Bernstein's first take at the melody for Make Our Garden Grow?

One person coulda been a contender.

Bernstein should have won the Oscar for Best Score, but he lost to Dimitri Tiomkin for "The High and the Mighty."

Heard this performed by the AYP :)

Bernstein should've composed more film scores. At least, that's my opinion.

I’m here because of REM’s song

I am actually of a dissenting view. I love Bernsteins music, don't misunderstand me, but i actually find it jarring at times within the context of the movie. The music, at times, pulls me out of the movie. Its almost as if I'm in a concert hall instead of watching a film. I feel it overwhelms it at times. Just my opinion. Great movie, great score just don't feel like it always meshes.

This is Lenny at his best. It is unfortunate that he always felt like a failure when he wrote "serious" classical music. It just wasn't his thing. But, when he was writing music for the stage or screen he was the master.

where's the music when he's talking about being a contender? and when it shows up again when he finds Charlie's body? Anyway In my top 5 list.

Q: has Mr. Burnstien wrote any other scores for other movies ? This is the only one i know. The ending of the film as the gate was cĺoseing the music swelled to that dramatic climax wow

Superb score though not surprising since much of it cribbed from Copland's Billy the Kid.

17:28 to the end