| Olympic Hymn | |
|---|---|
| by Leonard Bernstein | |
 The Olympic flag | |
| Composed | 1981 |
| Performed | 23 September 1981 (1981-09-23): Baden-Baden |
The Olympic Hymn is a 1981 composition by Leonard Bernstein to a text by Günter Kunert. It was written for the International Olympic Congress of 1981 in Baden-Baden, West Germany. It was premiered by the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Baden-Baden Youth Choir under conductor David Shallon on 23 September 1981. The piece opened the proceedings of the International Olympic Congress.
The piece is six minutes in length.
The hymn bears some similarity to the song "To Make Us Proud" that formed the finale of Bernstein's 1976 musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 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. Lyrics to the piece were written by the German author and poet Günter Kunert.
The piece was the last of Bernstein's compositions to be orchestrated by Hershy Kay.
References
- ^ "Works: Olympic Hymn (1981)". LeonardBernstein.com. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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
- Work details, Boosey & Hawkes
- Video performance on YouTube, Quincy Choral Society
