Composers Datebook

In 1968, Senator Eugene McCarthy was running for President on an anti-war platform. The war in question was in Southeast Asia, and many American artists were, like Senator McCarthy, openly calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam. On today’s date at a New York fundraising event for the anti-war movement entitled “Broadway for Peace,” a song by Leonard Bernstein received its premiere performance, with the composer at the piano accompanying Barbra Streisand. The song was titled “So Pretty,” with lyrics describing the tragedy of the Vietnam War from a child’s point of view. Richard Nixon, not Eugene McCarthy, became President in 1968, and was re-elected in 1972, and at his special request the final piece on his January, 1973 Inaugural Concert was Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” which struck many as a deliberately bellicose selection, considering that the Vietnam War was still raging. Bernstein, McCarthy and others arranged a counter-concert at Washington’s National Cathedral, scheduled at precisely the same time as Nixon’s, but presenting Haydn’s “Mass in Time of War” instead of Tchaikovsky. Whether Tchaikovsky or Haydn ultimately made any difference in resolving the conflict, history does note that a Southeastern Asian armistice was signed in Paris a few days later.