{ program notes
“Jeremiah” takes it name and expressive program from the Old Testament
prophet Jeremiah, who warned the
ancient Israelites to repent and mend
their ways or be destroyed. But they
ignored his warnings; Jerusalem fell to
the Babylonian empire, and the Jews
were sent into captivity. In the work’s
finale, an extended song for mezzosoprano, Bernstein set words drawn from
the opening of the book of Lamentations,
as Jeremiah mourned the lost Holy City
and his people.
In a program note for the work’s New
York premiere, Bernstein wrote: “The
symphony does not make use to any
great extent of actual Hebrew thematic
material. The first theme of the scherzo
[second movement] is paraphrased from
a traditional Hebrew chant, and the
opening phrase of the vocal part in ‘Lamentation’ is based on a liturgical cadence
still sung today in commemoration of the
destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. Other
remembrances of Hebrew liturgical music
are a matter of emotional quality, rather
than of the notes themselves.
“As for programmatic meanings, the intention is again not one of literalness, but
of emotional quality. Thus the first movement (‘Prophecy’) aims only to parallel in
feeling the intensity of the prophet’s pleas
with his people; and the scherzo (‘Profanation’) to give a general sense of the
destruction and chaos brought on by the
pagan corruption within the priesthood
and the people. H \