| Content | Brent Wetters recalls a story told by his grandfather, Herbert Owen Reed. H. O. Reed wanted to study composition with Igor Stravinsky at a course at Tanglewood in 1942. But Stravinsky did not teach the course that year, and Reed was to study in Bohuslav Martinů's class, whom, of course, he did not know. Reed complained indignantly to Leonard Bernstein and wanted to leave the seminary. Bernstein calmed him down and told him to give Martinů a chance. In the end, Reed loved studying with the Martins and considered it one of the most important in his life. |
| Transcription of the letter | If you are interested, I can also tell you the story I always remember hearing about Martinů. As my grandfather used to tell it, he went to Tanglewood in 1942 with the understanding that he would be studying composition with Igor Stravinsky. He arrived to discover that either Stravinsky had canceled at the last minute or that there were two composition classes and he had not been placed with Stravinsky (I don't now remember which it was, though it should be determinable by checking whether Stravinsky taught that year or not). In either case, my grandfather was not pleased to given Martinů as a teacher (he either did not know who he was or only barely knew his music). So he went to Leonard Bernstein in a huff and may have even threatened to leave the seminar. Bernstein consoled him and told him that he needed to at least give Martinů a chance and thought that he would be pleasantly surprised. In the end, my grandfather loved working with Martinů and counted his teaching as among the most important in his life, and so this story was always told to me as a cautionary tale about the dangers of prizing fame over other attributes.
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