Leonard Bernstein told the television audience at the start of the first Young People's Concert: "No matter what stories people tell you about what music means, forget them. Stories are not what music means. Music is never about things. Music just is. It's a lot of beautiful notes and sounds put together so well that we get pleasure out of hearing them. So when we ask, 'What does it mean; what does this piece of music mean?' we're asking a hard question. Let's do our best to answer it." During the course of this first program the New York Philharmonic performs portions of Rossini's William Tell Overture, Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, and Ravel's La Valse.
Leonard Bernstein told the television audience at the start of the first Young People's Concert: "No matter what stories people tell you about what music means, forget them. Stories are not what music means. Music is never about things. Music just is. It's a lot of beautiful notes and sounds put together so well that we get pleasure out of hearing them. So when we ask, 'What does it mean; what does this piece of music mean?' we're asking a hard question. Let's do our best to answer it." During the course of this first program the New York Philharmonic performs portions of Rossini's William Tell Overture, Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, and Ravel's La Valse.
From Carnegie Hall, Bernstein discusses the origins and characteristics of American music. After an extended excerpt from George Gershwin's An American in Paris and a discussion of nationalistic and folk music, excerpts from compositions by American composers Edward MacDowell, William Schuman, Virgil Thomson, and others are performed. In closing Aaron Copland conducts parts of his own Third Symphony.