Ernest Bloch Studies

Ernest Bloch left his native Switzerland to settle in the United States in 1916. One of the great twentieth-century composers, he was influenced by a range of genres and styles - Jewish, American and Swiss - and his works reflect his lifelong struggle with his identity. Drawing on firsthand recollections of relatives and others who knew and worked with the composer, this collection is the most comprehensive study to date of Bloch's life, musical achievement and reception. Contributors present the latest research on Bloch's works and compositional practice, including studies of his Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service), violin pieces such as Nigun, the symphonic Schelomo, and the opera Macbeth. Setting the quality and significance of Bloch's output in its historical and cultural contexts, this book provides scholarly analyses as well as a full chronology, list of online resources, catalogue of published and unpublished works, and selected further reading.

Essays by leading scholars on Bloch cover all periods of his creative output and its reception around the world
Offers unique insights, through firsthand knowledge, into the composer's character and personal development
Provides a reliable and comprehensive resource for Bloch and his music, correcting errors in previous sources

Product details

Published: March 2017
Format: Adobe eBook Reader
ISBN: 9781316685075
Length: 0 pages
Weight: 0kg
Contains: 12 b/w illus. 1 table 34 music examples
Availability: This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.

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Contents

Foreword: reminiscences of my grandfather Ernest Bloch, II
Chronology
Alphabetical list of Bloch's published and unpublished works Alexander Knapp
Bloch resources: recordings in the age of the Internet Stanley Henig
Introduction Norman Solomon
1. From Geneva to New York: radical changes in Ernest Bloch's view of himself as a 'Jewish composer' during his twenties and thirties Alexander Knapp
2. The 'suffering and greatness' of Ernest Bloch: concepts of the composer as genius Klára Móricz
3. Bloch, Wagner and creativity: refutation and vindication Malcolm Miller
4. Sacred service: the mass Bloch never wrote, the two that Leonard Bernstein did write, and Shulamit Ran's Credo/Ani Ma'Amin David Schiller
5. Oregon years: the man and his music David Z. Kushner
6. 'The future alone will be the judge': Ernest Bloch's epic journeys between Utopia and Dystopia Philip V. Bohlman
7. The reception of Bloch's music in Palestine/Israel to 1948 Jehoash Hirshberg
8. Bloch's reception and his standing in Israel since 1954 Zecharia Plavin
9. A performance history of Bloch's opera Macbeth: Paris 1910-Manhattan 2014 Stanley Henig
10. King Solomon and the Baal Shem Tov: traditional elements in Bloch's musical representation of two iconic personalities from Jewish history Alexander Knapp
11. Postscript: the legacy Norman Solomon.

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Contributors

Ernest Bloch, II, Alexander Knapp, Stanley Henig, Norman Solomon, Klára Móricz, Malcolm Miller, David Schiller, David Z. Kushner, Philip V. Bohlman, Jehoash Hirshberg, Zecharia Plavin

Editors

Alexander Knapp , School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Alexander Knapp was the Joe Loss Lecturer in Jewish Music at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, until his retirement in 2006. His numerous articles on Jewish music, and Bloch, have been published in journals including Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, the Journal of the American Musicological Society and Musica Judaica. His Anthology of Essays in Jewish Music (Youtai Yinyue Lunwenji) was published by the Chinese Academy of Arts in 1998. A trustee of the Jewish Music Institute, his awards include a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to North America to study religious art.
Norman Solomon , The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford
Norman Solomon was Lecturer in Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford until his retirement in 2001. Prior to that, he spent 22 years as a rabbi and 11 years based at the University of Birmingham involved with international activity in inter-religious dialogue. His publications include Judaism and World Religion (1991), The Analytic Movement (1993), A Very Short Introduction to Judaism (2nd edition, 2014), Historical Dictionary of Judaism (3rd edition, 2015) and Torah from Heaven (2012). His honours include the Sir Sigmund Sternberg CCJ Award in Christian-Jewish Relations (1993) and the Distinguished Service Medal of the University of San Francisco (2000).

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