Bloch Ernest Bloch

Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer.

Biography

Bloch was born in Geneva on July 24, 1880 to Jewish parents. He began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon after. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. He then travelled around Europe, moving to Germany (where he studied composition from 1900–1901 with Iwan Knorr at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt), on to Paris in 1903 and back to Geneva before settling in the United States in 1916, taking US citizenship in 1924. He held several teaching appointments in the USA with George Antheil, Frederick Jacobi, Quincy Porter, Bernard Rogers, and Roger Sessions among his pupils. See: List of music students by teacher: A to B#Ernest Bloch. In 1917 Bloch became the first teacher of composition at Mannes School of Music, a post he held for three years. In December 1920 he was appointed the first Musical Director of the newly formed Cleveland Institute of Music, a post he held until 1925. Following this he was director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music until 1930. He spent most of the following decade in Switzerland where he composed his Avodath Hakodesh ("Sacred Service") before returning to the USA in 1939.

In 1941, Bloch moved to the small coastal community of Agate Beach, Oregon and lived there the rest of his life. He taught and lectured at the University of California, Berkeley until 1952.

He died on July 15, 1959 in Portland, Oregon, of cancer at the age of 78. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered near his home in Agate Beach.

Legacy

The Bloch Memorial has been moved from near his house in Agate Beach to a more prominent location at the Newport Performing Arts Center in Newport, Oregon.

Works

Stage

• Macbeth, Opera in 3 acts (1909 Geneva-Paris)

Orchestral

• Symphony in C♯ minor (1902)
• Hiver-Printemps (1905 Paris-Geneva)
• Trois Poèmes Juifs for large orchestra (1913 Satigny)
• Israel, Symphony for orchestra (1916 Geneva)
• In the Night: A Love Poem (1922 Cleveland)
• Poems of the Sea (1922 Cleveland)
• Concerto Grosso No. 1 for string orchestra with piano obbligato (1925 Santa Fe - Cleveland)
• Four Episodes for chamber orchestra (1926 San Francisco)
• America: An Epic Rhapsody for Orchestra (1926 San Francisco)
• Helvetia, Symphonic Poem (1929 Frankfurt - San Francisco)
• Evocations, Symphonic Suite (1937 Châtel, Haute Savoie)
• Suite Symphonique (1944 Agate Beach)
• In Memoriam (1952 Agate Beach)
• Concerto Grosso No. 2 for string orchestra (1952 Agate Beach)
• Sinfonia Breve (1953 Agate Beach)
• Symphony in E♭ (1955 Agate Beach)

Concertante

• Schelomo, Rhapsodie Hébraïque for cello solo and large orchestra (1916 Geneva-New York)
• Suite for viola and orchestra (1919 New York)
• Voice in the Wilderness, Symphonic Poem for orchestra with cello obbligato (1936 Châtel, Haute Savoie)
• Concerto for violin and orchestra (1938 Châtel, Haute Savoie)
• Baal Shem for violin and orchestra (1939)
• Concerto Symphonique for piano and orchestra (1948 Agate Beach)
• Scherzo Fantasque for piano and orchestra (1948 Agate Beach)
• Concertino for flute, viola and string orchestra (1948, 1950 Agate Beach)
• Suite Hébraïque, for viola (or violin) and orchestra (1951 Agate Beach)
• Symphony for trombone and orchestra (1954 Agate Beach)
• Proclamation for trumpet and orchestra (1955 Agate Beach)
• Suite Modale for flute and string orchestra (1956 Agate Beach)
• Two Last Poems for flute solo and orchestra (1958 Agate Beach)

Vocal and choral

• Historiettes au Crépuscule for mezzo-soprano and piano (1904 Paris)
• Poèmes d'Automne for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (1906 Geneva)
• Psaume 22 (1913 Satigny)
• Deux Psaumes pour soprano et orchestre, précédés d'un prélude orchestral (1914 Satigny)
• Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service) (1933 Roveredo-Ticino)
• America: An Epic Rhapsody for chorus and orchestra (1926 San Francisco)

Chamber

• Piano Quintet No. 1 (1923 Cleveland)
• Piano Quintet No. 2 (1957)
• String Quartet
  • String Quartet in G (1896)
  • String Quartet No. 1 (1916 Geneva - New York)
  • String Quartet No. 2 (1945 Agate Beach)
  • String Quartet No. 3 (1952 Agate Beach)
  • String Quartet No. 4 (1953 Agate Beach)
  • String Quartet No. 5 (1956 Agate Beach)
  • In the Mountains (1924 Cleveland)
  • Night (1923 Cleveland)
  • Paysages (1923 Cleveland); the first movement North was inspired by Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook of the North
  • Prelude (1925 Cleveland)
  • Two Pieces (1938, 1950 Châtel, Haute Savoie - Agate Beach)
• Three Nocturnes for piano trio (1924 Cleveland)

Instrumental

• Violin
  • Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano (1920 Cleveland)
  • Baal Shem (1923 Cleveland)
  • Poème Mystique, Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano (1924 Cleveland)
  • Nuit Exotique (1924 Cleveland)
  • Abodah (1929 San Francisco)
  • Mélodie (1929 San Francisco)
  • Suite Hébraïque for violin and piano (1951 Agate Beach)
  • Suite No. 1 for violin solo (1958 Agate Beach)
  • Suite No. 2 for violin solo (1958 Agate Beach)
• Viola
  • Suite for viola and piano (1919 New York)
  • Suite Hébraïque for viola and piano (1951 Agate Beach)
  • Meditation and Processional for viola and piano (1951 Agate Beach)
  • Suite for viola solo (unfinished) (1958 Agate Beach)
• Cello
  • Méditation Hébraïque (1924 Cleveland)
  • From Jewish Life (1925 Cleveland)
  • Suite No. 1 for cello solo (1956 Agate Beach)
  • Suite No. 2 for cello solo (1956 Agate Beach)
  • Suite No. 3 for cello solo (1957 Agate Beach)
• Flute
  • Suite Modale for flute and piano (1956 Agate Beach)

Piano

• Ex-voto (1914 Geneva)
• In the Night: A Love Poem (1922 Cleveland)
• Poems of the Sea (1922 Cleveland)
• Four Circus Pieces (1922 Cleveland)
• Danse Sacrée (1923 Cleveland)
• Enfantines, 10 pieces for children (1923 Cleveland)
• Nirvana, Poem (1923 Cleveland)
• Five Sketches in Sepia (1923 Cleveland)
• Sonata (1935 Châtel, Haute Savoie); written for Guido Agosti
• Visions et Prophéties (1936 Châtel, Haute Savoie)

Organ

• 6 Preludes (1949 Agate Beach)
• 4 Wedding Marches (1950 Agate Beach)

Family

Ernest Bloch and his wife Marguerite Schneider had three children: Ivan, Suzanne and Lucienne. Ivan, born in 1905, became an engineer with the Bonneville Power Administration in Portland, Oregon. Suzanne Bloch, born in 1907, was a musician particularly interested in Renaissance music who taught harpsichord, lute and composition at the Juilliard School in New York. Lucienne Bloch, born in 1909, worked as Diego Rivera's chief photographer on the Rockefeller Center mural project, became friends with Rivera's wife, the artist Frida Kahlo, and took some key photos of Kahlo and the only photographs of Rivera's mural (which was destroyed because Lenin was depicted in it).

Music

Bloch's musical style does not fit easily into any of the usual categories; he studied variously with Jaques-Dalcroze, Iwan Knorr and Ludwig Thuille, as well as corresponding with Mahler and meeting Debussy. Many of his works - as can be seen from their Hebrew-inspired titles - also draw heavily on his Jewish heritage. Bloch's father had at one stage intended to become a rabbi, and the young Ernest had a strong religious upbringing; as an adult he felt that to write music that expressed his Jewish identity was "the only way in which I can produce music of vitality and significance".