Ernest Bloch Studies

Description

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book provides scholarly analyses as well as a full chronology, list of online resources, catalogue of published and unpublished works, and selected further reading.

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 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).