Ernst Toch
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Ernst Toch (pronounced [tɵʜ]) (7 December 1887 - 1 October 1964) was a composer of classical music and film scores.
Toch was born in Vienna. He sought to introduce new ideas and approaches to music. He studied philosophy at the university of Vienna and medicine at Heidelberg. His main instrument was the piano, and he was a pianist of concert stature. Much of his creative output aimed toward the piano. He was a self-taught composer, and in America he came to instruct new generations of composers. His first compositions date from circa 1900 and were pastiche pieces in the style of Mozart (quartets, 1905 album verses for piano). His first quartet was performed in Leipzig in 1908, and his sixth (Opus 12, 1905) in the year 1909. In 1909, his chamber symphony in F major (written 1906) won the Frankfurt/Main Mozart prize. From this time onwards Toch dedicated himself to being a full-time composer. He won the Mendelssohn prize for composition in 1910. In 1913 he was appointed lecturer of both piano and composition at the College of Music in Mannheim. After winning a further five major prizes for his works, Toch served 4 years in the army on the Italian Front. In 1916 he married Lilly Zwack, the daughter of a banker. After World War I had ended, he returned to Manheim to compose, devoping a new style of polyphony.
This period lasted from 1934 to 58. His works often exhibit a humorous aspect (Bunte Suite (1929)). In 1930 he invented "Gesprochene Musik," the idiom of the "spoken chorus"; his most performed work is the Geographical Fugue or Fuge aus der Geographie, though he regarded it as an unimportant diversion. He wrote music for films, symphonies, chamber music, chamber operas. He also wrote books dealing with musical theory: Melodielehre (1923) and "The Shaping Forces in Music" (1948).
Toch was considered one of the great avant-garde composers in the pre-Nazi era, and, like many other artists and musicians, went into exile when Hitler came to power.
Toch won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1956 for his Third Symphony (premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on December 2, 1955. He died in Los Angeles and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. He is the grandfather of author Lawrence Weschler.
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[edit] Works
[edit] Opera
- 1927 Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse Libretto by Benno Elkan
- 1928 Egon und Emilie
- 1930 Der Fächer
- 1962 The Last Tale
[edit] Orchestral work
- 1906 Kammersymphonie
- 1926 Klavierkonzert opus 26
- 1928 Das Kirschblütenfest
- 1933 Symphony for Piano and Orchestra (piano concerto no. 2), opus 61
- 1935 Big Ben (Orchestervariationen)
- 1950-1964 7 Symphonien including symphony 5 Jephta
[edit] Works for Wind band
- 1926 Spiel opus 39 (Donaueschingen première)
- 1932 Miniatur Ouvertüre
- Sinfonietta opus 97
[edit] Film music
- 1934 Catherine the Great
- 1934 The Private Life of Don Juan
- 1935 Peter Ibbetson
- 1938 The Rebel Son
- 1939 The Cat and the Canary
- 1940 Dr. Cyclops
- 1941 Ladies in Retirement
- 1944 Address Unknown
- 1945 The Unseen
[edit] Choral works
- 1930 Gesprochene Musik
[edit] Chamber music
- 1902-1954 13 string quartets
- 1928 Violin sonata opus 44
- 1929 Cello sonata opus 50
[edit] Lieder
[edit] Piano works
- 1923 Burlesques opus 31
- 1925 Capriccetti opus 36
- 1928 Piano sonata opus 47
- 1929 Echoes from a small town : fourteen moderately easy piano pieces opus 49
- 1931 Ten concert etudes opus 55
[edit] References
- A list of Toch's works at the University of California Toch Archive website
- Article on Toch's symphonies
