Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.classica
Titolo: Ernest Bloch: Baal Shem - Nigun

Visto che ultimamente, soggettivamente parlando, il NG č di una noia a dir
poco imbarazzante, segnalo questo autore ebraico e, in particolare, questa
sua composizione. Suonai "Nigun" quest'estate, a un concerto, in coppia con
un violinista. E' un brano a carattere di improvvisazione, che sfrutta le
molteplici risorse del violino e che, soprattutto, esprime l'orgoglio, la
tenacia  e l'arte del salmodiare tipicamente ebraici. Dovreste ascoltarla
...... credo che faccia parte di una composizione di piů ampio respiro (Baal
Shem, appunto) della quale chiedo notizia a chi dovesse conoscerla meglio di
me.
Ho riscoperto Nigun poco tempo fa, su Napster. Scaricai sia la versione per
pianoforte e violino che quella per violino e orchestra. La sensazione che
ho avuto č stata quella di una forte ondata di passione, di orgoglio, di
riflessione .... da lě incominciai la scoperta di Ernest Bloch che prosegue
tuttora. Qualcuno lo conosce abbastanza bene? Che mi segnalate?
ciao
G
--
################################
per rispondere in mail togli TI DALLE PALLE
#################################

 tuttora. Qualcuno lo conosce abbastanza bene? Che mi segnalate?
Temo che lo conoscerai già, ma... Schelomo, per violoncello e
orchestra. Si tratta ancora di un brano che affonda le sue radici
nella religione ebraica. Io ne ho una bella registrazione in un CD
Naxos -la solista è Maria Kliegel e suona anche Kol Nidrei, di Bruch
(un pezzo di ispirazione ...ebraica, tanto per cambiare!), e a tre
lavori di Coski (le variazioni su un tema rococò op.33, il notturno
op. 19 n° 4 e il pezzo capriccioso op. 62). Il codice del disco è
8.550519.
Buon ascolto!
Luca

 orchestra. [snops]
ehm, no non la conosco anche se l'ho vista nella lista di ricerca su Napster
:))
sarà la mia prossima vittima (anche se è lunghetta) .... per il momento mi
sono scaricato il concerto grosso numero 1, gli altri due brani di Baal Shem
e parte della suite modale. Sicuramente comprerò anche il cd che m'hai
segnalato; Bloch deve essere scoperto come merita, oh! :))
A te piace?
ciao e grazie per la segnalazione
G
PS Non m'hai poi detto se vuoi il cd dell'ultimo concerto di Natale della
mia banda. se mi dai l'indirizzo sarà lieto di passartelo, ne vale la pena
:)


 orchestra. [snops]
ehm, no non la conosco anche se l'ho vista nella lista di ricerca su Napster
:))
sarà la mia prossima vittima (anche se è lunghetta) .... per il momento mi
sono scaricato il concerto grosso numero 1, gli altri due brani di Baal Shem
e parte della suite modale. Sicuramente comprerò anche il cd che m'hai
segnalato; Bloch deve essere scoperto come merita, oh! :))
A te piace?
ciao e grazie per la segnalazione
G
PS Non m'hai poi detto se vuoi il cd dell'ultimo concerto di Natale della
mia banda. se mi dai l'indirizzo sarà lieto di passartelo, ne vale la pena
:)


 orchestra. [snops]
ehm, no non la conosco anche se l'ho vista nella lista di ricerca su Napster
:))
sarà la mia prossima vittima (anche se è lunghetta) .... per il momento mi
sono scaricato il concerto grosso numero 1, gli altri due brani di Baal Shem
e parte della suite modale. Sicuramente comprerò anche il cd che m'hai
segnalato; Bloch deve essere scoperto come merita, oh! :))
A te piace?
ciao e grazie per la segnalazione
G
PS Non m'hai poi detto se vuoi il cd dell'ultimo concerto di Natale della
mia banda. se mi dai l'indirizzo sarà lieto di passartelo, ne vale la pena
:)


ehm, .... pardon ....

 poco imbarazzante, segnalo questo autore ebraico
se non hai paura di farti spellare vivo per aver citato un autore ebraico,
ecco qualche informazione:
1. Life.
He studied in Geneva with Albert Goss and Louis Etienne-Reyer (violin) and
Jaques-Dalcroze (solfège and composition) before leaving, at the suggestion
of Martin Marsick, to study in Brussels. There he took lessons from Eugène
Ysaÿe (violin), Rasse (composition) and Franz Schörg (violin and chamber
music), at whose home he lived from 1896 to 1899. He then went to study in
Frankfurt with Knorr (1899-1901) and in Munich with Thuille (1901-3). After
a year in Paris (1903-4), during which time he absorbed the French
Impressionistic style, he returned to Geneva, married Margarethe Augusta
Schneider, and entered his father's business as a bookkeeper and salesman of
Swiss tourist goods. Meanwhile, he kept his hand in music by composing in
piecemeal fashion, conducting orchestral concerts in Neuchâtel and Lausanne
(1909-10) and lecturing on aesthetics at the Geneva Conservatory (1911-15).
A high point of this period was the première of his lyric drama, Macbeth, at
the Opéra-Comique, Paris, on 30 November 1910.
Bloch went to the United States in 1916 with the encouragement of Alfred
Pochon, second violinist of the Flonzaley Quartet, as conductor for a tour
by Maud Allan's dance company. When the tour collapsed, he accepted a
position at the newly formed David Mannes College of Music in New York,
teaching theory and composition there and also privately (1917-20). He was
thus able to bring his wife and three children, Suzanne, Lucienne and Ivan,
to America. The successful première of his String Quartet no.1 by the
Flonzaley Quartet on 31 December 1916 led to performances of his orchestral
works in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. He conducted his Trois poèmes
juifs with the Boston SO in March 1917 and Schelomo, with Kindler as the
cello soloist, at a concert sponsored by the Society of the Friends of Music
in New York in May of the same year. Following additional successes in
Philadelphia, where he conducted a programme of his 'Jewish' works with the
Philadelphia Orchestra in January 1918, he signed a contract with G.
Schirmer, who published these compositions with what was to become a
trademark logo - the six-pointed Star of David with the initials E.B. in the
centre; it was an imprimatur which firmly established for Bloch a Jewish
identity in the public mind.
Bloch expanded his contact with American life by conducting Renaissance
choral music with amateur singers at the Manhattan Trade School, teaching
the fundamentals of music to children in Joanne Bird Shaw's experimental
summer school in Peterboro, New Hampshire, and discussing art and life with
such figures as Julius Hartt. In 1919 his Suite for viola and piano (or
orchestra) won the Coolidge Prize, quickly earning a place in the viola
repertory.
Bloch served as founding director of the Cleveland Institute of Music
(1920-25), where he conducted the student orchestra, taught composition,
established masterclasses and courses for the general public, and proposed
such radical reforms as the abandonment of examinations and textbooks in
favour of direct musical experience, with study rooted in the scores of the
great masters. However, the trustees continued to favour a practical
curriculum and a more traditional approach to music education, and this
eventually led him to resign. (It was in Cleveland, in 1924, that he became
a naturalized US citizen.) He then accepted the directorship of the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music (1925-30), during which time he was awarded
the Carolyn Beebe Prize of the New York Chamber Music Society for his Four
Episodes for chamber orchestra (1926), the first prize in a contest
sponsored by Musical America for his epic rhapsody in three parts, America,
and a shared RCA Victor Award for his homage to his native land, Helvetia.
During the 1930s Bloch lived mainly in Switzerland, composing such works as
Voice in the Wilderness, the Piano Sonata, Evocations for orchestra, the
Violin Concerto and, most importantly, the Sacred Service, with which he
began his second European period. He conducted his works in various European
cities, and returned briefly to the USA to conduct the Sacred Service in New
York in 1934. Major festivals of his works were held in London in 1934 and
1937, the latter in connection with the founding of an Ernest Bloch Society,
with Albert Einstein as honorary president, and Alex Cohen as secretary.
Macbeth was revived in Naples in Italian translation in March 1938, but only
three performances were given owing to Mussolini's deference to a visit from
Hitler. Because of growing anti-Semitism and also because he wished to
retain his American citizenship, Bloch returned to the USA and, in 1940,
assumed a professorship at the University of California at Berkeley, where
he taught summer courses until his retirement in 1952. The Berkeley duties
fulfilled an obligation he owed the institution, which, in conjunction with
a grant from the Stern family had enabled him to compose in Europe from 1930
to 1939 freed from the responsibilities of teaching.
In his later years, during which he lived reclusively at Agate Beach,
Oregon, he was the recipient of numerous honours, including the first Gold
Medal in Music (String Quartet no.2), from the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences (1947) and the Henry Hadley Medal of the National Association for
American Composers and Conductors (1957). He continued to compose in a wide
variety of genres, and to pursue his lifelong hobbies of photography and
mushroom collecting, and his newer interest in collecting and polishing
agates. In 1958, suffering from cancer, he underwent unsuccessful surgery;
he died a year later. In 1968 an Ernest Bloch Society was formed in the USA
through the efforts of the composer's children.
2. Works.
Bloch's student compositions are diverse and derivative, ranging from the
sprawling Symphonie orientale (1896) to the Romantically effusive Vivre -
aimer (1900). The periods in Munich and Paris produced two major efforts,
the extravagantly orchestrated Symphony in C minor, a four-movement formally
conceived work despite a broad programme (a fugue opens the fourth
movement), revealing the influence of Richard Strauss with regard to melody,
harmony and orchestration, and the pair of symphonic poems, Hiver -
Printemps, with Impressionistically coloured instrumentation, notable in the
harp and woodwind solos, and in the closing reflective coda. Macbeth, the
only published operatic venture by Bloch, established his credentials as a
dramatic composer. In this work, he synthesized elements from the Wagnerian
music drama, from Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande and from Musorgsky's Boris
Godunov with his own emerging originality. Certain characteristics
associated with the composer's later works appear in Macbeth: frequent
changes of metre, tempo and tonality, melodic use of the perfect fourth and
augmented second at crucial moments, modal flavouring, dark instrumentation,
repeated-note patterns, ostinatos and pedal points, and ever-present cyclic
formal procedures (the last refined through study with Rasse, a pupil of
Franck).
Bloch's search for his own musical identity found fulfilment in a series of
highly charged epics on a broad scale, biblical in inspiration and known as
the 'Jewish Cycle'. In these deeply emotive utterances, which include
settings of Psalms cxxxvii and cxiv for soprano and orchestra (1912-14),
Psalm xxii for baritone and orchestra (1914), the symphony Israel with five
solo voices (1912-16), and Schelomo (1915-16), a Hebraic rhapsody for cello
and orchestra (including the use of quarter-tones for the first time in his
output), he painted sweeping musical canvases with a rich orchestral
palette. Their 'oriental' or quasi-Hebraic character is intensified by the
augmented intervals, melismatic treatment of melody, and large, colouristic
orchestra. The Scotch-snap rhythm and its variants is so pervasive that it
has come to be known as the 'Bloch rhythm'. Authentic Hebrew material is
rare (exceptions are quotations from the Song of Songs in Israel and a
gemora nigun in Schelomo); however, certain of Bloch's compositional traits
take on a new meaning in the context of the 'Cycle'. The repeated-note
patterns and the augmented and perfect fourth intervals in the Psalms and
Schelomo, for example, evoke the call of the shofar as it is sounded in the
synagogue on the High Holy Days (Rosh ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur); the
unfettered rythmic flow suggests the melismas of Hebrew chant. Additionally,
the frequent accents on the final or penultimate beat of a bar have
analogies in the Hebrew language.
Following the 'Jewish' works, Bloch moved, in part, towards a neo-classical
aesthetic as exemplified, to varying degrees, in his two sonatas for violin
and piano, the First Piano Quintet (with effective use of quarter-tones in
the first and third movements), and the first Concerto grosso (with a
powerful closing fugue). Even in these 'abstract' works, however, certain
referential associations are revealed, for example to the Gregorian mass
Kyrie 'Fons bonitatis' in the Second Violin Sonata, or the 'Dirge' and
'Pastorale and Rustic Dances' movements of the Concerto grosso. And, in the
same period, there is still a residue of overt Judaic expression, as in Baal
shem for violin and piano and From Jewish Life for cello and piano (albeit
an expression more akin to the Jew of the eastern European ghetto than that
of the Bible); Bloch's propensity to eclecticism is further seen in the
piano cycle, Poems of the Sea, in which there is a mixture of Impressionism,
modality and Hebrew shtaygers.
With his move to San Francisco, Bloch produced a series of widely varied
works, including America: an Epic Rhapsody, a three-movement programme
symphony unified by a recurring motto and containing ample quotations from
Amerindian melodies, English shanties, American civil war tunes, Negro
spirituals and references to the mechanization of 20th-century America (e.g.
factory noises, car horns). A closing anthem is intended to be sung by the
audience. The Four Episodes for chamber orchestra conjures another slice of
American life, that of San Francisco's Chinatown, while Helvetia, replete
with folksong quotations and other Alpine suggestions, pays homage to his
native land.
In the 1930s Bloch returned to his roots and, in his retreat at
Roverdo-Capriasca, Ticino, produced his monumental Avodath hakodesh ('Sacred
Service'), based on texts drawn from the Reform Jewish prayer book. His
other music from that European decade is mostly large in scale and diverse
in inspiration and subject matter. Voice in the Wilderness, an orchestral
work with obbligato cello, is, essentially, a series of meditations but
without a specific subject and decidedly not Jewish in intent (as opposed to
Schelomo); Evocations has a quasi-oriental atmosphere, as in the second
movement, 'Houang-Ti', with its pentatonic and exotic scales, and the
inclusion of harp, piano and celesta; and the Violin Concerto, despite its
Amerindian motto used structurally to unify the work, reverts to
well-practised traits, i.e. cyclic procedures, the 'Bloch rhythm', and open
fourths and fifths.
The substantial body of music after 1941 is, in the main, less subjective
than that of earlier years. The Concerto grosso no.2 and the string quartets
nos.2-5, with their formal design and abstract quality, fall into the
neo-classical category. Similarly, the passacaglias and fugues of the Suite
symphonique and the String Quartet no.2 cement a return to principles
associated with early masters whose technical polish Bloch admired. The
Concerto symphonique, on the other hand, is a large-gestured Romantic piano
concerto, while the Sinfonia breve may be described as both tightly
compressed and Expressionistic. 12-note themes are commonly employed in the
late works regardless of their style (as in the Symphony in E major,
Sinfonia breve and String Quartet no.3), while Jewish assocations are still
occasionally noticed (e.g. in the Symphony for trombone and orchestra and
the Suite hébraïque for violin or viola and orchestra). Earlier pictorialism
is largely absent; indeed the kaleidoscopic and sometimes rhetorical
features of the 'Jewish Cycle' have been supplanted by objectivity, serenity
and control.
Bloch attracted many distinguished students (among them Sessions, Douglas
Moore, Rogers, Chanler, Frederick Jacobi, Porter and Elwell), whom he taught
to develop and create according to their individual temperaments and
talents, an approach he adopted from his teacher, Knorr. He neither founded
any school nor blazed new trails; he moulded into a distinctive style the
ingredients he found already in use, including aspects of atonality and
12-note themes.
The passion, fervour and colourful florid writing of Bloch's 'Jewish Cycle'
are perhaps most characteristic, though in retrospect even these works are
guided by an acute sense of form. However, unlike the late string quartets
and suites for solo string instruments, the biblically inspired works, with
their luxurious waves of phantasmagoria, engage the listener more
emotionally than intellectually. Patriotic efforts such as America and
Helvetia, though somewhat selfconscious, are meritorious as pièces d'
occasion. But in his best work, the expression of his firm faith in the
spirituality of mankind always shows through. Bloch was, and continues to
be, a singular figure in the music of the 20th century.
WORKS
stage
Macbeth (op, 3, E. Fleg), 1904-9, Paris, Opéra-Comique, 30 Nov 1910
orchestral
Helvetia, 1900-29, Chicago, 18 Feb 1932
Symphony in c, 1901-2, Geneva, 1910
Hiver - Printemps, sym. poems, 1904-5, Geneva, 27 Jan 1906
Three Jewish Poems, 1913, Boston, 23 March 1917
Schelomo, vc, orch, 1915-16, New York, 3 May 1917
Suite, va, orch, 1919
In the Night, 1922
Concerto grosso no.1, str, pf obbl, 1924-5, Cleveland, 1 June 1925
Four Episodes, chbr orch, 1926, New York, March 1927
Voice in the Wilderness, orch, vc obbl, 1936, Los Angeles, 21 Jan 1937
Evocations, 1937, San Francisco, 11 Feb 1938
Violin Concerto, 1937-8, Cleveland, 15 Dec 1938
Suite symphonique, 1944, Philadelphia, 26 Oct 1945
Variation no.10 'Solemne', 1944 [from the multi-composer Variations on a
Theme by Eugene Goossens]
Concerto symphonique, pf, orch, 1947-8, Edinburgh, 3 Sept 1949
Scherzo fantasque, pf, orch, 1948, Chicago, 2 Dec 1950
Concertino, fl, va, str, 1950
Suite hébraïque, va/vn, orch, 1951, Chicago, 1 Jan 1953
Concerto grosso no.2, str qt, str, 1952, London, 11 April 1953
In memoriam, 1952
Sinfonia breve, 1952, London, 11 April 1953
Symphony, trbn, orch, 1954, Houston, 4 April 1956
Symphony in E, 1954-5, London, 15 Feb 1956
Proclamation, tpt, orch, 1955, New York, 18 Nov 1957
Suite modale, fl, str, 1956; Kentfield, CA, 11 April 1965
Two Last Poems, fl, orch, 1958
vocal
Choral: America: an Epic Rhapsody, chorus, orch, 1926; Avodath an hakodesh
[Sacred Service], Bar, chorus, orch, 1930-33
Other works: Historiettes au crépuscule, 1v, pf, 1904; Poèmes d'automne,
Mez, orch, 1906; Prelude and 2 Psalms, S, orch, 1912-14; Israel, 5 solo vv,
orch, 1912-16; Psm xxii, A/Bar, orch, 1914
chamber and solo instrumental
3-5 insts: Str Qt no.1, 1916; Pf Qnt no.1, 1921-3; 3 Nocturnes, pf trio,
1924; In the Mountains, str qt, 1925; Night, str qt, 1925; Paysages, str qt,
1925; Prelude, str qt, 1925; 2 Pieces, str qt, 1938-50; Str Qt no.2, 1945;
Str Qt no.3, 1952; Str Qt no.4, 1953; Str Qt no.5, 1956; Pf Qnt no.2, 1957
Solo str: Suite, va, pf, 1919; Sonata no.1, vn, pf, 1920; Baal shem, vn, pf,
1923, orchd 1939; From Jewish Life, vc, pf, 1924; Méditation hébraïque, vc,
pf, 1924; Nuit exotique, vn, pf, 1924; Sonata no.2 (Poème mystique), vn, pf,
1924; Abodah, vn, pf, 1929; Melody, vn, pf, 1929; 2 Pieces, va, pf, 1951; 3
suites, vc, 1956, 1956, 1957; Suite, va, 1958; 2 suites, vn, 1958
Pf: Ex-voto, 1914; 4 Circus Pieces, 1922; In the Night, 1922; Poems of the
Sea, 1922, orchd; Danse sacrée, 1923; Enfantines, 1923; Nirvana, 1923;
Sonata, 1935; Visions and Prophecies, 1936
Org: 6 Preludes, 1949; 4 Wedding Marches, 1950
juvenilia 1895-1900
all unpublished
Symphonie orientale; Vivre - aimer, sym. poem; Str Qt; Orientale, orch; Vn
Conc.; Sonata, vc, pf; Poème concertante, vn, orch; Fantaisie, Pastorale,
vn; songs incl. Là-bas, Larmes d'automne, Musette, Près de la mer
MSS in US-Wc [juvenilia], BEm, R, Hhc, ATs, Western Jewish History Center,
Berkeley, CA
Principal publishers: Boosey & Hawkes, Broude, Carisch, Eschig, Fischer,
Leuckart, Mills, G. Schirmer, Suvini Zerboni