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Famous Like Me > Composer > T > Ernst Toch

Profile of Ernst Toch on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Ernst Toch  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 7th December 1887
   
Place of Birth: Vienna, Austria
   
Profession: Composer
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

Ernst Toch (pronounced similar to talk) (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 a 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 forst 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 inhibits 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. He died in Los Angeles. He is the grandfather of author Lawrence Weschler.

Works

Opera

  • 1927 Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse Libretto by Benno Elkan
  • 1928 Egon und Emilie
  • 1930 Der Fächer
  • 1965 The Last Tale

Orchestral work

  • 1906 Kammersymphonie
  • 1926 Klavierkonzert
  • 1928 Das Kirschblütenfest
  • 1935 Big Ben (Orchestervariationen)
  • 1950-1964 7 Symphonien

Works for Wind band

  • 1926 Spiel opus 39 (Donaueschingen première)
  • 1932 Miniatur Ouvertüre
  • Sinfonietta opus 97

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

Choral works

  • 1930 Gesprochene Musik

Chamber music

  • 1950-1961 13 string quartets

Lieder

  • 1945/1953 Zyklus The Inner Circle

Piano works

A list of Toch's work can be found in the University of California's website as follows: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/music/mlsc/toch/

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ernst Toch