Ernest Bloch: Voice in the Wilderness. A Biographical Study by Robert StrassburgReview by: Hans TischlerNotes, Second Series, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Mar., 1978), pp. 612-613Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/898114 .

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example. Finally, there are too many exam- ples (such as the Mozart/ Brahms example mentioned above) that simply fail to con- vince the reader of the author's contentions.

Of special interest to this reader is Jacob- son's attempt to prove Brahms a major influence on twentieth-century music. Sure- ly Brahmsians will nod enthusiastically when they read of the importance to our century of Brahms's rhythmic freedoms, his thoroughness of motivic and thematic de- velopment techniques, and his methods of achieving unity on the large scale. But even the most diehard Brahmsian may stop short of accepting Jacobson's overzealous sugges- tion that in Brahms we can find the roots of Elliot Carter's metric modulation (p. 52-53) or "the germ of Klangfarbenmelodie technique" (p. 126). Bothersome, too, is Jacobson's patronizing and deprecating treatment of Schonberg and his pioneering article, "Brahms the Progressive." Jacobson concludes his chapter on "Brahms as Rhythmic Inventor" with a two-page dia- tribe against the serialist's "mistaken under- standing" of Brahms's rhythmic techniques. His comments are not only of questionable accuracy, but also seem wholly out of place in the context of the chapter. Unfortu- nately, Jacobson's attitudes toward Schon- berg are not limited to these two pages, but reappear with annoying frequency in the form of such grudging compliments as "Sch6nberg's observation is a valuable one as far as it goes" (p. 37) and "valuable, too, as much for its suggestive misunder- standings as for its many telling insights, is Sch6nberg's essay" (p. 178).

In spite of its problems, this book is more successful than most at achieving a clarifi- cation of the main stylistic traits of a major composer, and must be labeled "recom- mended reading" for those who seek a basic understanding of Brahms's style.

GARY L. MAAS California State University,

Fullerton

Ernest Bloch: Voice in the Wilder- ness. A Biographical Study. By Robert Strassburg. Los Angeles: The Trident Shop, California State University at Los Angeles, 1977. [vii, 192 p.; paper, $5.95]

In the absence of many documents on Ernest Bloch held by the Library of Congress and not to be released until the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death in 1984, this book will be the standard refer- ence work on Bloch's life and career. This highly significant master of our century has of late been somewhat neglected. Perhaps this slender but well-written and informa- tive monograph, though not a major work, will help to revive interest in his music. It is evident that this book is the result of a labor of love as well as of understand- ing, aided in many details by the composer's two daughters, Suzanne Bloch Smith and Lucienne Bloch Dimitroff.

The volume is divided almost equally into two parts: the biography proper, pages 1 through 98, and several appendices, pages 100 through 192. The latter provide much valuable information in a well-ordered for- mat. The first appendix catalogs the Bloch Archive in the Library of Congress, a col- lection of manuscripts, letters, and docu- ments, including those concerning Bloch's directorship of the Cleveland Institute of Music (1920-1925). These materials were sent to the Library in 1925 and contain his early musical manuscripts, both unpub- lished, and hitherto mostly unknown (1895-1900), and published ones from the next twenty five years. The second appen- dix catalogs all of Bloch's early unpublished compositions, while the third appendix catalogs the contents of the Bloch Archive at the University of California at Berkeley, established in 1962, which embraces many later manuscripts as well as letters and other memorabilia. The fourth appendix is a transcript of one of the composer's most significant lectures, the one on his own Sacred Service. These four appendices are followed by an exhaustive bibliography, a list of works, a discography, and a handy index.

The biography is, it seems, carefully documented. The ten chapters deal with Bloch's family background and upbringing, his musical training under Dalcroze, Ysaye, Ivan Knorr, and Ludwig Thuille among others, and his early struggles, successes, and setbacks, with emphasis on the unde- served critical rejection of his opera Mac- beth. An insightful presentation of Bloch's broad humanism and idealism starts with discussion of his Jewish cycle of 1912-1916, to which he added throughout his life.

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With his arrival in America in 1916 and with the success of Shelomo and other works, recognition rapidly came to the composer. This resulted in his appointment as director of the Cleveland Institute. But, not unlike Gustav Mahler, Bloch was very demanding, and in 1925 he had to leave the school. The next five years, when he taught at and directed the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, were happy ones, and the apprecia- tion of his excellence and spirit culminated in 1930 in the establishment of a trust fund which enabled him to devote himself exclu- sively to composition for the following ten years. These he spent largely in Switzerland, the first few years concentrating on a com- mission to write his Sacred Service. For this work he studied Hebrew and steeped him- self in the meaning of the text. Strassburg describes well the dedicated labor that pro- duced this masterwork.

The last two chapters recount Bloch's return to the United States in 1939. In the next year he joined the music department at Berkeley. Depressed over the war, the composer was unable to create new music and dedicated himself to teaching once more, guiding many distinguished students. But in 1941 Bloch found a lovely, secluded home at Agate Beach, Oregon, and there, as the tide of war turned, his inspiration was rekindled in 1944 and continued after he retired from Berkeley in 1952.

Although no detailed analysis of the music is offered by Strassburg, the back- grounds of many works and of Bloch's evolving stylistic tendencies are delineated. Bloch the man, the teacher, and the com- poser emerges clearly as an outstanding personality and a genuine, warm, bright spirit. On the other hand, the people with whom Bloch came into contact remain shad- owy, as do the social, political, and person- al circumstances not directly connected with the composer's professional career. A far more thorough treatment of his life and works will, it is hoped, appear in the not too distant future.

HANS TISCHLER Indiana University

Catalogue des ceuvres de Charles Koechlin. Introduction by Henri Sau- guet. Paris: Max Eschig, 1975. [liv, 109 p.; 80.OOF]

In 1970, Darius Milhaud grouped the arcane French composer Charles Koechlin (1867-1950), with Satie, Varese and Ives, as a previously neglected figure finally hav- ing received a measure of recognition (Viv- ian Perlis, Charles Ives Remembered [New Haven, 19741: 170). Although Koechlin is still not as well known as his aforementioned contemporaries, several of his works have been recorded and played since the 1967 BBC centenary celebration of his birth. The first comprehensive publication on the composer, however, did not appear until 1975 with the Catalogue des ceuvres de Charles Koechlin. This welcome addition to Koechlin research affords the scholar as well as the performer a valuable, and for the first time, accessible, tool.

The publication, divided into two main parts, is more than a mere catalog listing of works. The first section of fifty-four pages opens with recent biographical sur- veys by Roger Delage and Robert Orledge and continues with extracts concerning Koechlin's musical style and aesthetic ori- entations selected from various periodicals and newspapers. The latter florilege pro- vides the reader with a well-chosen, albeit cursory, representation of writings ranging from Paul Locard's Le Courrier Musical article of 1902, which places Koechlin among the ultras-modernes, to David Drew's comments in 1967 (New Statesman) on the satire implied in Les Bandar-Log, opus 176.

Judging from the often eulogistic tone of the authors selected for inclusion, such as Vuillermoz, Milhaud, and Honneger, one might postulate that the singular, ironic genius of Charles Koechlin had won uni- versal respect. But in this regard, the catalog raises as many questions as it answers. Why, for example, was a composer so esteemed performed so seldom?

Included also in the first part are a representative bibliography, a list of pub- lishers with their addresses, and a discog- raphy. Especially valuable as an overview of Koechlin's cardinal position within the area of contemporary criticism are the lists of his published writings. Sources of over 100 articles appearing in periodicals from 1902 through 1959 are included, thus tempting the scholar with a veritable trea- sure trove of Koechliniana. Other lists, under the general category of "Ouvrages didactiques," contain publication informa- tion about Koechlin's monumental Traitei

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