Autograph letter signed in full, addressed "Cher Monsieur," in all likelihood noted musicologist, conductor, and music editor, Arthur Mendel
1 page. Octavo. Dated 25 July 1933. On letterhead of the Hotel Peter Stuyvesant in New York. In French (with transcription and translation).
Bloch informs his correspondent that there will be a "hearing" of his "Service" the next evening at Schirmer's before a "very small committee" consisting of "C. Engel, I. Freed - "an old pupil of mine," possibly O. Downes," etc., and that he hopes to see him, specifying the meeting place and time, "in front of G. Schirmer at 8 o'clock p.m.," with an alternative at the Biltmore in case of rain.
Creased at folds and slightly overall.
Bloch's monumental Sacred Service, Avodath ha-Kodesh, is based on text drawn from the Reform Jewish prayer book. The work premiered in Italy in January of 1934 and had its first American performance in New York in April of that same year.
The audience for this apparently private performance of the Service included Carl Engel (1883-1944, American musicologist, head of the Music Division of the Library of Congress 1922-34, president of G. Schirmer, etc.); Isadore Freed (1900-1960, American composer specializing in Jewish sacred music and early pupil of Bloch); and Olin Downes (1885-1955, American music critic).
"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 theme s... 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." David Z. Kushner in Grove Music Onlin.
Item #39109
Price: $350.00 other currencies