The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Bloch, Ernest
(blk, Ger. blôkh) (KEY) , 18801959, Swiss-American composer. Among his teachers were Jaques-Dalcroze and Ysaÿe. He taught at the Geneva Conservatory, 191115, and at the Mannes School, New York, 191719; he was director of the Cleveland Institute of Music, 192025, and of the San Francisco Conservatory, 192530. His music is based in the classical tradition, but it has a peculiarly personal intensity of expression and often a distinct Hebraic quality, as in the Hebrew rhapsody Schelomo and the symphonic poem Israel (both 1916). Other outstanding works are an opera, Macbeth (1909); a concerto grosso, for string orchestra and piano (1925); the symphonic poems America (1926) and Helvetia (1929); a modern setting of the Jewish Sacred Service (1933); and A Voice in the Wilderness, for cello and orchestra (1937).