Schelomo (Solomon) [1915]
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)
Ernest Bloch was a Swiss born American who is widely regarded as a ‘Jewish’ composer. In reality, his so-called Jewish music covered the years 1911-18, although some suggest it continued a little longer. The works composed during this time, forming his self-styled ‘Jewish Cycle’, have literary or musical connections with Judaism. Of these, Schelomo is the best-known. The work sets out to explore the emotional impact of the Book of Ecclesiastes, written by King Solomon according to tradition, hence the title of this music. The best known line is, ‘Vanity, vanity, all is vanity’. Although it is impossible to express this unsubstantiated assertion musically in any precise way, a sense of anguish and breast-beating is discernible. Many listeners, Jewish and non-Jewish, have been moved by the mystical qualities of the music. The Italian critic Guido Gatti wrote:
The violoncello, with its ample breadth of phrasing, now melodic and with moments of superb lyricism, now declamatory and with robustly dramatic light and shade, lends itself to a reincarnation of Solomon in all his glory... His voice resounds in the devotional silence, and the sentences of his wisdom sink into the hearts as the seed into a fertile soil ...
Even if we lose Gatti’s thread towards the end, it is clear that this music is strong stuff.
The work is virtually a cello concerto, about 22 minutes in length. Bloch called it a ‘Hebrew Rhapsody’ though he barely spoke or understood Hebrew. It is like a concerto in that it has three movements, linked in this instance, and it pits a soloist against the full forces of an orchestra. It is unlike a concerto in that its movements follow a broadly discernible reverse pattern of slow - fast - slow, and the work as a whole has a ‘programmatic’ foundation, more akin to a tone poem. The air of exoticism is easier to imbibe than is the Biblical subtext. Like Gustav Holst in his ‘Oriental Suite’, Beni Mora, Bloch sought to find the essence of oriental music rather than make use of its melodies note for note. Even so, he admitted that some of the melodic material in Schelomo was quotation rather than invention, but he did not say where it had occurred originally. He was also interested in and influenced by the music of Polynesia, Indonesia and Tibet, so the links are ornate indeed. When we add the emotional, religious and Zionist associations, the complexity becomes robustly challenging. That said, Schelomo is based logically on two themes and holds up well under close technical analysis. Its popularity and longevity rest as much upon its robust construction as upon its emotional and exotic exterior.
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)
Ernest Bloch was a Swiss born American who is widely regarded as a ‘Jewish’ composer. In reality, his so-called Jewish music covered the years 1911-18, although some suggest it continued a little longer. The works composed during this time, forming his self-styled ‘Jewish Cycle’, have literary or musical connections with Judaism. Of these, Schelomo is the best-known. The work sets out to explore the emotional impact of the Book of Ecclesiastes, written by King Solomon according to tradition, hence the title of this music. The best known line is, ‘Vanity, vanity, all is vanity’. Although it is impossible to express this unsubstantiated assertion musically in any precise way, a sense of anguish and breast-beating is discernible. Many listeners, Jewish and non-Jewish, have been moved by the mystical qualities of the music. The Italian critic Guido Gatti wrote:
The violoncello, with its ample breadth of phrasing, now melodic and with moments of superb lyricism, now declamatory and with robustly dramatic light and shade, lends itself to a reincarnation of Solomon in all his glory... His voice resounds in the devotional silence, and the sentences of his wisdom sink into the hearts as the seed into a fertile soil ...
Even if we lose Gatti’s thread towards the end, it is clear that this music is strong stuff.
The work is virtually a cello concerto, about 22 minutes in length. Bloch called it a ‘Hebrew Rhapsody’ though he barely spoke or understood Hebrew. It is like a concerto in that it has three movements, linked in this instance, and it pits a soloist against the full forces of an orchestra. It is unlike a concerto in that its movements follow a broadly discernible reverse pattern of slow - fast - slow, and the work as a whole has a ‘programmatic’ foundation, more akin to a tone poem. The air of exoticism is easier to imbibe than is the Biblical subtext. Like Gustav Holst in his ‘Oriental Suite’, Beni Mora, Bloch sought to find the essence of oriental music rather than make use of its melodies note for note. Even so, he admitted that some of the melodic material in Schelomo was quotation rather than invention, but he did not say where it had occurred originally. He was also interested in and influenced by the music of Polynesia, Indonesia and Tibet, so the links are ornate indeed. When we add the emotional, religious and Zionist associations, the complexity becomes robustly challenging. That said, Schelomo is based logically on two themes and holds up well under close technical analysis. Its popularity and longevity rest as much upon its robust construction as upon its emotional and exotic exterior.