Introducing Ernst Toch (1887-1964)

For British listeners, Ernst Toch is usually recalled for his magical score, Big Ben: Variation-Fantasy on the Westminster Chimes, for orchestra, op. 62, completed in 1934. At this period, Toch had just left London after working in film industry for two years.  He had escaped from Germany and was one of many émigré composers who would live and work in London and the United States.

Toch composed a wide range of music including seven symphonies, several string quartets, four operas, three concertos and many piano and vocal works.  He also created many film scores, but never gained the recognition of fellow Austrian Korngold in this medium. 

Toch composed a wide range of music including seven symphonies, several string quartets, four operas, three concertos and many piano and vocal works.  He also created many film scores, but never gained the recognition of fellow Austrian Korngold in this medium.

Much of Ernst Toch’s career was spent teaching. However, in the last 15 years of his life, he concentrated on composition. The entire cycle of symphonies were written at this time.

The sad thing about Toch’s life is his sense of failure. He often referred to himself as ‘the world’s most forgotten composer.’ It has been suggested that this is a ‘wistful joke’ but ‘betraying a certain painful validity.’

Stylistically, Toch’s music does not belong to any ‘school’. His earliest works were Mozartian in effect, whilst some of his later music presented his own ‘take’ on Schoenberg’s 12 tone methodology. It is fair to suggest that Ernst Toch ‘was dismissed as too traditional by avant-gardists and too avant-garde by traditionalists.’

Brief Biography of Ernst Toch:

• Born in Leopoldstadt, Vienna on 7 December 1887.
• Two early String Quartets performed whilst still at school.
• Educated at the University of Vienna, the Frankfurt Conservatory of Music and the University of Heidelberg.
• Appointed teacher of music at the Hochschule fur Musik at Mannheim between 1913 and 1915 and again 1921-28.
• Served in the Austrian Infantry on the Italian front during the First World War
• Married Alice Babette Lilly Zwack, the daughter of a financier, in 1916. Toch had one daughter, Franzi.
• Toured in the United States during 1932 where he played his Piano Concerto, op.38 with great success.
• Compelled to leave Germany on the rise of Hitler and Nazism. Worked in Paris during 1933
• Moved to London where he wrote film scores for The Rise of Catherine the Great, The Private Life of Don Juan and Little Friend.
• In 1934 was appointed to a teaching posts at the New School for Social Research – the ‘University in Exile’ in New York
• Commissioned to write film music in Los Angeles 1936. Toch would compose 16 film scores.
• Taught at the University of Southern California, 1937-48.
• Became a naturalized American from 1940.
• Died Santa Monica, California, 1 October 1964

Six Essential Works
I have selected six compositions by Ernst Toch. The criteria is that they are currently available on CD, download or YouTube.

1. Concerto for piano, op.38 (1928)
2. Geographical Fugue (1930)
3. Big Ben: Variation-Fantasy on the Westminster Chimes, for orchestra, op. 62 (1935)
4. Symphony No.3, op.75 (1954-5)
5. Peter Pan: A Fairy Tale, op.76 (1956)
6. String Quartet No.13, op.74 (1953-4, published 1961)

Many of Ernst Toch’s works have been recorded. It is possible to gain a great idea of his stylistic development from the early Sonata for violin and piano, op.21 to the Symphony No.7 completed in the year of his death. Clearly, there are still many pieces that would seem to demand at least a single recording. The stage works are not represented in the CD catalogues.

Bibliography:

There is only a single biography of Ernst Toch available. This is Diane Peacock Jezic’s The Musical Migration and Ernst Toch (Ames, IA, 1989). This book majors on Toch’s life and work but includes a valuable chapter on ‘The Émigré Contribution to Musical America’. Helpful appendices chart the migration of German-Austrian composers, the Toch works list, a filmography of his film scores and a then current discography. There is a good, but now out if date bibliography. There are several theses devoted to Toch’s life and work.

If you can only hear one CD:
I would suggest the New World Records 2002 (80609) anthology including the Concerto for piano, op. 38. Peter Pan, A Fairy Tale for Orchestra, op. 76. Pinocchio, A Merry Overture and Big Ben, Variation Fantasy on the Westminster Chimes, op. 62. The NDR-Hamburg Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Leon Botstein. The soloist in the piano concerto is Todd Crow. 

And finally, if you only wish to hear one work:

As this is a British music blog, I have no hesitation than recommending the Big Ben Variations.  Completed in 1934, it has been defined as ‘a post Atonal, pre-Hollywood’ work that presents a sometimes-impressionistic view of the London icon. The chime theme clearly dominates the work and appears in many guises, sometimes obvious and at often well-hidden. The orchestration reflects the blurred atmosphere of Westminster by night. It has been described as ‘not your standard theme and variations, but the unprecedented product of a well-developed musical mind.’ It remains Ernst Toch’s best-known work (where he is recalled at all).