BFE Member Alexander Knapp co-edits new book on Ernest Bloch

SOAS Research Associate and BFE Member Dr Alexander Knapp has recently co-edited with Norman Solomon a book entitled 'Ernest Bloch Studies', which features essays by leading scholars on Bloch cover all periods of his creative output and its reception around the world. Chapter contributors to this landmark volume are Ernest Bloch II, Alexander Knapp, Stanley Henig, Norman Solomon, Klára Móricz, Malcolm Miller, David Schiller, David Z. Kushner, Philip V. Bohlman, Jehoash Hirshberg and Zecharia Plavin. The book has been published by Cambridge University Press as the latest edition in the ' Cambridge Composer Studies' series. CUP says of the volume:

"Ernest Bloch left his native Switzerland to settle in the United States in 1916. One of the great twentieth-century composers, he was influenced by a range of genres and styles - Jewish, American and Swiss - and his works reflect his lifelong struggle with his identity. Drawing on firsthand recollections of relatives and others who knew and worked with the composer, this collection is the most comprehensive study to date of Bloch's life, musical achievement and reception. Contributors present the latest research on Bloch's works and compositional practice, including studies of his Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service), violin pieces such as Nigun, the symphonic Schelomo, and the opera Macbeth. Setting the quality and significance of Bloch's output in its historical and cultural contexts, this book provides scholarly analyses as well as a full chronology, list of online resources, catalogue of published and unpublished works, and selected further reading."