Marc Blitzstein His Life, His Work, His World

by Pollack, Howard

• ISBN13: 9780199791590
• ISBN10: 0199791597
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

A composer of enormous musical innovation and influence, Marc Blitzstein remains one of the most versatile and fascinating figures in the history of American music, his creative works running the gamut from Broadway musicals and film scores to concert and chamber pieces. As an open homosexual and a prominent leftist, Blitzstein constantly pushed the boundaries of acceptability in mid-century America in both his music and his life. Award-winning music historian Howard Pollack's new biography is the first to put Blitzstein's music on equal footing with his politics, theatrical innovation, and other aspects of the composer's life. Pollack covers Blitzstein's life in full, from his childhood in Philadelphia to his violent death in Martinique at age 58. The author describes how this student of contemporary luminaries Arnold Schoenberg and Nadia Boulanger became swept up in the stormy political atmosphere of the 1920s and 1930s and throughout his career walked the fine line between his formal training and his populist principles in his composition. Indeed, Blitzstein developed a unique sound that drew on everything contemporary, from the high modernism of Schoenberg to swing and jazz. Pollack captures the astonishing breadth of Blitzstein's musical language--from politically scandalous Broadway musicals likeTheCradle Will RockandNo for an Answer, to the patrioticAirborne Symphony, to lesser known early pieces, film scores, and chamber works. A fearless artist, Blitzstein translated Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill'sThe Threepenny Operaduring the heyday of McCarthyism and the red scare, and, with Leonard Bernstein and Lotte Lenya, turned it into an off-Broadway sensation. Beautifully written, drawing on new interviews with friends and family of the composer, and making extensive use of new archival and secondary sources,Marc Blitzsteinpresents the most complete biography of this quintessentially American composer.

Author Biography

Howard Pollack is John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Music at the University of Houston and author of, among other books, John Alden Carpenter: A Chicago Composer; Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man; and George Gershwin: His Life and Work.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 3
The Boy from Philadelphia	p. 7
Journeyman Years	p. 25
Early Works (1924-1929)	p. 42
Life with Eva, I (1929-1931)	p. 62
From is 5 (1929) to the Piano Concerto (1931)	p. 76
Life with Eva, II (1932-1936)	p. 97
Critical Writings (1931-1940)	p. 116
From the Serenade (1932) to The Chesapeake Bay Retriever (1936)	p. 131
The Cradle Will Rock, I (1936-1937)	p. 150
The Cradle Will Rock, II	p. 171
From The Spanish Earth (1937) to Danton's Death (1939)	p. 195
No for an Answer (1937-1940)	p. 219
From Valley Town (1940) to Labor for Victory (1942)	p. 243
To London and Back (1942-1945)	p. 261
From Freedom Morning (1943) to the Airborne Symphony (1946)	p. 277
From Goloopchik (1945) to The Guests (1949)	p. 295
Regina, I (1946-1949)	p. 316
Regina, II	p. 332
The Threepenny Opera (1950-1954) and Other Adaptations	p. 349
Reuben Reuben (1949-1955) and This Is the Garden (1956-1957)	p. 376
More Music for Shakespeare (1950-1958)	p. 402
Juno (1957-1959)	p. 417
Final Years, I (1959-1961)	p. 440
Final Years, II (1961-1964)	p. 455
The Unfinished Operas	p. 474
Conclusion	p. 495
Abbreviations	p. 503
Notes	p. 505
Index	p. 571
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