Toch: The Juggler Op. 31, No. 3 (from Three Burlesques)

Description

Ernst Toch: 7 December 1887 – 1 October 1964) was an Austrian composer of classical music and film scores. He sought throughout his life to introduce new approaches to music.



His works often exhibit a humorous aspect. In 1930 he invented “Gesprochene Musik,” the idiom of the “spoken chorus”. His most performed work is the Geographical Fugue or Fuge aus der Geographie, which he himself regarded as an unimportant diversion. He wrote music for films, symphonies, chamber music, chamber operas. He also wrote books dealing with musical theory: Melodielehre (1923) and The Shaping Forces in Music (1948).



Toch was considered one of the great avant-garde composers in the pre-Nazi era. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1956 for his Third Symphony.