TOCH, ERNST

TOCH, ERNST (1887–1967), composer. Born in Vienna, Toch studied medicine and philosophy and was self-taught in music. After studying piano with Rehberg, he became a teacher of composition at the Mannheim Hochschule fuer Musik (1913). In 1921 he received his Ph.D. with the dissertation Beitraege zur Stilkunde der Melodie (published as Melodielehre, Berlin, 1923). In 1929 he moved to Berlin, and in 1934 he settled in the United States. From 1937 he lived in Hollywood and taught at various universities. Though his earlier compositions show a rather romantic style, he later turned to a more modern idiom and also experimented in compositions such as Gesprochene Musik (1930). His music is strongly lyrical and shows a classical sense of form; in piano compositions, his style is more brilliant. Toch's works include four operas; orchestral works; chamber music; incidental music for plays, films, and radio plays; and choral works (including Cantata of the Bitter Herbs, a Passover oratorio, 1938). The overture to his opera Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse (1926) is often played. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: MGG; Grove, Dict; Riemann-Gurlitt; Baker, Biog Dict. (Claude Abravanel)