Description
The Collection consists of materials relating to the Austrian-American composer, Ernst Toch. Included are music manuscripts
and scores, books of his personal library, manuscripts, biographical material, correspondence, articles, essays, speeches,
lectures, programs, clippings, photographs, sound recordings, financial records, and memorabilia. Also included are manuscripts
and published works of other composers, as well as Lilly Toch's letters and lectures.
Background
Ernst Toch was born on Dec. 7, 1887 in Vienna; taught himself piano in his grandmother's pawnshop; learned musical notation
from a local violinist, and copied Mozart's string quartets for practice; began to compose chamber music, and at age 17 had
a quartet performed; in 1909 he won the prestigious Mozart Prize and a scholarship to study at the Frankfurt Conservatory,
where he studied piano with Willy Rehberg and composition with Iwan Knorr; won the Mendelssohn Prize in 1910 and the Austrian
State Prize four times in succession; in 1913 he was appointed teacher of composition at the Mannheim Musikhochschule; married
Lilly Zwack in 1916; earned Dr. phil. degree in 1921; taught piano and composition in Berlin from 1929-33, leaving at the
onset of the Nazi regime for Paris, London, and finally the US, where he taught at the New School for Social Research in New
York (1934-36); taught at the Univ. of Southern CA (1937-48), afterward giving private instruction; lived in Vienna and Switzerland
from 1950-58, then spent the remainder of his life in LA; won the Pulitzer and Huntington-Hartford Prizes for his Third Symphony
(1956), was elected to the American National Institute of Arts and Letters (1956), received honorary citations from the German
and Austrian governments, and won a Grammy Award (1960); publications include Melodielehre (1923) and The shaping forces in
music (1948); his compositions encompass all genres and include Fuge aus der Geographie (1930), Seven symphonies, 13 string
quartets, several chamber operas, and music for films; he died on Oct. 1, 1964 in LA.
Extent
44 linear feet
(88 boxes)
Restrictions
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Availability
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.