Ernest Bloch’s legacy traverses both the realm of cultivated Jewish concert music and the broader modern expansion of the Western classical tradition. A unique and, in many respects, one-of-a-kind influence in Western music during the early 20th century, Bloch is often regarded as an American composer, despite his significant works before immigrating to America. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, for instance, accurately refers to him as “an American composer and teacher of Swiss origin.” Bloch is also celebrated for his significant impact as an educator, particularly in composition.

Bloch was born in Geneva, where he embarked on his musical journey, learning the violin under the tutelage of Louis Rey and Albert Goss. From a young age, he also studied composition and solfège with Émile Jacques-Dalcroze. He continued his violin studies in Brussels with the esteemed Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, while also learning composition from François Rasse.

Between 1899 and 1903, Bloch resided and worked in Germany, initially in Frankfurt am Main and later in Munich. He studied under Iwan Knorr for some time and briefly with Ludwig Thuille. During his years in Germany, he began a lifelong exploration of spirituality and religion, focusing on his Jewish heritage and his quest for ethnic-national identity in relation to artistic purpose. Biographers note that this period marked a turning point when spiritual and ethnic-national (referred to as “racial” at the time) concerns became central to his worldview.

After a year in Paris, Bloch returned to Geneva in 1904, got married, and, due to practical circumstances, joined his father’s business. Nonetheless, he continued to nurture his musical talents, composing and conducting. In 1910, his opera Macbeth, composed between 1904 and 1909, premiered in Paris, establishing his reputation as a conductor. He also lectured on aesthetics at the Geneva Conservatory for a few years.

During the lead-up to and early years of World War I, Bloch composed his first significant Jewish-themed works, eventually known as his “Jewish cycle”, which included Trois poèmes juifs (1913), Israel, for five solo voices and orchestra (known as the Israel Symphony) and Schelomo – Hebrew Rhapsody, for cello and orchestra (1915–1916), which is now part of the standard cello concerto repertoire and is widely considered his most recognized work. His opera Jézabel, which he began sketching in 1911 and continued in America, remained unfinished.

Bloch arrived in the United States in 1916 initially to conduct for Maud Allan’s dance troupe, although the tour was canceled after his arrival. He stayed on to teach theory and composition at the newly established David Mannes School of Music (now Mannes College of Music) in New York. Over the following years, he saw premieres of some of his works, including those from the Jewish cycle. Throughout the 1920s, even though his music was not exclusively Jewish in expression (at least not consciously), he continued to be perceived as a “Jewish composer” whose art was inspired by a contemporary notion of an ancient Hebrew spirit. This period produced Jewish-related compositions like his Baal Shem Suite (1923) for violin and piano (later orchestrated), From Jewish Life (1924) for cello and piano, Méditation hébraïque (1924) for cello and piano and Abodah (1929) for violin and piano. In 1919, his Suite for Viola and Piano won the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Prize and swiftly garnered attention.

In 1920, Bloch became the inaugural director of the Cleveland Institute of Music where, for over five years, he taught composition, conducted the institute’s orchestra and led master classes. In 1925, he took on the role of director at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, during which his three-part epic rhapsody, America, won first prize in a composition competition funded by Musical America. Through his collaboration with Cantor Reuben Rinder of Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco, Bloch was commissioned to compose a complete Sabbath morning service for baritone cantor, chorus, and full orchestra. Avodath Hakodesh: Sacred Service, completed in Europe between 1930 and 1933 during his temporary return there, became one of his most acclaimed and lasting works, both from Jewish and liturgical perspectives and as a broader artistic statement. Utilizing a Jewish worship service and liturgy as the foundation for a sophisticated, full-length work akin to an oratorio, Avodath Hakodesh achieved resonance with both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, suitable for concert settings and classical Reform worship, marking a significant contribution to Jewish liturgical expression and sacred music. His creative visit to Europe came to an end on March 5, 1933, the day the Nazis officially took power, when Bloch received a warning to flee Germany. He and his wife, Karola, escaped to Switzerland and later to other European countries and the United States. 

In 1940, Bloch took on a professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught summer sessions until retiring in 1952. He primarily lived and worked in Agate Beach, Oregon. Bloch did not establish a particular school of composition or pursue avant-garde innovation, however, he crafted a distinctive personal style, employing varied established techniques with intense individuality. Some of his chamber works exhibit a neoclassical influence; others, including his epic pieces, can be seen through a neo-Romantic lens and some reveal expressionist elements.

In 1934 and 1937, two festivals dedicated to Bloch’s music took place in London. Esteemed musicologist and critic Ernest Newman remarked in the Times of London that Bloch might be the first truly Jewish composer of the modern era, introducing imagery and experiences unfamiliar to Western music, with a newfound freedom in his musical language reminiscent of ancient musical freedoms long forgotten.

Jewish music scholar Albert Weisser, who was working on a study of Bloch’s impact on Jewish music at his untimely death in 1982, sought to address Bloch’s perceived ambivalence and complexities that had become focal points of critique by the 1980s. In Weisser’s papers, a draft highlights Bloch as a complex musical personality, noting that his impactful works were those explicitly Jewish and abstract ones where Jewish elements were redefined and transformed.

Bloch’s influence on American music is evident in his students, including prominent composers such as Roger Sessions, Quincy Porter, Bernard Rogers, George Antheil, and Randall Thompson. His writings on music and education include “Musical Education” (1927), “Man and Music” (1933), “Securing the Best Results from Piano Study” (1923), “The Pitfalls of Memorizing” (1923) and “Ernest Bloch Surveys the Problems of Music Education” (1921).